Raising the Bar: The Pennant, The Cyrus, and Topeka’s Future | Don Heiland

Yeah, it's an incredibly fortunate firm to be able to be part of so many projects that have shaped Topeka. I mean fixing up the building up on Menninger Hill and Federal Home Loan Bank to advise the Excels offices with their Gage Campus, and even the things AIM did. I still feel that connection to all these cool aspects that Topeka is developing, just in a different way way Don Hyland, Director of Finance at SDG, an architecture firm. Is that fair to say? Sdg Architecture plus Interiors Cool.

Come on. Welcome to the show, man.

Hey, thank you for having me. It's great, so I'm happy to just share with you my thoughts, I guess, on Topeka and what has brought me here that's great, yeah, Maybe man just give us your background.

So we met kind of through a friend who's an architect at your company you just started working at pretty recently. Yeah, but you have quite the background working at different organizations, I'll just say loosely who have been heavily invested in downtown Topeka, different facets of making Topeka a better place. So maybe just give us like a quick overview what have you been involved in in Topeka? What are you still involved in?

Yeah, so you know I was locally grown here. I went to Washburn Rule and then went to Washburn University. After that I got my undergraduate in accounting and then got my master's in business administration. Nothing but high respects for Washburn. It was a great education and I couldn't be more thankful for it. There you go and met a lot of great people there too.

Should have Washburn pay us for this episode, right Sponsored. But anyways, then after that, well, actually while I was still in school, I had got an internship at Hills Pet Nutrition downtown when they were still headquartered here, and I was working in global supply chain for Seth Wagner, who ended up being perhaps he's going to be probably my biggest mentor I ever had in my life. But we were working in there and got to learn a lot about how big businesses run. He had worked there for, you know, a decade or more than that actually. But then what happened was is he was roommates with Cody Foster with Advisors Excel back in college, and there was one spring day where Cody called him up, I guess, and said, hey, I've got some big ideas that I want to do, but I got to run advisors Excel, so I need somebody to start a company for me. And so then, you know, seth had parted ways with Hills. I got a call days later saying, oh yeah, cody's got really big plans and a lot going on.

I need some help, and so then I came along and so then I was.

So did Hills just get gutted when he started that company?

No, but it was just two of us and you know there were so many people working down there at that point and I know it's diminished quite a bit, but and then they eventually moved their offices to KC, but anyways. So then we were on a crazy 10 year ride with AIM, and I'm sure we'll talk about plenty of that. But Is AIM what was started out of that?

Yeah.

So AIM was a company that held some equity and just a few kind of venture capital, you know, investments of Cody's, and then it was, oh, okay, so let's get that all sorted out. And then it got into real estate, then it got into restaurants and hotels, and then it got a bunch of stuff. So, yeah, and then after 10 years of that, you know, I kind of finally felt ready for, you know, a new challenge, and so I had always had contact with Greg Schwert over at SDG Architecture Interiors and I reached out to him and said, hey, I think I'm, I'm ready to try something new, and so made that switch about two months ago, and and that's where I am now. Wow, anyways, that's wild.

So AIM Strategies, that's, I guess. What is AIM Strategies so?

basically, cody was wanting to invest in the community You've probably heard from other people that the dude just has a heart of gold as far as wanting to pour back into Topeka, right. And so he had the AIM5 Foundation, which was his kind of nonprofit arm, and but then it was like, ok, well, there's this real estate development and other things he wanted to do. So he had AIM strategies for managing that. And so when we had first started, like I said, it held some just small companies, held a luxury hat manufacturer in Southern California called Mellon, along with some like private insurance, along with some construction and even an Irish vodka, many weird, not weird, but it was very diverse, it was very diverse, it was very diverse.

And so, um, anyways, uh, but eventually it was like, hey, I think we can do more things in Topeka that we can have better control of. And then that's when it went into buying up a bunch of the properties that went up for sale on Kansas Avenue. Uh, many years ago that would have been, you know, mostly between 15 and 18. I think when most of that acquisition acquired or that acquisition happened, and then after that it was okay, well, let's get things going on in these buildings, rather than just being vacant storefronts, making downtown look like.

Wow. So what are some of the things downtown that AIM was?

behind. So the Cyrus Hotel was the very first thing that uh was a definitive picture in Cody's mind. You could say, um, it was that you know, the town didn't have a nice boutique hotel. Uh, a lot of the properties around here were just aging, or, um, you know, if there was somebody from advisors that he wanted to bring into town, he didn't want to have to be looking at Lawrence and Kansas city to get a good hotel for somebody, and it was. I want to have something to be proud of. And so then that's when that started.

And so, you know, there was many, many months of planning and figuring out how to navigate the Landmarks Commission downtown, because it is a historic district, and how do you put an eight story kind of skyscraper down there and abide by all that still. So there was tons of challenges in getting that to fit. But then, while that was being built, because it was such a large project, it was like, well, probably needs to be some restaurants and things down there too. So then, while that was being built, we were working on getting the pennant open. Yeah, and so the pennant happened during the construction of the Cyrus. I was going to say I thought the pennant happened during the construction of the cyrus. I was gonna say I thought the pennant was first but that might have just been. It started after the cyrus started, but it got finished first, just because gotcha just didn't need stories.

