Purple Wave to Hold First Live Auction at New Lee's Summit Facility on August 26 at 2 p.m.
LEE'S SUMMIT, MO (August 20, 2008) - Purple Wave, an online and live auction firm specializing in real estate, equipment, vehicle, personal and specialty property sales, is moving its Kansas City area operations from Overland Park to Lee's Summit. Headquartered in Manhattan, Kan., Purple Wave is relocating to a 10,500 square foot building at 1115 SW Oldham Parkway.
"Moving Purple Wave's Kansas City office into Missouri gives us access to opportunities to grow our business that weren't available with Kansas-only locations," says Doug Regehr, General Manager of Purple Wave's Kansas City office. "We looked at other Kansas City area cities, but chose Lee's Summit because of its growth and demographics. As an auction company, the infrastructure upgrades and new interchanges, along with demographics like age and average income of Lee's Summit residents were very appealing to us. We found an attractive building with great frontage in Lee's Summit, and with the assistance of Jim Devine from the Lee's Summit Economic Development Council, we were able to gain the momentum we needed to move to Lee's Summit."
Regehr estimates the Lee's Summit location will generate sales of $6 to 7 million within the first year. He also expects to grow the Kansas City office with additional sales and operations staff in six to twelve months. The five employees relocating to the Lee's Summit location include real estate brokers, personal property sales representatives and operations and administrative personnel. In addition to selling assets through online auctions all over the country, Purple Wave conducts live auctions in six U.S. states, including Nevada, Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado - and now Missouri.
"As a thriving business that will contribute to the tax base, Purple Wave is a great addition to the Lee's Summit community. We are thrilled with their decision to move into Missouri - and extremely excited they chose Lee's Summit as the location for their Kansas City office," adds Jim Devine, President and CEO of the Lee's Summit Economic Development Council (LSEDC). "Helping pave the way for Purple Wave to move to Lee's Summit speaks directly to LSEDC's mission of attracting targeted, high-paying industry, which positively impacts the overall community and business environment in Lee's Summit."
Purple Wave is always selling assets online but also plans to hold an average of two live events each month at the Lee's Summit location. Its first live auction - which will feature four pieces of commercial and residential real estate - is set for August 26 at 2 p.m. Future live auctions will feature a broad range of assets including appliances, electronics, powersports and vehicles. All auctions are open to the public, and Regehr encourages members of the Lee's Summit community to visit Purple Wave in person to inspect and bid on merchandise there or online at www.purplewave.com. Purple Wave plans to hold its Grand Opening live auction at the Lee's Summit location on September 24. Watch the company's Web site for more details.
About Purple Wave
Purple Wave is one of the nation's leading auction firms. Purple Wave operates as a seller agent to liquidate -- through predominantly unreserved public auctions - a broad range of assets such as high value personal property, industrial equipment, motor vehicles, and real estate. Unlike do-it-yourself online marketplaces, Purple Wave specializes in assets that are difficult to transport and provides a local turnkey service from listing to marketing to transaction settlement. Purple Wave's mission is to build "the largest local market in the world" by combining a central e-commerce destination at www.purplewave.com with a growing network of live auction locations across the United States. Purple Wave uses an innovative business model that captures the best of traditional local transactions and a powerful e-commerce backbone. For more information, visit www.purplewave.com or contact Doug Regehr at 913-944-4150 or doug.regehr@purplewave.com
About LSEDC
The Lee's Summit Economic Development Council (LSEDC), a public-private sector partnership, is the city's designated marketing and product development arm to retain and attract business. LSEDC is devoted to improving the economic well-being of residents and businesses in Lee's Summit. For more information visit www.leessummit.org
Jim Devine is 2010 Missouri Professional Economic Developer of the Year
