Bledsoe Rentals' two locations in Olathe, Kan., and Kansas City, Mo., were growing and doing well in their areas. So why did Tom Fouts go through all the headaches and build a greenfield location in suburban Lee's Summit, Mo.? To stay competitive, keep growing his business and fulfill a dream.

"I have wanted to build my own store even before I bought out my father-in-law," Fouts says. "I wanted to build something I could say was my baby from birth on, and that's what I have done with Lee's Summit." He just completed the building of the new location.

Fouts bought out his father-in-law, Gene Chambers, in 1988 after managing that Kansas City store for six years. A month later, he bought out Chambers' brother's store in Olathe. On New Year's Day 1998, Fouts took possession of the old Lee's Summit location.

Fouts had several reasons for expanding now. He paid off his debt from one of his other stores, freeing up available cash. "I have been blessed with people who were ready to manage," he says. "But I had no place to put them."

The economy was favorable and the area of Lee's Summit was on the verge of major growth. The zoning and location he found were right in the heart of this new growth area and the price of the land was within his budget.

Growth projections for Lee's Summit's Douglas Street Corridor were an "intricate part" of Fouts' decision to build where he did. "The planning commission gave me a chart of all of the area right around me that shows tremendous growth during the next three years."

Construction is booming down the road from Fouts' new store. Businesses including Applebee's, Burger King, a 16-theater cinema, a hospital and a bank are going in right down the street. The city of Lee's Summit also just built a new police station and municipal courthouse on the same side of the street as Bledsoe Rentals.

In 1993, the Lee's Summit Economic Development Council (LSEDC) set a short-term capital investment goal of $250 million - and a long-term goal of $500 million. The council hoped this would add 3,000 new jobs by 1998.

The Web site, <leessummit.org>, touts Lee's Summit as the "third largest, fastest growing city in Missouri," and encourages businesses to relocate to the area. The population of Lee's Summit is about 60,000 and growing by 800 per month. The city's schools are growing by more than 550 children per year, according to Fouts. The city has a lot of vacant land and many plans to build within the next two years. Fouts feels Lee's Summit is "well balanced with industry, retail and residential."

Fouts expects the business to "double again this second year," and, in the booming community of Lee's Summit, that is one expectation he feels sure of. Business at his Olathe and Kansas City locations is already booming.

Fouts' old Lee's Summit location was land-locked on a small lot, on a rather "quiet street" in the old section of town. For Fouts to keep his business growing, plus add the inventory needed to compete with the major competitor in his area, he had "no choice but to move.

"We are much more visible now, have room to display our equipment properly, and have moved into the high-growth area of our community instead of the declining area we moved from," Fouts says.

Why not just remodel an existing building? "I built on a greenfield area because there was no existing facility available in the area with the right zoning," he says. "Plus, I didn't want to have to make do with someone else's idea of what a building should be.

"Rental centers today have come a long way in building their image to a professional one, and while revamping an existing building to your needs is often cheaper, you are always making do with some deficiencies of the facility," he adds.

"Another reason to build on a greenfield location is to catch a prime growing area while you can and get the land at a decent price," says Fouts. "The price on this land will go up in a few years."

Fouts came up with the plan for the Lee's Summit location and went from there. Fouts' reward is knowing the facility is his design. "When people come in and tell you how great it is, it makes me feel great," says Fouts.

The challenge for Fouts was not finding a booming area in which to build, but to comply with all of the city's regulations and requirements.

"The most frustrating thing is trying to figure out how to get everything approved by the city," says Fouts. "If I had tried to general contract this myself, I think I would have given up out of frustration. My builder kept calming me down as the city would come up with some new requirement that was going to cost me money. He said to just be patient and it will work out."

Fouts advice to someone looking into building a greenfield location:

"Plan on approval taking twice as long as you think it will," he says. "[Because] city governments have so many different departments that have to confirm your plans, it will take several revisions to meet their needs."

According to Fouts, in Lee's Summit the city planning commission sets restrictions that are approved by the city council and enforced on building projects by the community development department. During construction, Fouts also dealt with the fire department, planning commission and the street department.

The fire department was concerned about the safety of the propane tanks and self-contained fuel tanks. Fouts installed FireGuard fuel tanks, which cost more than standard containment tanks, but eliminate the need for containment. He also had a concrete wall constructed around three sides of his propane station - the front is blocked by a locked chain-link fence.

"The fire department was deadset against the propane refilling, and was only going allow us to do an exchange program," says Fouts. "The exchange program is too expensive for us to be competitive with the other refilling stations the city already has. We ended up building concrete walls around three sides of the propane tanks, fencing the front plus putting 6-inch steel pipes in front of the fence.

"Count on doing an environmental survey [to the tune of $2,500]. Let your architect and builder fight the battles, but you need to be there to be sure they don't give in on features you feel are necessary," Fouts says. "Have your attorney also attend city planning meetings for you. He will stay much calmer than you will with the challenging questions."

Fouts also had to comply with regulations regarding landscaping, storing his rental inventory outdoors and outside storage tanks.

"While we are zoned M1 [light industrial], that did not include outside storage of rental equipment," says Fouts. "We had to get a variance for that. We went several rounds with the city planners during plan development."

