Best Accounting/Consulting Firm
Taking Gold in this category is BKD, LLP, one of the ten largest CPA and advisory firms in the U.S. The firm is a member of Praxityan international alliance of independent accounting firms. Global accounting powerhouse KPMG, LLP earns Silver. CBIZ, the Cleveland-based multi-disciplinary consulting firm with offices nationwide, gets Bronze. (Question: what’s the story with accounting firms using only initials for their company names?)
Best Advertising Agency (small)
Grabbing the Gold this year is Trozzolo Communications Group. The firm has experienced significant growth during the last decade through mergers with other firms and acquisitions of key clients. Lawrence-based Callahan Creek wins Silver with award-winning creative work for its blue-chip clients. Blacktop Creative picks up a Bronze.
Best Advertising Agency (large)
One is Silver the other is Gold and both were founded in Kansas City in 1964. Bernstein-Rein Advertising gets Gold, and though it’s no longer tops in revenue here in its hometown, it’s still one of the biggest and best in the nation. Barkley, with the Silver, moved to a building with a rocket on the roof in 2007, and its long-running, way-funny Sonic campaign is still super. This is the third consecutive year VML has cast the Bronze.
Best Airline Serving KCI
Midwest Airlines, known for its exemplary service, wide comfortable seats, and chocolate chip cookies takes home the Gold. Southwest Airlines known for its exemplary service, no-frills seating policies, and its peanuts, gets the Silver. Northwest Airlines, known for, uh, being Northwest Airlines picks up the Bronze.
Best Architectural/Design Firm
Founded in Kansas City more than 90 years ago, HNTB takes the Gold. This venerable firm is known for its many high profile stadium and arena projects across the country, but the roads and bridges that get you to those venues may very well have been designed by it as well. 360 Architecture, which picks up the Silver, has had a leading role in many of the most important projects in town over the last several years, including the H&R Block HQ and the Power & Light District. Tied for Bronze are Ellerbe Beckett and BNIM Architects. Minneapolis-based Ellerbe Beckett has also gained fame for its sports venues. BNIM was architect of record for the stunning new Bloch Building at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.
Best Commercial Contractor (Large)
For the ninth year running JE Dunn Construction wins the Gold. From the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Kansas City to the Ted Stevens Marine Research Center in Juneau, Alaska, this family-owned firm continues to extend its reach here at home and across the nation. New York-based Turner Construction earns Silver. And Straub Construction takes Bronze. The Shawnee-based firm has built churches, schools, and dwellings across the metro. The company takes special pride in its extensive charitable activities—building community, as well as buildings.
Best Commercial Contractor (small)
“Small” may not be an accurate descriptor of Gold winner Taylor Kelly. Its projects span the region and include work at Whiteman Air Force Base, Ameristar Casino, Bartle Hall, and Zona Rosa. Founded in 1999, Silver winner McCownGordon is a relatively young firm, it’s already made a big impact with high visibility projects around the greater Kansas City area. Neighbors Construction and A.L. Huber tied for Bronze. Both are well-respected companies with long histories of successful projects in the city.
Best Commercial Realtor/Firm
Grabbing the Gold is Kessinger-Hunter. Founded locally in 1879, the firm is now a part of the Cushman-Wakefield global real estate alliance with 192 offices in 58 countries. Kessinger-Hunter manages high visibility properties such as 10 Main Center and 2 Pershing Square and is involved in industrial, commercial, retail, office, and governmental developments throughout the region. Grubb & Ellis/The Winbury Group and Zimmer Real Estate Services are tied for Silver. Grubb & Ellis is behind the tony new Park Place mixed-use development in Leawood. And Zimmer is lead-ing the way at The Gateway, a mixed-use development in Mission, Kansas. Bronze goes to RED Development which specializes in developing, managing, and owning lifestyle centers, multi-use concepts, and power centers.