Yeah, what's the difference between uh, because I've heard cody wanted his a boutique hotel down there that we could have his advisors in. What's a boutique hotel versus just a nice hotel that you would stay at?

right, yeah. So um, boutique would technically mean it doesn't have a flag. So by flag I mean you know marriott or hilton, you know those kinds of you know that span the country, and so this one wasn't constrained like a lot of those properties are, because it's often a kind of cookie cutter formula right, right and so part of a chain, and so it's not like, uh there, cookie cutter formula, right, right, it's not part of a chain, and so it's not like there was somebody saying, oh no, you have to have this many rooms or your dining space has to be this many square feet. We had that freedom to build whatever we wanted.

So essentially it's not a franchise.

Not a franchise Gotcha. Now I will say, though, after we got a few years into this, it had become quite apparent that it's very tough to drive revenue when you're not attached to one of those chains, because they pour so much marketing dollars into the industry and advertising on a whole Plus. I mean, you probably know people that are like I have my Marriott points, it's all I do because I want to accumulate my points Right, and so then here, a couple of years ago, we actually did move it over to become a Marriott property.

Gotcha yeah so.

Marriott was making some. Well, they were just looking at the market as a whole and they realized and you guys can tell me what you think, but younger travelers will kind of want really unique experiences.

Yeah.

Kind of don't you know. You don't travel to San Diego and like let's eat at Burger King. You want to go to a local place that has a local flavor and is something you can bring home and tell people.

When I'm in New York, I want to have Sbarro's, like the classic New York pizza.

It's funny you make that joke. I've actually done that Cool.

So the pennant was completed first, but started second, and then did they venture on beyond that.

Yeah, and then after that we went right into building Iron Rail brewing down there and then as soon as that was done, we were kind of then trying to get our feet kind of underneath us because we weren't super experienced restauranteurs at that point. So then we, you know, kind of stabilized those operations. Then you got hit by COVID, which was just, I would never wish that upon. My worst enemy is managing a restaurant or a hotel through COVID. But once we got through that, then it was hey, you know, we we had this taco concept that was down on Mass Street in Lawrence and we were like it's time to bring that to downtown Topeka. And so then construction on that started pretty much as soon as we were ready to bring on another restaurant.

Yeah, I've been to. Have you been to taco.

So cool.

Yeah, SDG did it too right.

Uh yeah, they did um, most of it, and then um, and then SDG also did iron rail, um, and then um, and then sdg also did iron rail, um, and then, oh, there's one other sdg. Oh, sdg did some work for us at the old at&t building downtown. So, okay, that was where we had a lot of those relationships.

I think the coolest part and I was telling my wife this when we were there the coolest part about taco. You know the food's great, you know that's awesome, you can. You know you can find good food anywhere. It's just a unique experience.

I mean not anywhere that's true, yeah, yeah, but it's just a unique experience because of the levels like it's so, it's so cool being able to eat, because the one time I went we were on the third floor and we were right by a window and so we're eating and we get to just overlook all of downtown topeka.

It was super cool yeah, yeah, it was one of those unique challenges because you the pennant was already a struggle with it being two floors because there wasn't a kitchen on each floor. Food had to be run up and down the stairs and all that.

Oh shoot Really.

Yeah, and so then the taco was like you know, it was such a smaller footprint than the pennant was, and so it was like, well, the only way to get enough seats in this place is to build up.

Right.

But then it's like like where do you put your kitchen and you know how do you get food up and down?

and all that kitchen on the middle floor it is.

There's an elevator is there a private elevator and because there's a normal elevator too, then normal, they use the normal elevator for both.

Really yeah, so they're taking, like, a cart with food into the normal elevator? Yeah, probably not carts.

They usually do trays or something right, but yeah, no, when it comes to like getting dirty dishes and stuff up and down. Yeah, wow, so Wow.

So Cyrus Hotel, Pennant, Iron Rail, Taco, AIM Strategies owns all four of those.

Yeah, and then Brent Bowles was a partner on Iron Rail, so that was what I was getting at. That was my question.

I knew he was involved somehow, I didn't know how, though, so he was like an investor or a partner in that one.

Yeah, partner in that one, yeah, cool, yeah so, and he was terrific to work with.

So, oh, that's awesome. What was at the Cyrus before the Cyrus was built, like what was in that space.

You know there was, oh geez. Um, there was a firm oh my gosh. I can't remember the name at this point, but you'll kind of understand why, um, things didn't work out for him. Because they were in the business of researching and finding press clippings for a company. So you can monitor, like your PR presence. So, you can imagine, maybe back in the day, if there are newspapers across the country printing about your organization. You might want to know what stories are out there.

And so they would literally comb through the newspapers and they would clip them out and send them, and that was the business model. The newspapers and they would clip them out and send them, and that was the business model. So, as newspapers have gone digital, they didn't really have much of a place anymore.

So do you guys remember when someone was trying to do that with your like social media online presence, you'd like sum you up with a score I forget what the name of it was, but it would be like how many followers you had on all the different social media platforms. You know, like if there were news articles, you know like what your online presence was and give you a score. And so people like I think, especially like on linkedin, trying to do things like increase their whatever they had a name, I forget, and it was popular for like two years or something, I don't know but what do you think to peak insider score is?

oh, it's like like a four. Oh, really high. Okay, yeah, you guys are killing it anyway yeah, no, it's cool.

