Wichita businesses voice optimism in face of not-so-rosy economic outlook

Many of the businesspeople in the audience at Wichita State University’s economic forecast Thursday agreed it seemed right on – but maybe not for their business.

And that’s a good thing.

Jeremy Hill, director of WSU’s Center for Economic Development and Business Research, delivered the disappointing prediction that Wichita area would grow 3,360 jobs, or just a 1.1 percent bump in employment – fewer than Kansas and far fewer than the U.S.

It follows five years of even less impressive job growth. The city has added 10,000 jobs since 2011.

Hill spent a lot of time dissecting how and why the Wichita metro area hasn’t produced a robust rebound. It wasn’t a surprise for many of the more than 650 in the room.

Rachel Tate is area manager for Express Employment Professionals, an agency that places both full-time employees and contract workers with companies.

In good times her company places more full-time workers, and in less good times, more temporary and contract workers. This year, clients kept asking for contract workers. They wanted to be able to shed them easily if they had to.

She doesn’t expect that to improve dramatically in 2016.

“It was not as good as I was hoping for,” she said of Hill’s presentation, “but it wasn’t anything I didn’t expect.”

Becky Tuttle, of HealthICT, an affiliate of the Medical Society of Sedgwick County, agreed she wasn’t surprised, but found the news motivating, rather than discouraging.

“I don’t think its depressing,” she said. “It provides us additional opportunities. We all know that things could be better and, if we all focus, together we can make that happen.”

Brian Baker owns Advertising Images, a very small firm that makes very large digital signs along highways. He put up the one just west of Kellogg and I-135.

It’s a business with a big future, he said, but it hasn’t fully arrived, yet. It’s been a bit of a slog, but now he is seeing demand and prices increase. Will next year be even better?

“Definitely hope so,” he said. “We’re optimistic.”

But quite a few business owners Thursday said they expected to do a lot better than the Wichita economy – and a big reason is they also do business in faster growing markets.

Builders Plus Construction does work across Kansas. CEO Chris Callen said the private commercial construction business has started to thaw after years in suspended animation. People with projects put on hold since the recession are calling him again.

He hopes to do better in 2016 than the 8 percent growth he expects this year.

“Cautious optimism: those are the words I hear over and over,” he said. “But it’s so much better than it has been.”

Gary Oborny, president of Wichita-based Occidental Management, said that he is developing properties he bought at bargain prices in the bad times. He has very large projects going in the Kansas City area, as well as the Union Station project, among others, in Wichita.

“The last three years we had growth of 141 percent,” he said. “So I would say yes we are (growing faster than Wichita), but that’s because we isolate particular opportunities and work in a range of markets. Kansas City is growing at a high rate right now.”

And then there’s Carlos Fernandez, co-founder of Clutch Studio, a start-up mobile application development house. His business model: Connect with app entrepreneurs nationwide, produce a prototype and rely on those entrepreneurs to raise the money to produce it and market it.

“The exponential growth for Clutch Studio seems very, very promising,” Fernandez said. “We’ve got a lot of clients from the Silicon Valley. We call ourselves East and West Coast quality at Midwest pricing.”

Their three-man shop did eight apps so far this year that are now on the market and hope to do 25 next year.

“With the growth going the way it’s been going, so far, and with the mobile ideas that have been coming to us, we’ve been building relationships with plenty of entrepreneurs who are out there seeking funding,” Fernandez said. “So next year seems really, really good for us.”

This story was originally published October 1, 2015 at 8:58 PM with the headline "Wichita businesses voice optimism in face of not-so-rosy economic outlook."