Best Hospital/Medical Center
No need to travel to brand name specialty clinics in other cities for world class healthcare. We’ve got it all right here in Kansas City. Saint Luke’s Hospital tops the list with readers again this year. Known internationally for its cardiac care, Saint Luke’s was recently recognized for being among the top five percent of hospitals nationwide for patient safety. Taking Silver is St. Joseph Medical Center, which has been designated by the American Nursing Credentialing Center for its excellence in nursing. Tied for Bronze are the University of Kansas Hospital—recognized as a national leader in heart and cancer care—and Shawnee Mission Medical Center, specializing in emergency care and minimally invasive surgical procedures.
Best Hotel
Over the years this luxury hotel has had many owners and many names (Remember when it was the Alameda?), but the InterContinental Kansas City has always been world-class, and wins Gold again this year. The hotel belongs to one of seven hotel brands—including Holiday Inn—owned by the UK-based InterContinental Hotel Group. Its Plaza neighbor, the romantic Raphael, takes Silver. The Westin Crown Center and long-time downtown favorite Hotel Phillips are tied for Bronze. The Phillips is now part of the Milwaukee-based Marcus group of hotels and resorts.
Best Law Firm
Tied for Gold are the firms Lathrop & Gage and Stinson Morrison Hecker, LLP. Founded in 1873, Lathrop & Gage is the oldest law firm west of the Mississippi. Though based in Kansas City, the firm’s nearly 300 attorneys practice out of ten office locations between New York and Denver. The firm’s earliest partners were leaders in the effort to oust Kansas City’s Pendergast regime and to reform Kansas City’s city government. Stinson Morrison Hecker, LLP was formed when two venerable Kansas City firms merged in 2002. The firm has a broad client base and expertise in multiple practice areas, and is now one of the nation’s largest with more than 360 lawyers and offices in five states and nine cities. Relatively young compared to the aforementioned firms, Polsinelli Shalton Flanigan Suelthaus claims Silver. The firm was founded in 1972 and specializes in business and technology clients. Established in Kansas City in 1889, Bronze winner Shook Hardy & Bacon is the big dog in this pack with 502 attorneys and nine offices in cities including Geneva and London.
Best Engineering Firm
You’ll recognize these names. They’re the same names that appeared here last year in slightly different order. Burns & McDonnell, which will celebrate its 110th anniversary next year, takes Gold. Black & Veatch is awarded Silver, and HNTB gets the Bronze. All are world-class firms with strong portfolios of successful high-profile international projects. Kansas City has become an engineering world capital primarily be-cause of the strength of these companies.
Best Health Club
With seven centers metro-wide, California-based 24 Hour Fitness, the world’s largest privately owned and operated fitness center chain, out-muscled the local competition to take home the Gold. It’s fun to stay at the Y-M-C-A! For its family-centered, not a meat market, approach to health and fitness, the Y takes Silver. The not-for-profit has sites throughout the region. Minnesota-based Life Time Fitness has a gym in Overland Park and wins the Bronze.
Best Bank
Two separate and distinct branches of a single banking family with deep roots in Kansas City account for the two top spots in this category. Commerce Bank—with more than 300 retail centers in three states, and more than $14 billion in assets—wins Gold and UMB gets the Silver. Bank Midwest, a subsidiary of Dickinson Financial Corporation, with banking centers throughout Missouri and eastern Kansas, is tied for Bronze with global giant Bank of America.
Best Long Term Care Facility
Apparently Kansas City’s Episcopalians and Presbyterians excel at the building and management of exceptional comprehensive retirement and elder care facilities. The two prize winners in this category are quite different in many ways, yet they share a common objective—providing the best possible living environment for retired and elderly citizens. Bishop Spencer Place takes the Gold this year. Located in a relatively land-locked, semi-urban setting, adjacent to the Country Club Plaza with all its many amenities, Bishop Spencer Place is operated by its own independent, freestanding board of directors, but also benefits from close affiliations with Saint Luke’s Hospital and its physicians, as well as with the Episcopal church. Founded as a Presbyterian ministry, John Knox Village in Lee’s Summit wins the Silver prize. John Knox Village—located on a sprawling suburban campus—is among the more popular and progressive retirement communities in the Midwest, offering the full range of living arrangements, from fully independent apartments, to assisted living, to skilled nursing care, to hospice.