I was just curious, what was it so?

but there was there was also a dance studio there but like you guys rebuilt. It's not like you didn't just refurbish a building, you built a new building uh, yes and no, because with the landmarks commission, we had to maintain the storefront, you know. And so what happened was is there was the building on the left side, which was 912 South Kansas Avenue. It still remains today. That is all original on there. That's where the Cyrus ballrooms are. So if you go over there and you go into the event spaces, you're in the old building there.

So if you go over there and you go into the event spaces, you're in the old building there. However, on the other side, what was attempted was to demolish the whole back part of it, but just leave the storefront and then attach the new building to the old storefront.

So is that like what the lobby and the restaurant is? It's all kind of the original shell of the storefront.

Well, yes and no again, because then what happened was is the guys came in to, you know, do all the demolition and as they started trying to brace up that brick facade and everything, uh, as they were trying to demolish and split it from the back part, it just started crumbling to pieces and it literally just fell apart, and so they ended up having to rebuild it almost exactly like how it was. Yeah, um, so it is all brand new, but it is, like to the T, what it used to be.

Yeah, how do you feel about that? Like the kind of historic commission idea of like you're not allowed to change this hundred year old building and build this new thing?

It's got some positives and some negatives. I mean right Cause there's there's a really cool and rich history that Topeka has that I think is special and needs to be preserved. But then there's also practicality. You kind of have to weigh in there too, because you know, let's say you're a small business owner that's got $50,000 in a dream, right? Well, you're probably not going to be able to look at downtown just because you're going to be in $ thousand dollars of architectural fees and just navigating the compliance aspect of, you know, developing in downtown. If you're going to be doing some significant construction of any sort, that you know it's just it's not going to happen. So it does kind of limit a lot what downtown can do. But there are some cool elements need to go in, and so I guess that's why that committee exists. The only issue is, is the commission exists purely to maintain like their job is basically to say no?

Who's bringing balance to that yeah?

Cody.

Foster is.

Well, luckily there is some checks. And there are some checks and balances there, because if the Landmarks Commission strikes it down, then you can go to city council and appeal it, Because while the commission is supposed to basically say no, because their sole job is to protect it, the city council can take into account many other factors and be like oh well, there's some huge economic development aspects of this that would benefit downtown or wherever, and so that kind of helped get us through some of those.

I just heard horror stories of, like you know New York City obviously is a very old historic place, you know, huge sprawling place, but but things like the historic commission in new york city really, really bogging things down for like this is the first you know parking structure in new york city. You can't tear it down, you're like who cares? It's like it's a parking structure, like we don't need to save that sure it's not we're saving like build something nice instead of that you know right.

So, like you know, I imagine, yes, you don't want to just like overwrite everything in in the city. Like you want some sense of history and you know heritage but, also like if it's run down and it's kind of a piece of crap, like why not build something nice you know that the city can be proud of?

yeah, and sometimes it's just not even financially viable to save some of it, I mean right you'd pay three, four times the amount to save it than you would, yeah, to just build it new or even just replace it how it was let me ask you this question and you don't have to answer it yeah, spicy well I'm gonna get right here to ask the hard-hitting questions.

But in all seriousness, you don't have to answer it. Gabe can edit it out how much money do you make? Every year.

No, I don't need to know your w2 what I am curious about is if you can tell us how much money cody has invested in each project like to you we're talking about. You know, if you have fifty thousand dollars to invest in the cyrus hotel? You know that's not going to happen, you're going to pay that in architectural fees, but you're like, yeah, cody has spent millions getting that place up. Is there certain?

I mean I would just be comfortable telling you it's in the tens of millions. So there you go. That's all we need to know For the Cyrus.

For the Cyrus yeah, that's wild. He does have a heart of gold, holy smokes.

Well, yeah, I mean, there's a lot of people out there that may, you know, be as fortunate as Cody is, and there's a lot of people that would be like man, the beach sounds really nice just to be able to relax there the rest of my life or whatever, but he's a driven dude who's so good that we're thankful to have him.

No kidding. I mean there's a reality that you know these businesses are helpful to advisors, excel, but not that much. I mean there's no doubt. And the fact that you don't I mean everyone knows of Cody Foster, but the fact that you don't really know everything he's doing and I'm sure there's lots of projects that are behind the curtains that you're like, yeah, no one will ever know, it just speaks to his heart for sure. Yeah, it does. It would be easy to you know, put your name on something. You know something, something Foster building, and you just never see him do that, which is super cool.

Yeah, that's true. Yeah, so what? What's it been like? You know you come out of college. That's a pretty cool like 10 year experience. You know, not many people get to be part of something quite like that.

Yeah, you know right, with an accounting finance degree, you know to step into something where you're getting to be a part of these huge city development projects that you know the rest of the city is like dang, this is great. We like we have this nice hotel now. Or we have this nice and you're like, yeah, I was part of that. Like what was it like? Like what do you feel like you gained from the last 10 years?

of being in that. Well, you know, I think it was a path that I never even expected myself to take. Uh, you know, when I was working at Hills, I thought, oh yeah, this is a nice corporate job and I can see myself doing this, but I would never go back now, I would never.

