Ingram's May 2024

LANSING TRADE GROUP/THE ANDERSONS Year Founded: 1940 Headquarters: Maumee, Ohio (Overland Park office) Sector: Agribusiness Number of Employees: 2,334 In the heart of America’s Farm Belt, Lansing Trade Group could trace its roots back to 1931—but that particular Lansing wasn’t in grain-glutted Kansas; it was founded in Michigan. From Lansing Grain Co. to its LTG iteration and relocation to the Kansas City area, it grew to become one of the nation’s most influential agribusiness interests, with holdings in grain storage, trading, energy and other fields. It also was, at its peak, one of the five largest private companies in the Kansas City region. It still has the distinction of being a national power, but under new ownership: The Andersons, an Ohio-based giant that first acquired a share of LTG ownership in 2003, kicked in $305 million to secure the balance in 2019. The firm retained its Overland Park office, which continues to manage trading functions under the leadership of Bill Krueger, who was CEO before the sale went through.

BARTLETT & CO. Year Founded: 1907 Headquarters: Kansas City, Mo./Midvale, Utah Sector: Agribusiness Number of Employees: Appx. 300

Ideally located in the buckle of America’s Grain Belt, Bartlett & Co. became an agribusiness giant in the decades following its founding in 1907, mastering the arts of grain merchandising and storage, flour and feed milling, and cattle feeding. At one point, it was among the five largest private companies in the Kansas City region before it sold for an undisclosed sum to Utah-based Savage Co. in 2018. The corporate parentage may be remote, but the brand is still tethered to this region with the grain division’s headquarters near the Country Club Plaza. Its reach extends across the continent, with 16 grain facilities in the U.S., three in Mexico, and milling operations in Kansas and North Carolina. Paul Bartlett, an original owner of the company, passed the reins to Paul Jr., who kept the family control going when he passed the baton to James Hebenstreit. Bob Knief, a 20-year veteran, currently oversees Bartlett’s agriculture-sector operations for Savage.

BLACK & VEATCH Year Founded: 1915 Headquarters: Overland Park, Kan. Sector: Engineering/Design Number of Employees: 12,489

BLOCK REAL ESTATE SERVICES Year Founded: 2009 Headquarters: Kansas City, Mo. Sector: Commercial Real Estate Brokerage Number of Employees: 372

One of the two pillars of global engineering services that help define this region as a national center of excellence in engineering/design/build, this Overland Park company began building its legacy when Ernest Bateman Black and Nathan Thomas Veatch set up shop. Fast-forward nearly 110 years, and you have a powerhouse delivering energy, telecom and water systems in more than 100 countries. B&V announced in 2020 that it would exit that line of design/build, but it remains a formidable player in energy infrastructure with its work on transmission lines, low-carbon generation and exploration of hydrogen as a fuel source. The firm has been employee owned since 1999, a year after Len Rodman became its first CEO in a reorganization from a managing-partner structure. He was succeeded by another long-timer B&V veteran, Steven Edwards, in 2013, and Mario Azar took the helm last summer.

The name Block—no, not the tax guys—has been synon- ymous with commercial real estate sales, leasing and devel opment in the Kansas City region, and now nationwide, since brothers Allen and Jim Block hung up a shingle in 1946. In 2009, Allen’s sons Ken, Stephen and Michael formed this company as a new venture, BRES, and it has since staked a claim to being the most influential commercial-realty concern in the region, both in scale and reach. For one, it manages more than 45 million square feet of office and industrial property across its operations. On the residential side, it owns or has developed apartment complexes with more than 10,600 units. Far beyond brokering sales and lease transactions, the firm also specializes in construction, development, property management, asset management, property maintenance services and even real estate investments.

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May 2024

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