small office lease in Kansas City

Creating Competition When Renegotiating a Small Office Lease in Kansas City

Some of the steps to negotiating a lease renewal with a lower rent involve starting negotiations early and doing some research on statistics about the area, but another good renegotiation strategy involves shopping around and creating a little competition for your business.

Before you approach your landlord with a request for proposal, shop around and find a few other available spaces that could be a fit for your company. Send both your current landlord and the other landlords’ requests for proposal.

Take these other requests seriously, even if you would prefer your own space, because they could help you if your negotiations with your current landlord become difficult. Don’t keep your looking around a secret; let all parties know that you are considering all options, which will alert them that they have to compete for your business.

Continue serious negotiations with all of the prospective landlords up until you finalize your new lease. Tell them all that the first one to produce a lease that you like will be the one that gets your business. This move will speed up the whole process.

Even if you truly do want to stay in your current space, seriously looking around at other spaces has no downside. Either you find a better lease for your business or you could potentially spur your current landlord to cut you a better deal.

If you would like to learn more about affordable office space in Overland Park, give a DDI commercial real estate broker in Overland Park a call at 913-685-4100!

4 Reasons to Consider Getting a Virtual Receptionist for Your Small Office Lease in Kansas City

Does your small business lack the luxury of a live receptionist to answer your calls and receive your customers? You might be in need of a virtual receptionist. A virtual receptionist is not a machine, but rather a real person who acts as a professional representative for your company from a virtual office or virtual receptionist firm. Here are a few reasons why this might help your business:

1.   You need your employees. Sometimes with a small business, you constantly need all hands on deck doing everything from inventory, to marketing, to accounting. Your employees might simply be too busy to answer the phone. A virtual receptionist can screen calls, forward them, and take messages, freeing up your employees to focus on more important aspects of your business without worrying about missing sales or customer calls.
2.   They can be trained in the specifics of your business. If you need a receptionist to schedule appointments and take orders, they can learn do that for your specific business. If you need more than one receptionist to deal with a large amount of phone orders or customer service calls, that can be arranged as well.
3.   Growth for your business. A virtual receptionist can help your business grow by answering more calls and taking more orders, as well as giving your employees more time to do other things…which all adds up to more money for your business!
4.   Better than none at all! The practical bottom line is that lacking a receptionist could be detrimental to a small business. Answering calls takes employees away from more important work, and an automated machine can be difficult for customers to deal with, so an ideal solution might just a live person from outside of your business.

Are you a small business owner looking to set up shop in your first office rental space? Southcreek has plenty of affordable office space in Kansas City for smaller businesses! Give one of our commercial realtors in Kansas City a call at 913-685-4100 to tell us about what your small business needs to succeed.

Things Your Lawyer Might Not Know about Small Office Lease in Kansas City

One common myth about leasing office space is that you should only pay attention to the rent and let your lawyer handle the fine print. However, there are a lot of things that your lawyer might not know about real estate rental, which could cause some issues for you later in your lease. It is good for you to be aware of these potential pitfalls so you can avoid them when signing a lease—even with the help of a lawyer:

1.   Lawyers cannot fully protect tenants because they are not as experienced with business issues that can cause high lease costs, nor are they trained to analyze these issues.
2.   Lawyers are not well versed in building operating systems’ economics.
3.   Lawyers cannot compare how relatively desirable or undesirable a draft lease from a landlord is because they might not know enough about the current real estate market.
4.   Lawyers are not familiar with how different ways of charging tenants for electricity will impact the cost of the lease.
5.   Lawyers have no way of knowing how trustworthy particular landlords are because they do not audit landlord billings.

While a lawyer can be helpful in going over some of the details of your business’s lease, be aware that they are not all-knowing; there are many factors specific to commercial real estate leasing that it is not their job to fully understand.

Looking at office lease rates in Kansas City? Give one of our commercial real estate brokers in Kansas City a call at 913-685-4100 for information on Southcreek’s affordable office spaces.

Southcreek Office Park Available Space from 10,000 – 12,830 sq. ft.

Southcreek Office Park not only has plenty of options for small office lease in Kansas City, but also plenty of larger rental spaces too! Whether you want an entire building just for your business, plenty of individual offices, or a blank slate of open office space for you to get creative with, we can help you find what you are looking for. Here are just a few of our large business rental spaces:

10,000 sq. ft. This two-story flex building is located near I-435 on Metcalf. It includes a first floor and corner suite, and has an attractive lease rate.
11,424 sq. ft. located in Building XIIA. This space just became available as of July 2012. The first floor suite includes 25 individual offices, multiple break areas, a conference room, and interview rooms. It also has signage available.
12,830 sq. ft. located in Building III. Building signage for this campus-like setting is negotiable. The space includes 5 windowed offices, a health room, a PC lab, a conference room, a break room, a lobby, a reception area, and a vast amount of open office space for you to design according to your business’s needs.

These are just a sampling of our commercial space for lease in Overland Park for large businesses. To take a tour of any of these spaces or to find out about bigger or smaller suites, give us a call at 913-685-4100!

