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Onething rings true for every business—change is constant; and can happen on a micro level, a macro level or both! With that said, we also know that businesses can continue to thrive during times of economic uncertainty. Looking back over other times of economic and geopolitical uncertainty, we can see that out of challenging economic times come new entrepreneurial opportunities for both new and experienced businesspeople. Occidental Management is rooted in this concept. The key? Work smarter, not harder.
You can work smarter by utilizing the resources you already have at your disposal … Network, join professional organizations, such as your local chamber of commerce and other business organizations, and lean on your strategic partners and mentors. A key differentiator for our team is that we encourage businesses to lean on us, and we’ll support you and plug you into centers of influence within the community. Our focus is on helping you succeed.
Weare also driven by supporting our community. We have so much to be thankful for, and a wonderful way to show our appreciation and share our blessings with the community this holiday season is to give back. And we can’t think of a more vital and caring organization to support than the Wichita Children’s Home.
So,mark your calendars and come celebrate with us! We’ll be hosting an exciting event to benefit the Wichita Children’s Home and we hope you can join us. We’ll be kicking off the season with our first annual Merry & Bright Union Station Lighting Event at the historic Union Station building in downtown Wichita on Thursday, November 17th from 5:307:30 p.m. Come enjoy the sights and sounds of the holidays at this public event, where we’ll be lighting up the Union Station building and celebrating with family-friendly activities.
event will also include a toy drive and we hope you’ll support that by bringing a new, unwrapped toy to donate.
We want to thank and acknowledge our generous sponsors and partners for helping to ensure this event is a success:
• Lighting of the train on the Douglas bridge — by the Great Plains Transportation Museum
• Wichita Mayor Whipple will flip the switch to turn on the lights
• KWCH Channel 12 will cover the event live with co-sponsor KFDI-FM 101.3
• Photos with Santa
• Carriage rides
• Interactive Kids Station sponsored by Envision Arts Gallery & Community Center
• A live reindeer
• Performances by the local Northwest Choir and Holy Cross Lutheran Hand Bell Choir
• The Wichita Police Dept. Mounted Unit
• Cocoa and cookies sponsored by Cushman & Wakefield
• Hot coffee available from Mokas Café
• Pop-up
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New Headquarters as of Nov. 17: 165 S. Rock Island, Ste. 300 Wichita, KS
by Bob Ale-Ebrahim
Savvy building professionals know that upgrades of outdated garage lighting to modern LED technology represent some of the most popular and economically attractive investments in commercial real estate today. This fact hasn’t been lost on the 207-acre Aspiria corporate campus in Overland Park, KS, where Aspiria Campus Director of Engineering, Gary Schlotzhauer, championed the upgrade of the older fluorescent and high-pressure sodium lighting in their parking garages and parkway to high-performing, energy-efficient, long-lasting, and easy-to-maintain LED technology.
Originally constructed as the world headquarters of Sprint in 1999, the Aspiria campus contains nearly four million square feet of Class A commercial office space spread across 20 buildings and 14 parking garages that can accommodate 14,500 vehicles. In July 2019, the property was purchased by Wichita, KS-based Occidental Management, Inc., a leading commercial real estate development, leasing, and property management company, and has since been repositioned as a mixed-use campus.
“Though the campus originally only featured office space, we’ll ultimately offer multi-family residential and retail space and will soon construct a hotel,” Schlotzhauer shared. And while the former owner currently leases space in four of the campus’s 20 buildings, “we have several dozen other unique tenants on-site representing a broad range of industries, from the financial and medical fields to transportation and more,” he said. “We’ve also opened up Aspiria to community involvement by hosting 5k charity walks and other special events on our property so the public can benefit from and be a part of our space.”
“We aim to be a live-work-play environment, and when fully occupied (post-pandemic), our worldclass campus will sport a population of over 14,700 people, rendering it one of the largest office campuses in North America and the 25th largest population out of the 525 total cities and towns in the state of Kansas,” Schlotzhauer noted.
In addition to the lighting upgrade to save money and enhance the aesthetic of the campus, Schlotzhauer has been proactive in driving other beneficial upgrades at Aspiria. These include the optimization of their chiller operation, an upgrade of the air handling system, and the renewable energy in partnership with their local utility. These initiatives have reduced campus-wide energy consumption by 13.5 million kWh and driven over $1.5 million in annual energy cost savings. “It isn’t just the technology and products that contribute to the savings, but also the culture of the entire organization, including ownership, management and the talented building professionals that are responsible for operating the complex systems at Aspiria,” said Schlotzhauer.
