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Nearly every building in town that rents space has office space available.

Alicia Stephens, executive director of the Partnership for Community Growth and Development, said the Kansas City area in general had an abundance of available office space, but the Liberty area had a harder time completing for large users since that space was almost non-existent here.

“That’s one of the challenges we have in competing,” Stephens said. “If someone needs 100,000 square feet of office space, we don’t have it.”

According to Stephens, what Liberty does have is an abundance of smaller office inventory, especially around the Liberty Square.

She said rent usually ranged from about $10 to $21 a square foot in Liberty, but some spaces rent by the month, not by the square foot.

“Liberty is quite varied. It has old and new space,” Stephens said.

The partnership keeps a listing of spaces available at no charge to building owners.

Stephens said the spaces she had listed ranged from 140 square feet to 17,400 for a whole building. A new, 6,200-square foot building on the Square is the largest available in the downtown area.

While her telephone was not ringing off the hook during December and January — a traditionally slow time — Stephens was optimistic the economy would rebound and renters would again be interested in filling spaces.

“If you look at long-range trends in office space, it’s up and down. It’ll come back,” Stephens said.

While Stephens thought the Midwest was more immune from the troubled economy than the coasts, lenders appeared reluctant to lend money for buildings.

“The lenders are hesitant to lend unless the developer has signed leases,” she said.

Terry Bush, owner of A&E Builders who has been busy constructing new office buildings, said he had noticed some slow down but there was still a demand for space.

Bush has several buildings up and ready for occupancy. His 291 Business Center north of Missouri Highway 152, with a total of 30,185 square feet, has two buildings occupied and two available. He said square-footage for the offices ranged from 1,000 to 12,800 square feet.

In Hospital Valley he plans three building, two are completed and one of them is full. Bush also is planning to build 12 multiuse buildings on 12 acres in Whispering Ridge near Liberty Hospital as demand warrants.

“We’re doing the streets and will be building as soon as we get someone that’s interested,” Bush said.

Don Altis, who owns a couple of mixed-use buildings in downtown Liberty said his retail spaces and apartments were rented but small office space rental was sluggish.

“I noticed the change last summer,” Altis said.

THE DETAILS
For information on office space available in the Liberty area, call the Partnership for Community Growth and Development at 407-9242 or visit www.thinklibertymo.com.

Liberty Editor Angie Anaya Borgedalen can be reached at 781-4941 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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