Expansion: Advisors Excel

Photos by Kevin Johnston, Advisors Excel

For decades, Gage Center was a popular entertainment destination for lunches, date nights, family outings and group gatherings. At various times, restaurants, bars, a bookstore, a movie theater, a pottery painting place, a cupcake shop and other small businesses beckoned people to their bustling establishments.

Like many retail centers, Gage Center began to falter as its infrastructure aged and many tenants relocated to other sections of the city or closed.

REBOUNDING GAGE CENTER

But now the once dilapidated area is rebounding, in large part because of Advisors Excel’s $10 million capital investment in the complex. The industry-leading financial and insurance marketing organization has already transformed two office buildings to accommodate 200 members of its annuity operations, finance and technology teams.

In April, employees moved in, but soon after began working at home because of COVID-19. In recent months, most employees have returned to the Gage Center buildings and the company’s main McClure building, where about 450 employees work.

Cody Foster, co-founder of Advisors Excel, said, “Now that we’ve solved for over capacity, our next challenge is to make sure we integrate two campuses and maintain the collaborative, creative, and energetic culture that defines us.”

To help facilitate interaction and boost production, work is underway to convert the former Jeremiah Bullfrog’s into an employee café and the bar’s live entertainment space into a 3,600 square-foot, state-of-the-art television studio.

Foster said the full-service café will offer a hot grill, salad bar and assortment of breakfast and lunch entrees, and cater the company’s special events. He added that the café potentially could offer a weekly menu of meals for employees to order and take home. The patio will also be refurbished for outdoor dining.

Advisors Excel partnered with a company that has won multiple Grammy awards to create its television studio and set designs.

“We’ve always had many advisors interested in television production, but since the pandemic we’ve had even more demand,” said Foster. “They can’t meet with their clients in person or market through traditional channels like live events, so they’re exploring more multimedia options.”

With three sets and high-end equipment to enhance efficiency, Foster said, “We’ll be able to accommodate whatever they need, whether it’s a three-minute YouTube video or a 30-minute show designed to air on a local television station in their market.”

REPURPOSING ADDITIONAL SPACE

Additional space in the same strip center is being repurposed. The areas previously occupied by Jul’s and Quinton’s Bar and Deli are being refurbished for Mission Church, which is anticipating welcoming worshipers to its leased space by Easter Sunday.

In 2019, Advisors Excel remodeled space for the Oasis Clinic, which accommodates employees’ medical needs, and will soon repave the campus’s potholed parking lot.

All of the center’s remaining tenants’ leases will end this year or early in 2022. As leases end, Advisors Excel will evaluate what the company’s needs for the structures might be.

“We could expand our operations or continue providing retail space, but for now we want to retain our flexibility,” Foster said.

With each enhancement to the area, he said, “The internal buzz grows. There’s a lot of excitement among employees as we get closer to finishing these projects.”

SYNERGY ABOUNDS

The same can be said for the general public. In a serendipitous bit of synergy, Haag Oil opened a new gas station and convenience store on one corner of the complex at the end of 2020. Other businesses in the area—Sonic, Herman’s Meat Market, BT&Co. and Gage Dental—also elevated the area’s aesthetics with their own upgrades.

“When we were considering opportunities, we were aware that Haag Oil had purchased that piece of land at Gage Center and we noted other improvements taking place too,” said Foster. “It made it easier for us to invest here because we saw that sense of pride in our neighbors. When several businesses start making strides, especially in older spaces, the effort has a radiating effect that we’re seeing not just here but across the city.”

Foster believes that transforming areas along major thoroughfares especially not only instills community pride but also helps attract new residents to Topeka.

“The better job we can do to inject new life into older spaces, the more appealing our community becomes to others and the more benefits we’ll see, including a growing tax base and additional investment,” said Foster. “We need to keep the momentum going.”

Click Here to learn about other businesses expanding in Topeka.

TK