It's too fun and too exciting. But yeah, I don't know if I would say you know, if there was somebody young coming out of college or something like that like don't forget to look at those local business leaders, and they've all got. I mean, it's not just Cody, there's tons more than him, like you know, you talk about, you know Jim Klossman or you know Greg Schwert or you know, and so reach out to those people because I'm sure that they have things that they need great talent for. And so don't immediately think that it's like, oh, I have to go to Kansas City to find a good job or whatever. You can do some really exciting things here, writing Topeka, and and for me it just opened so many doors because I never even saw that potential in myself, and that's credit to Seth Cause. You know, I thought you know, I, I'm an accountant, I can do this. And then it was oh wait, no, I, I'm capable of so much more. And that's what happens when you just buy into people and invest in them.

So that's super cool. I love that man. I mean. I think it's so true. Like a lot of people, I think that's one of the dangers. Like you, you, you definitely want goals and you want like something to shoot for, you know. But one of the challenges of you know, asking kids you know in high school, like what's your 10 year plan, what's your five year plan it's like you don't know enough to have a five year plan you know, just like, put yourself out there in the world and see what happens.

And yeah, like have some ideas of like, hey, I'm going to work hard, I'm going in a certain direction, you know. But but to like lock yourself in for life, you know, like you don't know what opportunities might come up down the road. You know, and uh, I'm the same way. I'm doing something I never thought I'd be doing. It's, it's amazing, you know.

So, yeah, I think it's really cool. It's kind of cool Like that, uh, that Jim Carrey movie.

uh, yes, man, you know we're going to start saying yes to things. It's pretty crazy, but you know.

find more ways to say yes to those things, cause you never know where where they will lead you.

So what's? What was the most most exciting project to be a part of in your time there?

oh man, uh, exciting. I don't know, I might have a different definition of exciting, but the pennant was pretty cool just because that was the first one we got open and it was. You know, we had reached out to, uh, dave and busters because we we were looking for that kind of experience, um, where it was like, yeah, we want to have arcade games and you know, all these activities to go, go along with just some great food and things, um, but as soon as we reached out to him, they're like do you have a population of 850 000 within 50?

miles and he was like no, we don't, so we're like I guess we got to make our own. That's. That's how it works at dave and b yeah, yeah, so they know what their market is. But anyway, so we decided to make our own and Cody and Seth were like, yeah, you know old vintage arcade machines like Super Mario and Galaga and all that People would love it. So that was part of getting that project going was literally scouring the web, like you know those things you never thought that was going to be part of your job.

I need to go and try and find some old, legitimate arcade machines to get it open, because you know, we had to find those and then finding a person who can actually fix them, and then and then we were riding a bowling alley in there and that was, you know, a whole nother endeavor, learning how those work, and so, yeah, and then it was just, it was just a lot of fun. It was really crazy getting an open, cause we opened it on St Patrick's day, um, I don't know if you would have remembered that, um, but St Patrick's day parade is always a big thing downtown, and so we decided to open it on that day, which, in hindsight, probably wasn't the best idea because we had a completely green staff and man, that's a double entendre, but it

was green staff that you know were, you know big eyed, and like, OK, this is my first tables I'm taking, but we've got 500 people coming in the door when it opens, but anyway, surprise, yeah. So anyways, you know, we got through it and we learned a ton and it was. It was really exciting getting to get our feet wet with the restaurants and and then by the time we'd kind of got that place going, it was like, okay, yeah, we could do this again and it'll be a lot smoother the next time.

Yeah, I think we normally save this question towards the end, but I think you're have you'll probably have a unique perspective on this, so I want to pick your brain. Being being a Topeka native, you've seen a lot of businesses and been a part of a lot of businesses that have been started. What is something that Topeka you feel is missing? Interesting and maybe not even you know. It can maybe be conceptual. It doesn't have to be a particular business, unless you have one. Dave and Buster's.

Dave and Buster's, but sounds like there's no shop. The tenant checks that box.

Sounds like we're not getting a Dave and Buster's anytime soon. You need to have more kids.

Yeah, I don't think I have that many more kids.

Oh man, trying to think what could we really use. I know one thing is I'm you know, my wife and I we don't have any kids yet, but I know that tons of families, like, whenever they have to take kids to youth sports, they're always going to wichita or kansas city for all these ball tournaments and things, and so it feels like and even I hear from those people that it's like they go to these ball tournaments and then half the teams they play are from topeka right, and it's like if we just have the facility to facilitate those kinds of events, you're keeping a lot of families and a lot of dollars in Topeka, um, that you know are going elsewhere. So I think that's one thing, uh, especially as of late that you know I was just talking to people that I feel like has been more and more recurring, um so we had someone else give a similar answer last week.

Um, Joe, he said he's like hey, like you know, no holds bar, I had a billion dollars, what would I add in Topeka? And he's like, I would add, like a sports, you know, facility.

Yeah, like a youth sports complex. Yeah, it'd be huge. So yeah, I'm sure there's somebody working on that, so I'm sure that yeah, I'm sure the idea didn't start right here.

Yeah.

