Each year, Midwest Real Estate News elects a new class into its Commercial Real Estate Hall of Fame. Here’s a look at one of our newest inductees, Mike Bell, senior vice president with Hunt Midwest in Kansas City, Missouri.
Senior Vice President Mike Bell leads Hunt Midwest’s CRE division and is responsible for the overall growth and management of the company’s industrial leasing, property management, construction, mission critical and development services.
An architectural engineer by training, Bell has more than 27 years of experience in the construction, design and development aspects of CRE, including more than 12 years at Hunt Midwest, during which time the company’s commercial holdings have grown exponentially. He has overseen the company’s expansion into the Southeast U.S. and helped attract the first hyper-scale data center company to Missouri, which will be built on 300 acres at the Hunt Midwest Business Center.
For Bell, the most enjoyable part of the business is that it affords him the opportunity to work with businesses and people from many walks of life to find new ways to solve problems each day. “Every day is different,” he said. “You’re always solving a new problem, and I get to do it alongside some of the smartest, most creative experts in the industry.”
Under Bell’s leadership, SubTropolis, already the world’s largest underground business complex, has grown from 4.7 million square feet of space to more than 7.8 million square feet of space with plans to expand up to 14 million square feet in the coming decade. Bell was integral to the construction of SubTropolis Technology Center, a mission critical development with up to 100MW of power capacity. Bell also has led the company’s development of the 2,500-acre Hunt Midwest Business Center, which already includes 1.2 million square feet of space completed or under construction and will swell to 3.2 million total square feet once completed. He also is integral to the new 3,300-acre KCI 29 Logistics Park, which will include up to 20 million square feet of industrial space once built out.
What makes Bell a leader in the business? His key to success is listening, a skill he learned from a young age while helping in his parents’ gift shops. Solving customers’ problems to win their business was the focus, which is the mindset that remains at the core of his business today.
“Listening to others with more experience and expertise in a given subject to absorb their lessons and apply them to my work,” Bell said.” Listening without preconceived notions to what somebody wants to accomplish and working to find a solution that can help them meet their need, even when others say it will take too much time or is too hard. You never know who may have the right answer to a particular problem, so it’s critical to approach every day with the willingness to truly listen and learn.”
Bell is a member of the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors and previously served as chairman for the Associated Builders and Contractors. He’s also a member of the Kansas City Area Development Council, KC SmartPort, AFCO Mand 7×24 Exchange, CCIM, IMN and NAOIP. He previously served as chairman for the Church of the Resurrection Board of Trustees when the congregation undertook a $92 million expansion in Leawood, Kansas.
Outside of work, Bell is likely playing hockey. “I have ice in my veins after growing up an avid hockey player in Michigan,” he said. “I’ve always been very competitive and still play center every week on an adult recreation league team here in Kansas City. As much as I love the speed of the game and the camaraderie of our team, I must admit there’s nothing better than setting up a teammate to score or putting the puck in the back of the net myself. But the best treat of all has been sharing the ice with my son, who joined our team recently.”
