In the last issue we featured St. Louis, a city in which Cohen-Esrey has a presence. In this issue we’ll be focusing on Topeka, KS. We told you that St. Louis is a city where we’ve had a continuous presence since 1978 – 45 years. Our experience in Topeka began even before that in 1972 when Bob Esrey (1970), Chairman, and his partners acquired the 234-unit Park South Apartments. Lee Harris, President and CEO, began his career with the company in 1975 as the Property Manager at Park South. Cohen-Esrey partnerships owned seven properties over the years in Topeka where the company ultimately managed 29 apartment communities totaling 3,275 units along with ten office buildings totaling 850,000 square feet and eight shopping centers with 415,000 square feet. A regional office was maintained in Topeka for many years, first in the Capitol Tower building and eventually in the Bank of America Tower. Apartment properties ranged from as small as 18 units to as large as 318 units. The 421,000 square foot Bank of America Tower was the largest commercial property managed. Notable clients with Topeka properties have included several private partnerships, the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System, Mutual of Omaha, Travelers Insurance, PNC Bank, Capital City Bank, AEGON Insurance, Kansas City Life Insurance, USLIFE, Investors Real Estate Trust, John Alden Life Insurance, LNR Properties, and a pension fund advisor. A few years ago, the last Topeka property was sold by a third-party client.

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The Topeka metropolitan area is home to approximately 234,000 people and is the capital of the state of Kansas. It is situated on the Kansas River approximately 60 miles west of Kansas City on Interstate 70. It is also the county seat of Shawnee County and was founded in 1854 and initially was the location of a ferry service allowing travelers to cross the Kansas River. Cyrus K. Holliday became the mayor of Topeka in its early days and founded the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway – now known as the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad (BNSF). Home to the first African American kindergarten west of the Mississippi River, Topeka was the home of Oliver Brown, the named plaintiff in Brown v. Board of Education, which was the case responsible for eliminating the standard of “separate but equal,” and requiring racial integration in American public schools. As the state capital, the State of Kansas is the city’s largest employer with approximately 8,400 citizens. Washburn University is in Topeka and other large employers include Stormont-Vail HealthCare, St. Francis Health Center, the Colmery-O’Neil Veterans Administration Hospital, Goodyear Tire and Rubber, Hill’s Pet Nutrition, Frito-Lay, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas, and BNSF Railway.

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