Fouts had to follow a strict landscape plan in order to comply with city regulations. The city even told him what type of trees and bushes he should plant. "We pretty much had to stick with the variety of trees they told us to," Fouts says. "In fact, originally we were going to put Scotch pines in and they said you can't have Scotch pines because they're subject to a blight and they will die in about 10 years, so we had to put white pines in instead.

"They have required me to plant 39 trees, and more than 60 bushes to help screen the lot," he says. "I had to put in a wrought-iron fence around the front and a wood privacy fence on the side. I had to provide a sprinkler system and present a tree care plan. Last spring, the city voted to impose a road-use excise tax on all new businesses. They came up with a formula book about 60 pages long, and it is so hard to read, that only they can tell you how much you are going to have to pay for this tax. We were lucky and only had to pay a little under $4,000. My builder said a convenience store or restaurant may have to pay as much as $50,000. Yet, this was another expense we hadn't counted on originally when I hired a financial consultant to help me do projections for the area. Every time we had to resubmit plans to the city planning commission there was a $150 fee. I had to hire an attorney to represent my interests at the city council."

Fouts, because of heavy suggestion from the city, tried to match his building with the architecture of the building next door. In fact, Fouts contracted with the same company that built that building.

The light fixtures illuminating the lot originally were installed 18 feet high. The planning commission officials felt the lights were at a dangerous level and conflicted with stoplights, so Fouts had to lower his lights.

Fouts designed the building with the wash bay inside. "We made it big enough where they can get a 15-foot moving van to fit in here," says Fouts. "We can wash everything down. It's kind of nice to have that indoors." Fouts says the city liked the fact that it is inside. "They didn't want a wash rack outside because of the way it looks."

The city required that Fouts build a wood fence around part of the lot to "hide the equipment." He also was required to install concrete columns rather than standard steel fence posts, which of course, cost more money.

Fouts also put in a wrought-iron fence around the front of the building rather than a regular chain-link one, because he felt it was more secure. The city liked the idea because officials believe wrought iron looks better than chain-link and, according to the city, chain-link tends to throw off a glare and can impede drivers.

Fouts was thinking ahead when he devised his building plan and left open land behind the building, just in case he ever wants to expand. Although the cost of developing that land is pretty expensive, he likes having the option to expand as a possibility.

The city also put regulations on the Bledsoe Rentals monument sign next to the road. Fouts was able to put changeable letters on it only because he went with opaque letters, which are reversed.

"The sign along the road was restricted to a monument sign not more than 6 feet tall by 12 feet long," says Fouts. "They also have a certain amount of square feet of signage allowed on the building.

"The only way they let me have a reader-board section on the monument sign was to have an opaque background. The standard white background with black letters would never have been approved."

Many of these restrictions are being imposed along the Douglas Street Corridor because of the upscale quality of business the city is trying to develop in that area. Fouts says the restrictions are already harder today than when he first started construction. "Again, timing is key," he says. "Had we waited, we may have had a lot more expense meeting the latest restrictions.

"Some people come in and even say, 'This is too nice for a rental store.' My response is, 'Why shouldn't a rental store be nice?'"

Bledsoe's interior design was coordinated by Greg Gorman of GMG Design of St. Louis, a seminar speaker at the 1998 A.R.A. Convention and Rental Trade Show in Orlando, Fla., and a contributor to Rental Management's "Competitive Management" section.

Gorman implemented elements such as grid lighting, metal tracked counters, airport-like drop counters and large graphics on the walls. He even suggested Fouts use cabinet knobs shaped like flathead and hexhead screws. He recommended Fouts keep the showroom open rather than using a drop ceiling. He kept the pipes exposed and had them painted. The drop lighting and grids also were Gorman's design.

Bledsoe's showroom has a professional, yet "toolish" feel. Fouts also had an epoxy floor installed to save on wear and tear. He says it is easy to clean and only needs to be recoated every 15 years and not replaced. Fouts and his wife and business partner, Debbie, decided on the interior design in the office areas and bathrooms.

Moving to a new location doesn't necessarily mean your clients will move with you. Fouts has a marketing plan in place and plans to beef it up to draw those customers to the new location.

"We have only moved about two miles from the old location, so I don't really think we will lose too many of our existing customers," he says. "However, as we are in a fast growing community, the need for continuing marketing is going to be as much a part of our business as buying equipment. I don't feel that most rental centers market themselves very well.

I know of many centers that don't do anything except the Yellow Pages.

"While Yellow Pages gets people who are aware of the value of renting, it fails to make the other six out of 10 people that have never rented want to do business with you. If I can just get that figure down to five out of 10, my business will see tremendous growth.

"Marketing your business, no matter where you are located, has to be a No. 1 priority in today's fast pace. People will forget you if you don't keep telling them your story," Fouts adds.

"I have been blessed with very dedicated people," Fouts says. "But if I was going to keep them, I had to grow in order to provide them with the grow room they needed and deserved."

Fouts' staff includes Larry Solovic, general manager, and Jerry Harris, manager of the new Lee's Summit location. Solovic and Harris were

both involved in the building process. Solovic has been working for Fouts since 1981, and is in charge of operations. He sees that "individual store managers stay on track with how we want the business to run," according to Fouts. Harris started at the original Lee's Summit Rental, now the new Bledsoe Rentals, 28 years ago.

For Fouts, his family and his team of employees, the Lee's Summit Bledsoe Rentals location has been a project from the beginning, but a project of their very own. And one to be proud of.