Table of Contents - Unified Government of Wyandotte County ...

Division Overview:Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas2012 Amended and 2013 Operating BudgetDivision OverviewPublic LeveeThe Public Levee is a 111-acre industrial office complex in the Fairfax Industrial District. The PublicLevee complex contains about 560,000 square feet and includes four industrial warehouse buildingswith mezzanine offices. One of the buildings contains an upper floor with 20,000 square feet of Class Boffice space. Other buildings include a cold storage facility and the grain silos that are leased to BartlettGrain.Important Issues: The economic downturn has resulted in higher vacancy rates and lower revenues. As an Enterprise Fund, the Public Levee needs to be self-sufficient, generating enough revenueto pay for all operational staff, maintenance cost, and capital improvements. Rental rates were increased in 2011 for the office and warehouse tenants. In 2012, there has been an increase in truck parking.Highlights: Habitat for Humanities has administrative office space to facilitate their Kansas City operations. Cross-lines Cooperation has located their community distribution center at the Levee Complex. Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Kansas City continues to operate their call center and storehousehold donations received in their bay at the Public Levee. By offering long-term leases to current and future tenants, staff has generated several new longtermlease agreements with an expansion of office and warehouse space for some of thecurrent tenants. Bartlett Grain Company is in the process of making several improvements to the Levee locationto ensure improvements to overall operations. The Corp of Engineers will begin the Levee Wharf Project in 2012-2013. This project willstrengthen this section of the Levee. The UG will have no cost associated with theseimprovements.New Initiatives: Public Levee space will be advertised by a commercial real estate company to help improve andincrease current occupancy. Trucking companies who are leasing space for truck parking are also required to lease officespace from the Public Levee which resulted in three new office tenants this year. The Public Levee offers extended leases to its current tenants in an effort to increase revenueand also create stability with new and existing tenants. Aggressive marketing strategies are being implemented, including operational and managementinitiatives, to match industry standards for more cost-effective and revenue-enhancing goals andobjectives. The UG will provide in-house security in the second quarter, thus creating a savings of over$90,000 in operations cost. The Public Levee will also add security gates at two of three perimeter entrances to increaseoverall safety to the property.238