April 30, 2006
By Dan Voorhis
Published with Permission from The Wichita Eagle
A CONVERSATION WITH PAUL JACKSON
Paul Jackson was just 28 when he started building Wilson Estates office park, still one of the city's largest and most prestigious places to have an office. The project helped to reshape the office market in Wichita, becoming the first really large upscale office park in a suburban part of town. The office park is on 21st Street near Rock Road.
Now, 10 years later, he is selling Wilson Estates and building a second office park: the 100,000-square-foot Lakeside at the Waterfront, again testing how much Wichita will pay for office space. He has broken ground on two of the three buildings.
Jackson said that Wichita grows so slowly that it is hard to remain just an office developer. That's why he is looking at developing a 60-acre retail project in Andover.
Jackson, who graduated from Kansas State University as an architectural engineer, is married and has two children.
You've gotten good interest on the first two buildings at your new development. What does that tell you about Wichita's office market?
"Wichita is a little tough to figure out. For quality projects, I think there are users. They are in demand, but I don't think you can carte blanche say that . . . it's very strong. For the right project there are businesses out there who will pull the trigger and make the move, but you have to have something to offer them.''
Is there still strong demand from downtown businesses?
"The businesses that have moved out of downtown, pretty much have moved out of downtown. Probably there are a few still there that would move.''
You got your start in partnership with your father-in-law, millionaire entrepreneur Barry Downing. How did that work?
"He was the investor in the company, and I was out doing most of the work. I just drove around town. I think at one point I knew just about every building in downtown and east Wichita that we might be interested in owning. . . . We were very conservative. Looking back, we could have bought a lot of property very inexpensively and, in some cases, I wish we had. We did what we were comfortable with and it worked out OK."
What is the secret to a good office location?
"You don't want to build them out on the fringe, too far from good restaurants and access to things. I hate having to come to work early because I have to run an errand, and I hate having to take my lunch hour to run errands, and I hate having to leave early.''
Why has it taken so long to build your second office park?
"If you build too much office in Wichita, you put yourself out of business. . . . (That's why) maybe we should diversify if we want to stay in the market. We make sure we've got the best office in the best location, but just don't try to push that too hard or you put yourself out of business. You know there is only so much demand out there.''
Why sell Wilson Estates?
"It lets us put some money in the bank and operate a little more freely and takes some risk off the table for now. And we've got other projects out that are going on and it lets us focus on those. . . . If you keep them leased up, you're going to do fine. But if you run into problems, if you're 50 percent vacant, it will eat you up. We've never had that here and this is a good opportunity to make sure we don't."
No second thoughts about the sale?
"It's funny. I didn't think I'd feel like this, but I'm pretty emotionally attached to this development. We spent a lot of time here and we really enjoyed doing business with the people who office out here and it was a pleasure to come to work every day. We had to scratch our heads on that a little bit and do some soul searching. But at the end of the day it was a business decision and it was the right decision."
Have you ever consider building in west Wichita?
"We've been kind of watching out there. When the time will be right to get involved, I don't know. But there are little offices that spring up all the time out there."
Does the Waterfront development signal that a lot more office parks will start popping up?
"I don't think so. It's like a shell game. The more offices you build, the tougher it is to do the next one. . . . We're cautious. If we find a very good location that's good for the long term, that's why we're interested in Waterfront. That's a good solid, long-term location. It's not going to turn over in two years and people decide it's the has-been place.'' |