Best Meeting/Conference Facility
Nabbing the Gold award for the third year running is the Overland Park Convention Center, with 85,000 square feet of contiguous exhibit space and 1,000 hotel rooms within walking distance. With its iconic pylons and 388,800 square feet of column-free exhibit space, downtown’s ever-expanding Bartle Hall gets Silver. The Ritz Charles in Overland Park doesn’t really fit into the category defined by the first and second place finishers. The Ritz Charles is a smaller, more exclusive, venue ideal for corporate day retreats/meetings, seminars, specials events, and catered affairs/receptions.
Best Spa
At Bijin Salon & Day Spa in Prairie Village, owners Connie Suss, Mary Jane Van de Castle, and Gabrielle Kaniger offer Gold-winning pampering and primping, along with their own line of personal care products. Illinois-based Mario Tricoci Salon & Day Spa’s Leawood location claims the Silver, and Kevin and Suzanne Doehring’s Overland Park-based Par Exsalonce Salon & Spa, a repeat favorite, gets Bronze.
Best Corporate Retreat Venue (day/overnight)
Ingram’s readers voted Big Cedar Lodge south of Branson as the best venue for a corporate retreat. Located on beautiful Table Rock Lake, this resort is nestled in the idyllic woods of the lower Ozarks. Closer to home, The Elms Resort & Spa, in Excelsior Springs, wins Silver. The Elms has a rich and quirky history and provides a unique and elegant environment for a corporate getaway. The Country Club Hotel & Spa at the Lake of the Ozarks earns Bronze, giving businesses an enjoyable site for both retreating and recreation.
Best Ground Transportation
In this category, customer service is king and Kansas City-based Overland Limousine Service, founded in 1979, wins Gold. Washington, D.C.-based Carey Limousine takes Silver. And then, in a category defying departure from the expected, MAX-Metro Area Express, the speedy mass transit bus service from Kansas City Area Transportation Authority, gets the Bronze.
Best Shopping Center or District
The winner and still champion is Country Club Plaza. Though there may come a day when the Crossroads Art District offers a more uniquely local, vibrant, diverse, and less homogenized shopping experience than Plaza, for now we’re proud to say that our world class Plaza holds its own with shopping districts anywhere else in the country. It’s been called the city’s crown jewel. We won’t argue with that. It’s still the place Kansas Citians take their out-of-town friends and family to shop, sight see, and stroll. Holidays are especially special—the Plaza Lights are a national treasure and the funky Easter Bunnies are a delightful annual tradition. Though their is neither a town, nor a center, nor a plaza, within sight of it, Johnson County’s sprawling upscale Town Center Plaza takes the Silver prize. Anchored by Macy’s and home to several awesome restaurants, the venue is a shopper’s paradise surrounded by a vast sea of parking. Zona Rosa—the Northland’s walkable, “New Urban” shopping and living experiment gets Bronze. Built to emulate downtowns of the early Twentieth Century, where folks worked, shopped, and socialized all within walking distance of their homes, Zona Rosa has attracted national retailers, local merchants and restaurants, and a fair share of younger loft-lovers, and middle-aged empty-nesters seeking an alternative to the beige McMansions of the suburbs.
Best web developer
As more advertising and marketing dollars are being shifted to online and interactive media, knowing which firms to turn to for this expertise is critical. VML, Inc., winner of the Gold in this new category, says it can be found “where marketing and technology meet.” Though it got its start in 1992 as a conventional ad agency, the interactive marketing firm says 90 percent of its work for its clients is now for the Web. Digital Evolution, awarded the Silver, has clients in virtually every industry, both locally and nationwide. River City Studio, another shop that started as a traditional design and ad agency and has moved smartly into Web work, gets the Bronze. It’s a good and healthy sign that all of these cutting-edge firms were founded in Kansas City.
