This December, Midwest Real Estate News will unveil the members of the third Midwest Real Estate News Commercial Real Estate Hall of Fame. Here is a look at one of the class’ newest members, GregoryWayne Swetnam from Kansas City’s Kessinger/Hunter & Company. For profiles of all 70-plus members of our most recent Hall of Fame class, be sure to read our print edition available in December.
Gregory Wayne Swetnam Principal, director of office brokerage Kessinger/Hunter & Company, LC Kansas City, Mo.
Think of a major commercial development that’s hit Kansas City during the last 20 years. The odds are high that Gregory Wayne Swetnam was involved.
Swetnam, principal and director of office brokerage for Kansas City, Mo.-based Kessinger/Hunter & Company, has closed some of the biggest commercial real estate deals in Kansas City and its surrounding areas.
Consider Swetnam’s recent history. He helped bring H&R Block’s new world headquarters building to Kansas and was a key player in the deal that brought the headquarters of restaurant chain Applebee’s from Lenexa, Kan., to Kansas City.
Swetnam’s most important contribution? He’s never too busy to share his advice with newer commercial brokers. These brokers couldn’t ask for a better teacher.
“He is a great mentor to younger brokers in the office,” said one nominator of Swetnam. “Greg is the subject of great respect within the Kansas City brokerage community.”
Not surprisingly, Swetnam has earned many honors during his commercial real estate career, a career that started in 1983 with Coldwell Banker Commercial Real Estate. During his tenure with CBRE, Swetnam ranked as a member of the company’s top five producers in the Kansas City commercial office for eight consecutive years. During three of his years, he ranked as the top producer in that office.
Swetnam has also earned, twice, the Home Run Award given by the Kansas City Regional Association of Realtors as Kansas City’s top broker. He has been selected as one of the top-three office brokers in the Kansas City metropolitan area from 1994 to 2011.
Despite this success, Swetnam also finds time to give back to both his industry and his community. He is a member of the Kansas City Regional Association of Realtors and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. He has been a board member with this latter group from 2000 through the present. He served the research foundation as president in 2005.
“He is an outstanding member of the community and is passionate about the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation,” said one of Swetnam’s nominators.