So we've only really talked about the downtown topeka. But I guess his aim strategies they were they involved in other projects around town. That yes, I mean, we know that the big ones, uh, you know the pennant, iron, rail, those kind of things, but I guess are. Are there any others?

um, there was just one really, uh, one more, which was in september of last year. We well so cody and his partner, uh dave they acquired westridge mall, and so what happened was is it was like, well, advisors isn't gonna run a mall, they've, they've got their industry, they work in. So it was like, well, you know aims, the guys that can just kind of do everything. So then we ended up managing the mall too. So that was a whole nother experience. It was like you know, uh, it was rather short notice, but it was like okay.

So they just like handed it over to you. Hey, we bought this mall.

Yeah, and at least from my perspective, it was like literally in a week's time. It was like I went from oh we're managing a mall or we're not managing a mall, to now we're managing a mall and there's 20 something employees that come along with it and all these tenants and you know a hundred lease agreements and all that from you know. It's history that you were suddenly having to sort through.

It was pretty crazy. A hundred lease agreements, that's more than I would have guessed with the mall.

Well, I mean not current but I mean, you had all this history that came with it.

So yeah, I guess talk a little bit on that. You probably know more than most about the plans for the mall. I mean, I've seen some renderings. I've seen, I've heard talks. I don't really know what's true versus what's what's fluff.

I guess. What is the the their plan for that? Well, um, I don't want to speak too much out of turn here, in case things have changed, uh, in the last two months, but, um, I know, as far as you know, when I was still with them, that the idea is that advisors would go in on the Southwest side, um, where Burlington used to be Burlington coat factory. You probably remember that was there, um, and then, uh, and that would kind of fill out that, almost that whole South side of the mall, um, and then basically consolidating the amount of tenant space down, probably removing a third of it. So there'd be about two thirds left, and if you put all of the current tenants in that much space, it's pretty much occupied.

Yeah, really, and so that was really the plan.

I just know that there were some hurdles with the anchor tenants there, whether it be Dillard's, or JCPenney's and things, because their leases were written 30, 35 years ago to protect them and making sure that the place is still desirable for those stores to exist. So I don't know if they've been able to wade through that entirely yet, but that was just somewhat they were going through when I Wow.

Yeah, that's crazy. I guess that kind of leads us into you know uh, you've made a change, you're now at STG. Uh, uh, talk us through that change. I guess what brought you over there? Why are you there? And I guess, yeah, that changed.

Yeah. So, um, I guess I wasn't scared because you know, from that history it was like, hey, whatever industry or thing that gets thrown my way, I'm I'm sure I can figure it out, or at least find some people that can maybe help me figure it out. And so, when, you know, I made a touch base with Greg. He was like, you know, I love everything you guys were doing over there at AIM and I'd love to have you part of the team. And so I went there and you know, it's been a lot of learning how, hey, this side of the business was, because on the developer side, you know, we were working with architects and engineers all the time, but you know, I wasn't in that, and so now it's okay.

What's it like to run a service company? So, you know, it's just a changing of how you know that business mindset of, oh yeah, we're not talking hamburgers and ribs and things like that, now we're talking, uh, billable hours and and, uh, you know, delivering on timelines for for our clients. So, um, but sdg um is a great firm. You know, it's been around here in topeka for gosh during 35, 40 years at this point and greg says he's gonna, you know, be at it until he kicks the bucket so he says he's not going anywhere. But yeah, it's incredibly fortunate firm to be able to be part of so many projects that have shaped Apica. I mean from things like fixing up the building up on Menager Hill and the federal home loan bank to advisors excels offices with their gauge campus yeah and all that to even the things AIM did.

You know, I still feel that connection to all these cool aspects that Topeka is developing, just in a different way.

Wait, so they worked on.

Menninger. So you know what is the building called. It's right across the street from Security Benefit oh it's on the sixth and Wanamaker Fairlawn.

Yeah, okay, so not like the, the one on the hill.

No, that hasn't been worked on yet. I think that's just still up there right. There's something probably kind of long for that.

Who owns that right now? So anyways, but SDG worked on the one at the bottom of the hill. That one is like new and nice and really great, so they remodeled it cool.

I mean we designed it and then it's now got some tenants or I know of one that's about, or trying to go in there, at least so trying to design some space for that and hypothetically SDG could be doing Manninger at the top of the hill.

Maybe All right To be determined Yep.

Yeah, no, I wouldn't be surprised. That's awesome, that is cool. You're doing a lot of the similar stuff, but just on the other side of the coin, yeah.

Cool Wow.

So what does the future look like for you man? Like you obviously came to sdg for more than just kind of a a job. Like you've got to be thinking about your future and yeah what does that look like?

well, I will say, uh, work-life balance has been a little bit better since leaving name, just because, um, restaurants and hotels never sleep, you know it's. There's always something that happens saturday night at 9 pm's like, oh God, what, what do we need to get fixed here? But, um, but that's been nice. But, uh, you know, the main thing is is, you know, greg's a guy that loves giving back to the community, um, and you can probably see that that just kind of fuels me, um, to a degree where it's less about necessarily the paycheck, or, uh, you know what kind of title I have, as in hey, am I helping Topeka become a better place? Uh, and so I think SDG does that and definitely checks that box for the check that box for me, um, but yeah, and then I've got other things too, like working still with the downtown Topeka foundation and, uh, my wife's head of business and other things that you know.