“My mantra is ‘just do it’ because there are opportunities everywhere, and I always like to offer guidance to other building professionals and energy managers so that they can drive their own success,” Schlotzhauer said. “If you’re not replacing older lighting in your facilities with LEDs, you’re missing the boat.”
“When we first took over, the lighting in our parking garages and along the campus parkway was dull, dingy and uninviting. There was a great opportunity to improve the quality of light,” said Schlotzhauer of the low bay HID fixtures that lit their 14 garages and parkway, and the
for indoor high/low bay lighting and outdoor decorative posttop fixtures in walkway lighting applications.
“I’ve been a proud and dedicated supporter of SYLVANIA products for over 20 years,” explained Schlotzhauer. “LEDVANCE is a top lighting company, and there was no hesitation in making this choice.”
The 100-watt, high-pressure sodium fixtures that lit the garage stalls, as well as the metal halide lamps in the 130 coach light fixtures that lined the parkway, were replaced with 27-Watt SYLVANIA ULTRA LED High Lumen lamps. The 32-Watt, four-lamp, service-mount fluorescent lamps in the stairwells were replaced with 10-Watt SYLVANIA SubstiTUBE IPS LED T8 LED lamps. In all cases, the upgrades involved a convenient and simple one-for-one replacement within the facilities’ existing fixtures.T8 fluorescent lamps in the 28 garage stairwells.
Schlotzhauer began Aspiria’s lighting upgrade by reaching out to City Lighting Products, the electrical distributor he’s worked with for over two decades, as well as his LEDVANCE sales representative. Together, the team selected a combination of SYLVANIA SubstiTUBE® IPS LED T8 lamps (a high-performing, energy-saving alternative designed to replace traditional fluorescent T8 lamps) and SYLVANIA ULTRA LED™ High Lumen Lamps, which are ideal
Gary Schlotzhauer, Aspiria Campus Director of Engineering, Cushman & Wakefield“SYLVANIA products fit the bill,” said Clark Kessler, Major Account Representative at LEDVANCE. “The fixtures in Aspiria’s garages were still viable, and we had the right LED replacement products to make them work. This eliminated the cost and disposal issues of getting rid of the fixtures. We had a variety of solutions in our portfolio to choose from,” he said, “and all of the products we selected supported enhanced lighting quality, reduced maintenance, and significantly lowered energy cost.”
Kicked off in March 2020 and completed nine months later, Schlotzhauer is delighted with the results of the lighting upgrades.
In addition to elevating foot-candle levels and creating far brighter, cleaner, more uniform, and more inviting garage spaces, “we were paying $4,800 a month for the labor to replace failed high-pressure sodium lamps throughout our 14 garages, so our upgrade to reliable, long-lasting SYLVANIA LED lamps delivered $60,000 in annual labor savings alone,” he said. “In addition, the new lighting delivered nearly $210,000 in annual energy cost savings. These combined savings enabled the project to pay itself back in less than a year.”
Kessler confirmed, “Gary’s been way ahead of the game, and we were excited to support this project and his team. The results in terms of aesthetics and energy savings speak for themselves.”
Bill Leavel, Outside Sales Representative at City Lighting Products in Kansas City, MO, couldn’t agree more.
“I’ve known and worked with Gary for a long time and am proud of our partnership. He’s very knowledgeable and whatever he needs, I’m there for him,” Leavel said. “The project went very smoothly. We had no trouble ordering and getting the SYLVANIA LED lamps on time. This successful project was a result of great teamwork. The look and feel of the new LEDs are like night and day compared to the old lighting.”
Aspiria NOW Co-Working Space Aspiria NOW Co-Working SpaceSchlotzhauer added, “As we complete tenant build-outs inside of our buildings, we’re replacing everything with SYLVANIA linear LED lamps wherever we’re not installing new lighting fixtures. “We installed over 10,500 SYLVANIA LED products on our campus even before this project and are enjoying better quality light, superior performance, and outstanding energy and cost savings. LEDVANCE is a solid company with extensive experience, proven quality and a winning approach to product design and development.”
In addition to our energy saving efforts with Sylvania, we have partnered with Schneider Electric to monitor our energy usage.
To learn more about our green efforts to improve energy efficiency and sustainability, on the Aspiria Campus click here and watch this video.