Real Bikers Wear Pink Event Near Southcreek Office Park

Put on a pink shirt and hop on your motorcycle for the 6th annual Real Bikers Wear Pink, a motorcycle ride for Susan G. Komen for the Cure! This 100 mile bike ride incorporates some of the most scenic parts of Johnson County and most interesting roads in the area. Last year’s ride raised $5,200, so sign up to make this year’s ride even more successful!

Date: Sunday, August 26, 2012
Registration/Check In Time: 8:00 am
Breakfast: One of the sponsors, Chris Cakes, will be at the event serving pancakes, sausages, and orange juice to all of the riders.
Location: The ride will leave from the parking lot of Sam’s Club in Overland Park, on 135th Street, 2 blocks west of 69 Highway at 9am. Bikers will ride approximately 100 miles through scenic Johnson County and a part of northern Miami County. There will be gas stations along the way. The ride ends in southern Johnson County.
Cost: $30 donation, which gets you a Real Bikers Wear Pink shirt. Patches will also be available on a first come, first served basis from sponsor Absolute Awards. You can also potentially win some great raffle prizes!

Though women tend to be more at risk for breast cancer, it is still an equal opportunity disease, and Real Bikers Wear Pink welcomes both men and women to participate in the event.

To find out more about small office lease in Kansas City through Southcreek, which is located in a strong Overland Park community, give one of our commercial real estate brokers in Overland Park a call at 913-685-4100!

South Creek Overland Park Building I

Looking for small office lease in Kansas City? Southcreek Office Park has multiple buildings with several floors of office space located in Overland Park, and with flexible floor plans that you can arrange to meet your specific preferences and a surrounding community offering services to support your business, Southcreek might be just what you are looking for! Here are some details on one of our buildings, Southcreek I:

Address: 12900 Metcalf Ave. Overland Park, KS 66213
Total Square Footage: 24,206 sf
Number of Floors: 2
Year Built: 1992
Space Available:

Just listed with an aggressive rental rate of $17/square foot, this 1254 square feet of Kansas City Office Space is great for any small business just starting out.
A 2,256 sq. ft. corner office is available in this building. The space includes a conference room and nine individual offices.
Another corner suite offers 3,440 sq. ft. of office space and is currently set up to include two work rooms, four offices, and some open office space.
The biggest available corner suite in Southcreek Building I offers 3,493 sq. ft. of space and includes nine offices, a conference room, open office space, a reception area, a lunchroom, and a supply closet.

All of these available suits are naturally well lit through the building’s many windows, making Southcreek Building I a bright and pleasant work environment! Its proximity to the many amenities and services in Johnson County also offer many benefits for your business. If you would like to learn more about our business space for rent in Kansas City, give us a call at 913-685-4100!

Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition Near Southcreek’s Kansas City Office Space

Looking for interesting and educational things to do in Kansas City? Check out Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition at Union Station, for an informative and emotional experience commemorating the 100 year anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. The exhibit features over 300 artifacts recovered from the debris field of the Titanic, including items such as perfume bottles and china embossed with the ship’s logo. The artifacts and re-creations of the interior of the ship are used as starting points to tell the human stories of the many victims of this tragedy, paying tribute to their heroism and suffering. The exhibit covers the life of the Titanic from its construction and launching all the way up through the amazing rediscovery of the ship at the bottom of the ocean 73 years later and the efforts that have been made to preserve it.

Location: Union Station Kansas City’s Bank of America Grand Gallery. 30 West Pershing Kansas City, Missouri 64108.

Exhibit Hours:
Open Every Day During Spring Break (now – March 25th)
Monday-Thursday: 9:30 AM – 5:00 PM
Friday-Saturday: 9:30 AM – 7:00 PM
Sunday: 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM

This educational exhibit is appropriate for all ages. Ticket prices vary based on age and Union Station membership, and they can be purchased up until one hour before the show closes.

If you would like to learn more about small office lease in Kansas City, a city with so many cultural opportunities, give our brokers at DDI Commercial Overland Park a call: 913-685-4100.

Unique Furnishings for Your Office Space in Kansas City

If you want something a little more unique than standard office furniture for your office space, consider some of these crafty pieces, which will add both creativity and functionality to your office:

Erasable Labeled Drawers. To make drawers with labels that can be easily erased and rewritten, take a drawer or tin and use masking tape to shape the outline of a square. Paint that square with latex chalkboard paint, let dry, and remove tape. You can add borders by placing two strips of masking tape parallel to each other on opposite sides of square, painting, then removing tape once the paint dries. Repeat with two other sides.
Bookcase Desk. If you want something really unique for a desk, try balancing a door on either sawhorses or bookcases for added storage. Doors make great desktops because they are inexpensive, roomy, and readily available in a variety of sizes. To tie the look together, paint the door and the bookcases the same color and line the back of the shelves with marbled paper secured with double-sided tape.
Wallpapered Shelves. You can brighten up floating shelves, great for added storage space, by covering them with patterned or colored wallpaper. Measure the shelf, and cut the wallpaper slightly longer than shelf and wide enough to wrap around it with an overlap. Then use wallpaper paste to cover the shelf in wallpaper, one shelf at a time. Cut slits into extra paper at the end to form flaps, fold down, and paste. Once the shelf is completely dry, hang as usual.

Give us a call at South Creek Overland Park at 913-685-4100 to talk about what you are looking for in a small office lease in Kansas City so you can begin furnishing your own office space soon!