bbpmag.com - Broadband Properties

RFOG at
Mitchell Park Plaza
By Joe Bousquin ■ Contributing Editor, Broadband Properties
This month’s showcased property is Mitchell Park Plaza, a renovated loft building in St. Joseph, Missouri. Management
recently implemented an FTTP infrastructure using both RFOG and PON technology in partnership with NPG
Cable, an MSO that operates in Missouri, Arizona and California. Our thanks to Steve Ward, technical operations manager
at NPG, and Steve Foutch, co-owner of Foutch Bros. LLC, the developer of the $28 million project, who provided
the information here.
Basic Property Information
Mitchell Park Plaza is a renovated loft development of
the old Mead Paper Company factory in St. Joseph,
Missouri, where “Big Chief” writing tablets were
manufactured for decades. Steve and Scott Foutch of Weatherby
Lake, Missouri-based Foutch Bros. LLC bought the building
in 2006 with the vision of creating a luxury, amenity-rich
apartment community in the heart of downtown.
“There was this big complex right in the middle of St. Joe sitting
there vacant,” Steve Foutch says. “The price was right, and
we’re historic-loft-renovation type people, so we grabbed it.”
The building that was once a 500,000-square-foot factory
is now home to a $28 million, 258-unit mixed-use apartment
and retail community. Amenities include a 20,000-square-foot
recreation facility with indoor running track and swimming
pool, a 7,000-square-foot rooftop deck and 13,000 feet of rooftop
gardens and landscaping. Hailed as a model for sustainable
renovation in the greater Midwest, the building includes
a rain-capture irrigation system, electricity-producing photovoltaic
panels, roof vents that double as power-generating wind
turbines and a five-story daylight-harvesting atrium.
But while the green features help set the building apart,
Foutch Bros. needed state-of-the-art technology amenities to
command above-market rents. Mitchell Park’s apartments rent
for $500 to $1,300 a month, as much as $200 more than comparable-sized
units in the area. “To justify the premiums we’re
charging for these lofts, we had to put in the best of everything,”
Foutch says. “We knew we would have gamers, professionals,
and a lot of empty nesters, all of whom are tech savvy.
We didn’t want any headaches with the Internet.”
The big black box is the splice enclosure; to its right is the Alloptic ONUX
1110 micronode; the CyberPower UPS is directly below it.
24 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2009