“The results in terms of aesthetics and energy savings speak for themselves.”Clark Kessler, Major Account Representative, LEDVANCE Bill Leavel and Gary Schlotzhauer
by Bob Ale-Ebrahim photos by Kendra Cremin
Art has a way of transforming us into new sensory experiences. Art also has a way of bringing people together. Kirsten Shannon’s recent pop-up art show, BE, was no exception. And the Ice House building in downtown Wichita was the perfect backdrop for the gallery.
With its big pillars and cement floor, the building provided a hip “Chelsea Arts District NYC” vibe … the perfect pairing for her colorful, abstract, large-scale pieces. Each piece of her BE collection was designed to let viewers take a moment to breathe and really take in their aesthetic beauty.
According to Kirsten, the dream of creating a pop-up gallery seemed daunting at first, but the local artist community has been a part of her village for some time, and they rallied around her for support. Fellow artists even helped her with the installation of graphics to support the show as well as installed extra lighting components so her art could really shine.
“
The Ice House is such a cool blend of history and patina with fresh touches. As soon as I saw the space, I knew instantly it was perfect.”
Kirsten Shannon
Kirsten describes the mission for her show … “This body of work was formed in ‘Be’ moments— where devices are silent and time stands still. A place where there is no room for multitasking. All is pared down to pure form, color and corporeal strokes. Join me in this ‘space’ and press pause on distraction. Look inside yourself. Become untethered ... free. Be swept away. As John Muir penned, ‘our bodies were made to thrive only in ... the scenes in which pure air is found.’ Take a moment to feel your heart beating. Be grateful. Be still. Be renewed. Breathe.”
Bob Ale-Ebrahim, Marketing Director for Occidental Management, attended the show. “Having just recently moved back to Wichita, I was amazed at how beautiful the space at the Ice House looks. Having the vision and commitment to improving properties is really evident in how the leadership at Occidental Management improved the Ice House building. I remember when it was just an abandoned, empty warehouse. Now, it’s a first-class office space mixing the industrial look with a modern, contemporary, sensibility.”
Gary Oborny, Chairman and CEO of Occidental Management added, “I’m proud to support the Wichita arts community and am pleased to have a venue for the community to see such a nationally recognized artist as Kirsten Shannon. Plus, it’s refreshing to see how the Wichita arts community is growing and thriving.”
KIRSTEN’S JOURNEY TO WICHITAKirsten’s artistic journey started while growing up in Oregon and continued with her studies at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. She then moved to Kansas after she married a Wichita native in 2006. She has been included in a variety of group shows and has had multiple large solo shows, such as her most recent solo show in the main gallery at Mark Arts in 2019 which included 55 pieces and mostly sold out.
Kirsten is included in many notable public and private art collections around the country. She also received the commission for Woolsey Hall, the new home of the Barton School of Business at Wichita State University. She recently installed a splashy diptych measuring 70 x180, titled, “The State of Being Connected,” which was revealed in September.
Kirsten regards the wonder in color and the physicality of her medium. She works mostly in acrylic and oil, with oil sticks, conte, and graphite always at hand. Her hope is that her work purveys hopefulness, characterized by loose layering, freewheeling marks, vibrant chroma, and the idea that a brushstroke takes on a “self” of its own.
Constantly responding to the psyche of the paint, “Painting is a total surrender for me,” said Kirsten. “There are no mistakes in my flow; my work layers emotion.”
When she was asked what her experience was like working with Occidental Management she said, “You guys have been great! Very kind!” Kirsten continued by saying, “I plan to continue to paint and be a part of this beautiful art community.”
Between shows, Kirsten can be found fulfilling commissions, spending time with her two teenagers, and delighting in the outdoors with traveling, hiking and camping.
To view more of her vibrant works, visit kirstenshannon.com.
“The arts community here in Wichita is first-rate and close-knit. Everyone helps each other! There aren’t very many of us working artists, but art found here is world-class.” - Kirsten Shannon
Management is proud to partner with a multitude of entrepreneurs and start-up companies. Our mission is to help provide a venue for them to succeed. Keren Salsgiver is the owner of With Love & Company which is located at Northwest Centre at 13th and Tyler in Wichita. With Love & Company is a one-stop shop of spa services, a boutique and gifts. Alongside their women and children’s boutique, customers can indulge in the full spectrum of beauty care in one relaxing atmosphere: facials, waxing, makeup, spray tanning, body sculpting, nails, and more. We had the pleasure of sitting down with Keren to learn even more about the company.
Where did the name With Love & Company originate?