Yeah, your wife's henna business that you casually dropped has a hundred thousand followers on. I was like what kind of business has that many followers in Topeka, Kansas it's amazing, yeah she's.

She's gone viral a few times for uh, for henna work, so um yeah, no, she, she's, she's great.

Um, I will always refer to her as my better half, um, because she's beautiful. And, uh, she just got a completely different side of a brain than me. I'm the one that's, you know, accounting, finance by the book process, all this. And then she's got this amazing creative mind to where people just stick out their hand and then she'll just design something like just completely on the fly, comes up with it on the spot, and then it just looks absolutely beautiful and people love it, so that's okay.

Stg, stg, right s stg architecture plus interiors. Architectural plus interiors, if you so, maybe just personal preference, your personal. Uh, vote here if you could pick out a dream client for sgt stg I'm struggling. If you could pick out a dream client, who would you pick for you guys to do some? Do some work on like what's a building that needs it. You know, maybe has no intention of ever hiring you, but you're like, hey, we, would you talk about a client?

or a property in topeka. Let's go property. Well, it's funny you mentioned it, but really that that miniker hill, I think, is probably it's something that has a whole lot of potential that we would love to be a part of and you know, there's been some whisperings but we're we're trying to work on that and, um, it's, it's something that I think could really transform topeka from you know want to make her just kind of be in that dead end once you get up there especially at the movie theater closing all that to where now it can extend, can extend all the way up to around the river and all that.

I mean, it's a cool property. My family and I actually just walked it this morning, oh, really. We just walked past this morning which we don't do often.

Were you walking in Cedar Crest.

We walked Governor's Mansion kind of up to Cedar Crest.

Yeah, that is.

Cedar Crest Okay, yeah, yeah, the hill in the, the woods, kind of on the back side, yeah, it's beautiful, yeah, it's gorgeous, yeah, and so, uh, yeah, and my kids have never seen like up, they've never been at the top of the trail, so we walked up and and we're like hey, look at that building. You know this is what it used to be, and you know, it's a cool place.

It's an iconic skyline too the bell tower on top of the hill and it has so much history too I mean from, mean from being one of the, I guess, most esteemed, you know, psychological institutions, right Like west of the Mississippi, when it was built, when Menninger himself was such an iconic person.

I think he was so influential in the psychology world like here in the States, so I mean it's cool that that was in Topeka.

Yeah, and it's something we should celebrate.

I agree yeah.

What could that building be used for now, if? You guys got a hold of it, did what you need to do to it.

I mean, really the sky's the limit, just because of the amount of property there it's. I mean it could be any kind of multi-use development to where you know. You just imagine a whole district where things and activities and facilities you could use. Um, I think that's probably the direction it'll, it'll end up going.

I'm going to ask you a similar question. Just because you brought it up, I feel like you would be, uh, uh, you'd be one to ask so with uh, the movie theater going out of business up there, uh, what, what are we going to do with that building? What? What could be done? Uh, just hypothetically, I mean, you've been involved in a lot of development projects. Is there something you're like, dude, that would be great for this?

I never thought of that yet.

Um, I haven't gone up there too many times ever since it closed, but it's a huge building, but I guess it's not going to be a movie theater yeah, you need some.

You need some kick-ass laser tag in town or something dave and busters.

Well, someone was trying to do them all right. It's like the assault rifle style. Yeah, they did a while. Laser tag in town or something Dave and Buster's Well, someone was trying it at the mall right With. Like the assault rifle style. Yeah, they did a while back.

But I mean when it was such a sweet and the mall can only be so big and it's not like they can do the multi level stuff that makes it really fun and dynamic, but but yeah, I mean, I can imagine it being some sort of place like that. Yeah, it's got the space for that and more. It almost makes you think of like something like the main event, right, even that kisses, yeah, yeah, that would be sweet yeah.

I feel like Topeka would really rally around something like the main event, like that's kind of something that Topeka could really get behind. You know, I mean there's a lot of families with kids. I mean, like you said, youth sports it's classic like youth sports teams go do stuff on the side.

Yeah, for sure, we're all going to play laser tag, you know.

So yeah, it just you know back. Just thinking about your story, man, it kind of blows me away that how old are you? 30. You're 30 years old, yeah, and for the last 10 years you spent what I would consider in someone your field to be kind of a dream job. I don't know if that's how you feel.

Oh yeah, I feel extremely fortunate, and it wasn't all you know, just me. There's luck and other things that come along with it.

Yeah, yeah I mean, yeah, it's opportunity Plus. I mean you worked really hard and you're good at your job. You know all those things. Um, I'm not necessarily trying to, you know, pigeonhole you for like how you got the job or something like that, but just it's cool to me that you had 10 years of experience doing like what seems to be pretty high level stuff in the city of topeka, like you know how many finance majors or or you know accounting majors get to be a part of you know building development projects in the city of Topeka that are iconic spots. You know it's not just like some random restaurant, it's the pennant. It's not just some random hotel, it's the Cyrus you know, and it's funded by Cody Foster.

It's not like some random thing you know and so. So it just seems like you know, you're kind of getting set up, like you have this 10 years of experience. Get like like even just your ability to talk with us about you know property development and like, oh, we could go multi-zone here. I'm like I don't know many 30 year olds who are able to talk like that about. You know the city where they live and potential projects and what our city needs more of on that level. You know what I'm saying.

