Editors’ Note

As President and CEO of Hunt Midwest, Ora Reynolds leads the Kansas City-based real estate development company owned by the Lamar Hunt family. Reynolds’ community service stretches from corporate boards to numerous charitable and civic organizations. She serves on the executive committee of the Kansas City Area Development Council, on the advisory board of Commerce Bank, and as a member of the KU Advancement board. She is also the immediate past chair of the board for Starlight Theater. Reynolds is a graduate of Indiana University in Bloomington with a bachelor’s degree in finance.

Company Brief

Hunt Midwest (huntmidwest.com) is a real estate development company with over 50 years of development, construction, and management experience in a wide range of projects including industrial, commercial, mission critical, self-storage, residential, multifamily, senior living, mixed-use, and SubTropolis, the world’s largest underground business complex. Hunt Midwest is a privately held, Kansas City, Missouri-based company that is the area’s largest full-service real estate development firm. With over one billion dollars of development projects in Kansas City and Dallas/Fort Worth, Hunt Midwest has grown exponentially since 1985.

Will you highlight the history and heritage of Hunt Midwest?

Hunt Midwest is a Kansas City-based, privately held real estate development company with nearly $2 billion of projects completed or under development in multiple geographic markets. Our expertise spans multiple real estate sectors from industrial and self-storage to single-family, multifamily, and senior living communities. Hunt Midwest is one of the pillars of the Lamar Hunt Family’s holdings, along with other marquee brands including the Kansas City Chiefs, FC Dallas, Chicago Bulls, Hunt Southwest, and Trinity Hunt.

Our founder, Lamar Hunt, brought professional football to Kansas City in 1963. After developing a deep connection with the fans, he chose to reinvest in the community. That included iconic mainstays within Kansas City, such as SubTropolis, Worlds and Oceans of Fun, and ultimately, Hunt Midwest. As Hunt Midwest’s President & CEO, it’s important for me to continue this investment in the community through advocacy for all that makes Kansas City a better place to live, work and play.

How do you define Hunt Midwest’s culture and mission?

Hunt Midwest’s mission is to advance the legacy of the Lamar Hunt Family and to better the communities we serve through excellence in real estate development. Quality, integrity, safety, service – these are all traits woven into our corporate culture and in the quality of work we deliver. As stewards of the Lamar Hunt Family name, we take a long-term approach to business because a project is always more than just another project to us. As a highly collaborative team with a deep bench of expertise, we merge institutional knowledge with innovative ideas to honor our roots and build a brighter future.

A significant part of Hunt Midwest’s heritage is how deeply we’re embedded in Kansas City. Our culture and legacy have become intertwined with Kansas City, as we’ve contributed to the development of its industrial and residential landscape and committed ourselves to community and civic engagement over the last six decades.

Hunt Midwest is deeply engaged in supporting the communities it serves. Will you highlight this effort and do you see it as a responsibility for leading companies today to be a force for good in society?

A mentor once used a three-word mantra that I think is central to how we approach community involvement. It’s the three T’s: Time, Talent, and Treasure. We give our time where our people volunteer, whether it’s through Harvesters, United Way, or the thousands of hours that we’ve committed to the Groundhog Run benefiting Ability KC over the last 30 years. We share our talent by leading boards, chambers, and economic development agencies, and helping those organizations flourish. We share our treasure by fundraising and donating millions of dollars to important initiatives that serve our community.

As a firm, we support causes that improve the overall well-being of our community: the arts, world-class healthcare, education, economic development, safety net organizations and the list goes on. Our partnerships with Starlight Theatre, the University of Kansas Health System, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Goodwill, Project Cure, Powell Gardens, the American Heart Association, and local school districts – to name just a few – all highlight Hunt Midwest’s commitment to giving back to the communities that we’ve helped to build through the years.

Leading companies have a responsibility to be agents of change and lead with integrity. Because of our history and our impact, Hunt Midwest is seen as a trusted partner in shaping the region. We achieve that impact through our industry experience, our sense of stewardship, and our focus on legacy. When people look at Hunt Midwest, they see the Lamar Hunt Family; and they see how Kansas City’s commercial and residential built environment has improved over time. It’s our charge to transform landscapes in ways that continue to positively impact our community.

What interested you in assuming the role of Board Co-Chair of the Kansas City Area Development Council and what has made KCADC so effective in its work?

KCADC’s mission of bringing new companies and talent to the region is integral to Hunt Midwest’s purpose, and it’s a cause that’s important to me as a leader. New companies that come to the region lease real estate in our industrial parks; utilize our data center spaces for their technology; employ talent that buy homes in our single-family communities or rent apartments in our multifamily projects; and take advantage of our climate-controlled self-storage. Our company wants to see this region grow and succeed, and KCADC shares Hunt Midwest’s vision for enhancing the economic prosperity of the Kansas City region.

KCADC has been a long-time partner to Hunt Midwest based on its focus on industry verticals that are important to us – whether it’s KC SmartPort (supply chain and logistics), animal health and biosciences, biopharma, or cybersecurity. Over the years, KCADC has attracted more than 60,000 jobs to the area which has helped to cement Kansas City’s reputation as a top destination for talent and businesses. KCADC has also been central in attracting significant resources – such as Meta, the NFL draft and potentially the FIFA World Cup in 2026 – and in strengthening relationships throughout the region.

KCADC’s strategic approach is highly effective. In addition to a tenacious work ethic, their team has some of the most talented economic development professionals in the country. They do an incredible job of collaborating with our regional partners and in creating alignment with other civic organizations. As incoming Co-Chair of the KCADC Board of Directors, I am thrilled to work with the KCADC team to continue building upon our regional success story.