“When I first was trying to come up with a unique name for our company, I had come across a flower shop in Australia that had a similar name. About that same time, I was given a plaque from a friend that was a line from First Corinthians that said, ‘Do Everything With Love’. After that, I knew that our name should be With Love & Company. It really sums up who we are, and our name is part of our mission.”
How has your business evolved from the early days?
“When we opened in 2018, we were only a few estheticians, but today we have evolved as a hybrid of estheticians and manicurists, and are still growing. We went from doing perhaps brow waxing on a client to then providing a one-stop beauty and boutique shop where they would get all spa services and enjoy shopping too. To get to help not only a mom but then her daughter with prom services, a friend with her wedding beauty services, and a girls’ spa night, it is very special to be a part of a variety of life milestones.”
“Our customers love the idea of a one-stop shop and we enjoy getting to build amazing relationships with them. They truly start to become our spa family. Our point of difference from other local spas and boutiques is they can come into one place and receive several different types of services. They can get a unique gift, a new outfit, and all the services they need to either relax and/or get ready for whatever occasion they have coming up. We are their place for it all.”
How have your customers found you?
“Some of our customers have searched for us on Google and picked us solely on our name and our Google reviews. However, the majority of our new business is coming from our amazing clients sharing the love and telling everyone about us. We truly have the best clients. One lady recently came in all the way from Tablerock. She loved our name, needed her makeup done for a family members’ wedding and she bought herself a blouse for the fall, books for her grandchildren. We connected over a leadership summit she just went to. We truly have the best time with a spa family.”
What plans do you have for the future?
“Pre-COVID we used to have yoga nights, self-defense classes and makeup classes that were complementary for our clients, so we hope to bring those back in the future. We are also doing more pop-up and party events. We plan to expand our service offerings and increase our boutique selections. Most of us here are moms and want to truly celebrate and love extra on mamas. We already put together cute gift boxes that people can purchase for unique baby shower gifts, any occasion gifts, relaxation gifts. We listen to what our clients want and try to provide services and products that fulfill those needs.”
‘Do Everything With Love’. be With Love & Company. name is part of our mission.”
“
I had been looking for a space for about six to eight months. The original location I was interested in kept getting delayed due to construction. So, that is when I started searching around and contacted Occidental Management. They showed us this location here in Northwest Centre and we were able to see the full space. It could not have been a better fit, and all we needed to do was paint and decorate. Thankfully, we were able to move in fast because I was about to have a baby. They made it easy and it has been a great relationship. They helped me get my business started off on a good foot. We have already renewed our lease and plan to be here for many years to come.” Click here to see the With Love & Company website.
-Keren Salsgiver
How has your partnership with Occidental Management been for your business?
Chef Natasha has years of experience catering to all different types of events. From corporate lunches to elegant chef-curated dinners to large weddings, The Kitchen can accommodate your specific needs. Each event gets our unique attention as we create the perfect custom menu for you at the holidays.
During an office relocation or new business set-up, a fast, secure connection and stable Internet services are a must so you can begin serving clients immediately. Aspiria Connect 5s service helps to make that process as seamless, secure, speedy, and stable as possible for incoming tenants to the Aspiria campus.
Aspiria Connect is a flexible and full-service networking, communications, connectivity, and co-location solution designed to accelerate and streamline your company’s move-in and setup. Aspiria Connect is already built-out and ready to go. Simply tap into our production-ready services and get your business working, faster.
The Aspiria campus is supercharged with the SIC (Security, Infrastructure and Connectivity) Network Technology Platform, a professionally designed interconnection platform that interfaces with your company. Whether you require simple outbound access to the Internet for your users and devices, or you’re running a complex network infrastructure and simply want to securely leverage the redundant multi-gigabit, multi-ISP backbone, Aspiria Connect delivers.
Built upon 10Gig incremental backbones and Internet edge connectivity, as well as client-facing gigabit+ Wi-Fi and wired connectivity, you will experience speed that stays well out in front of your current and future connectivity requirements.
Aspiria Wi-Fi eliminates hardware and IT build-out costs. Our selection of services will get your company up and running quickly, while keeping you in control of your overhead. Our service also helps you maintain control while customizing your business’ network stack in a fully integrated enterprise network with secure access that keeps you running smoothly. Aspiria Connect helps you stay connected, and top talent expects a connection that is secure and efficient. Aspiria Connect delivers cutting-edge connectivity, expanding your own network outside of your four walls and across the Aspiria Campus.