Yeah, I mean, it's just, you know, be involved in the community. You know, if you're somebody that's, you know, hanging around the house and it's like, well, there's nothing going on in Topeka, there's a ton going on. You just got to get out and talk to people or, in my instance, get lucky with a position, like I did. But you know, if you go out there and put yourself out there, the doors will open and there's so much going on in this town and even if it's just events and festivals, like you know, things like the chocolate festival that even just happened a couple weeks ago, or the air show, like you know, you can't say there's not much going on in Topeka when we got things like that going on.

No kidding, and so cool.

And? But you know you just talk about it with people, right, like it's hard for any one, I guess team, to get the word out to everybody about everything.

Sure you know, and I know a lot of people look to the GTP to kind of be that. But you know, there's so many ways people interact with media and it might be on their phone or maybe they check in on WIBW or whatever. It might be on their phone or maybe they check in on WIBW or whatever. But some of the best thing is just talk with your neighbors or talk with your friends and be like hey, did you know this is going on in town? Yeah, you know, you'll get that word out and we can celebrate the things Topeka has and you'll end up probably getting connected in some way or another and you can get involved with them.

That's great. We kind of answer this question and I'll just see if you have anything else you'd like to add to that. If not, we can just checkmark the question and move on. But it seems like there's kind of two levels at which someone could be involved in making the city better. And you have, you know, people with vision and money and the skills to build new things and, you know, put new businesses in and build new properties and things like that. At the lower level you have people who are just like participating in the city and buying into it and, you know, helping things flourish in that kind of way. What would you say to just kind of an average person in the city who wants their city to be better? But maybe you know, hey, how do I things? You know, routine things. Topeka is known for Um but then it's beyond.

I'd say beyond that, um, you know it might sound crazy, but like, just call them up or send them an email and if you've got like ideas or anything, um, I'm telling you the best business people and collaborators will work with whatever opportunities they have. And so, uh, you know and Cody is a great instance of that I don't know that there's a person that would walk through his door, that he would turn away Like he would be like, oh, what do you have to say? Um, and you know these people will listen to you. And it's not like I sometimes say Topeka is the biggest small town there is, Right, Because it really I feel like I forget that it's one hundred and thirty thousand ish people all the time, because word gets around so quick in this town and there's such a tight knit community that it doesn't doesn't feel like that way sometimes. So, yeah, you probably have seen it, cause you said you moved here five years ago five years ago.

I mean, once you start talking to one person, it's like oh yeah, they're this person's cousin or their uncle started this business or whatever. And then you know, suddenly you start connecting all these dots and you kind of understand this fabric that Topeka has become, so uh yeah, I am, it's amazing.

Well, I'll just say one more thing, and then maybe we can go to uh, love it, um, our rapid fire, rapid fire questions. Uh, I just it's interesting and I'm not trying to like hype you up man, I really I'm not, but I just hype him up, john.

I think it's an interesting lesson that I think other people could learn from. You know, from just your story of like hearing, like how you're making decisions you're making. It's interesting to me like you have this pretty sick job for 10 years and then you I love the comment you made that you're like, hey, I'm ready for new one, you're ready for a new challenge, which I think is not how a lot of people are thinking that probably need to be like, hey, here's a new challenge you need to embrace, like get out of your comfort zone, but two, you weren't afraid because you knew you had not just a good job, but you had the skills to do something in a new opportunity. And I think a lot of people mistake those two things. They think like, hey, a job is the security that I need instead of the skills that I'm developing are the security to bring about whatever opportunity I want in the future.

Yeah, right, yeah, you're definitely right.

Where, like you know. So I think a lot of people get locked in where like, hey, maybe they didn't get some certain job they were hoping for, maybe out of college or something, and like, oh, my future's over. Well, no, not, if you developed the skills to create opportunities and take advantage of opportunities, because at that point you can go anywhere and do anything and you're going to grow and you're going to have a great experience, and then new doors will continually open to you because of the skills you developed. Like you said, like I know that I can pull the right people in to help on some project or whatever, and I can do this and this, and I can, you know, do this and this, and so, anyway, I just wanted to highlight that because I think that's a cool thing that not a lot of people understand, you know, for maybe people out there feeling like stuck, you know, in your job.

You're like hey are you working on the skills to take advantage of opportunities in the future?

And I'm wondering was it you and I who spoke? I don't know if it was you and I who spoke, but you several times, how you got lucky. You know, I got lucky, I got this job and was it you.

I think you brought this up.

Yeah, where you know luck is when preparation meets opportunity, and you know you were prepared. You had the NBA, you were disciplined in your work and you know you clearly showed it was Seth who called you. Was it Seth? You know there's your opportunity, but he didn't call you because you know you were lucky.

He called you because you were prepared and you were the man for the job and the opportunity found you and then felt lucky. But I mean you can, you can prepare and just wait for your opportunity to come. But if you're not ready for it, then you know luck will never find you.

Yeah, I think what you're speaking to is a lot of what I think. In Washburn there was terminology for it. It's called being an intrapreneur, which is you take that entrepreneurial mindset but apply it within a company.

Essentially, OK, sure, and so it's like you know, don't always just paint yourself into a box saying, hey, I'm this role in this company and I'm, you know, just only supposed to do this. You know, I bet, if you go to your boss and it's like, hey, I see an opportunity for us to go, yeah X to your boss and it's like, hey, I see an opportunity for us to go X or Y or whatever.

And then, um, they'll often be like hey, you know what, Go for it, See, see how far you can get with it. Or they may say it's a dumb idea. But the worst, they'll say, is no Right and uh but then but then that's when you expand those horizons and you develop those skillsets and suddenly it's like oh yeah, no, I'm overseeing this whole. You know, maybe additional department or something that ended up getting formed in the company because you saw that opportunity and decided to just take your shot on it.

Right, because what boss doesn't want their company to be?

successful.

Yeah Right, it's like hey, I have an idea for how our company can be more successful. No, we don't do that, yeah. Yeah, sometimes they're like fear of change. You're because you're like, you know you're afraid to like screw up the success you currently have. But like if you're like hey, there's a problem, I'd like to solve the problem. Who doesn't want that, you know? Yeah, so it's so good.

Absolutely Rapid fire. Hit them some rapid fire, All right. All right, let's do it. You're doing a home project Lowe's Menards.

Home.

Depot.

Where are you going? It was Home Depot for the longest time, but for some reason I've started going to Lowe's recently, so okay. Yeah, I feel like that's me.

I win that one. Yeah, I think you do.

I'm a big Menards guy. He's a big Home Depot guy. Actually, he's a big everything but Menards guy.

It's kind of annoying though the rebates and all that, Just to just tell me what I need to pay for it 100 as one of many reasons, one of many, whatever one of these three, yeah, all right, go to local coffee shop in topeka.

I'm not gonna be able to answer that because I'm not a coffee drinker at all, that's fair but uh, I've, there are definitely some great local options. So, whatever, I just tell people, as I say don't go to starbucks, don't go, just go to something that's local yeah, cool um go to date night spot hmm well, my wife and I do love the pennant. Um, we have gone there many times. Um, man, that's, that's probably it. I mean, we end up going there more times do you bowl at the pennant or are you?

just kind of a yeah, usually we just dine there and then it'll be. If we have extra time it'll be. Hey, let's play some arcades.

Yeah.

And then I get way too competitive and she doesn't like that necessarily. It's just kind of hardwired into me it's quiet right home.

What's your favorite local restaurant that maybe people don't okay? How about we say favorite non-aim local restaurant.

Yeah, good job, yeah I, I would say probably tuptim tie okay, let's go, I love it's not, it's definitely not a secret. But I mean you have somebody from. You know. If you have family or something traveling from out of town, take them to Tufton Thai and sometimes I bet they will say, you know, I may come from big city like Chicago and they'd be like that is some damn good Thai food. We should be celebrating that, because it is really really good. Yeah, do you golf?

I don't at all, so you don't have a favorite golf course. No, okay, that's fair too. Um, um, what would you? What's why they already asked you what Topeka is missing? Um, what is something you would change about Topeka? Where are? This is not really a rapid fire question, but what are some faults Topeka has that you wish you know were different?

I, I think we still struggle with a self-perception issue. Yeah, where, where you know, and it's come a long ways. I mean, I can remember what it was like when I was getting out of high school and it seemed like every single kid was like I'm getting out of Topeka as soon as I could. Yeah, and it's come a long way since then, but I still feel like there is still a significant portion that feels like oh yeah, it's justeka or um, you know, I wish I would be somewhere else, but this is where I am, um, but if you just embrace it, I, I promise things will come your way and you know you'll. You'll be just getting grained with this community and it's it's hard not to fall in love with.

Cool, it's true. How many potholes on the way here.

See, I'm not one of those people that count the potholes. I'm like you know it's tough, I understand we get hard winters here. It's hard to keep concrete looking fresh and new. That's probably the best answer we've gotten Spoken like a developer. I mean you know you pave that road in SoCal and you know they get what maybe freezing temperatures once a year, if that, or a couple years, when it's nice and sunny, it's hard for things to crack because it's not expanding and contracting all the time that is spoken like a developer.

Is there anything else in Topeka you're excited about we didn't ask you about? Oh, man.

I think it's still for that next level for downtown to take. It's gone through a lot of development, but a lot of it has been on the shoulders of AIM and a couple others. I think it'll be huge once you start seeing some of the more established you know we talk like a Dave and Buster's Once those kind of companies start seeing, oh, there's an opportunity downtown, and once housing like new market rate housing starts going in downtown, that that's a signifier that this thing's really going to take off Sure. And so you know it's. It's tough to look at it from a perspective like, hey, it still may take 15 years to get there or whatnot, but just you, just keep. You know you can only eat an elephant one bite at a time.

So yeah, absolutely Cool. Well, where can people find you? Are you on social media? I guess you're working for SDG.

Yeah, so um short design group is where you'll find me if I'm not at home or doing a DIY project with my wife, or something like that. So, um, yeah, you can always email me. Uh, my contact information should be up on the website and uh yeah I'm always around topeka you'll see me at the events because I I'll do what I preach, which is support local things and, uh, try and just help this place be better.

So thank you, cool don. Thanks for being with us.

Appreciate it yeah thank you for having me. You guys are awesome, so cool.