Troy Marquis, Chief Financial Officer, Occidental Management“
are truly excited to offer this move-in ready, enterprise caliber technology at Aspiria. Aspiria offers the tenant and their team industry-leading technology at a price lower than they could achieve on their own.
Aspiria Wi-Fi is available to extend your own network across the Aspiria campus. There is no Wi-Fi equipment to purchase or build-out costs to incur with this service.
We have tri-homed, high-availability Internet, plus multiple ISPs currently available at Aspiria. You can have multiple points of presences with speeds from 100Mbps to 10Gbps. You can stay with your current provider, and then move on campus and extend your Internet accessibility with Aspiria Connect.
Your users and devices are privately separated into a network exclusive to your organization. You have administrative, role-based access controls over your users and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Authentication is encrypted and differentiated for all your users, and your core connectivity is provided via a campus security stack with unified threat management, including intrusion prevention and protection from malware, malicious websites, and exploits.
Whether you’re working from within your suite, or roaming through the amenity spaces to conference rooms, cafes and patios, your Wi-Fi-connected devices and users remain consistently and securely connected to your private network domain.
The Aspiria network is robust and has diverse fiber pathways. There are redundant power feeds to help ensure that your network will never go down. We have UPS backup with supplemental cooling systems to help ensure network reliability. Our network system resides within a raised floor environment with key card-controlled access for security.
SUPPORT IS AVAILABLE 24/7. We have 24/7 end-user support and have a centralized IT control center for troubleshooting and resolving issues.
Accelerate and streamline your company’s move-in and set-up with Aspiria Connect’s customizable stack of network, connectivity and communication services.
To learn more, contact the Aspiria Connect team at 913.355.5173.
Ican remember seeing this Dr. Seuss quote in my fifth-grade classroom and many other public spaces in my past.
In fact, I saw these famous words so often that I assumed everyone else had accepted this concept as a universal truth. Yet, fast forward to 2022, companies are struggling to attract talented candidates in the current job market. And they are failing because they have forgotten how important it is to be genuine.
Can you recall the name of a company that has recently posted something online related to their employer brand that caught your attention? Unfortunately, I cannot. When I scroll through LinkedIn, I see endless posts that contain the same content that seems to have only changed the faces in their photographs and used “find and replace” to add their company name.
The business community seems to have all received a mysterious list with boxes they must check to compete for top talent. In other words, companies are making themselves look like everyone else to try to stand out. This seems counterproductive, doesn’t it? So why are they doing this? Because somehow, they have been convinced that being a great employer is monolithic. The C-suite is trying to mimic the latest workplace trends; however, when they do this, they undermine and ignore what makes their organization uniquely great.
Iam not suggesting that companies stop challenging themselves to improve, as this is essential to success. Instead, I point out that companies often miscategorize their uniqueness as flaws and often lose themselves in this reflection.
Ernest Shackleton
“Men wanted for hazardous journey, small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in cases of success.”
Many believe they should follow the latest trends and keep the same talking points. After all, they worry that being too open with candidates may frighten them away or make them seem less cutting edge. But, when they do this, they are misrepresenting reality and attracting people to their company who will, ultimately, be unhappy there. Not every candidate is searching for the same things in their future workplace. So, when companies focus their energy on misrepresenting their culture, values, and the nature of their job openings, they are missing out on the candidates who would appreciate them.
I will use a reference from history to illustrate my point. Ernest Shackleton was an explorer who led three expeditions to the Antarctic. These journeys occurred in the early 1900s when fewer than 10 men had been on the continent, of whom only five survived. One of these famous travels gave birth to the folklore surrounding one of Shackleton’s ads recruiting for explorers to join one of his famous expeditions.
“Men wanted for hazardous journey, small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success.”
Hegrew concerned after submitting the ad. He was afraid he had been too direct and may not receive enough response to build his team. Then, unexpectedly, he received an overwhelming number of responses from men seeking adventure. The ad was clear about the risk, and these men were excited by it. Consider if Shackleton had posted an ad that misrepresented the nature of the expedition. It could have changed everything — most likely for the worse.
As we press forward in this tight labor market, this simple childhood lesson is vital for the business community. Remember what makes your company so successful and recognize that what makes it different can actually be what makes it so great. And finally, please remember that the cornerstone to being a competitive employer is being genuine and reaching candidates with authenticity.
Jennifer Bradley Human Resources Manager Occidental Management
165 S. Rock Island, Ste. 300 Wichita, KS 67202
TEL: 316.262.3331
WEB: www.occmgmt.com
