News

Kourtney Graham and Kevin Martin have joined Kadean Construction as Project Development Manager and Project Director, respectively. Both will be based at the design-build commercial construction contractor’s St. Louis headquarters.

Kourtney joins Kadean’s Business Strategy team and will be primarily focused on seeking out and securing new construction projects in the St. Louis region, working in partnership with the contractor’s in-house design team to lead customers successfully through the pre-construction process.  She has more than 13 years of experience in the construction industry and comes to Kadean from Western Specialty Contractors, where she was Business Development Manager.  Kourtney is a member of Commercial Real Estate Women, Associated General Contractors of Missouri, Urban Land Institute, Building Owners and Managers Association, Institute of Real Estate Management, and International Facilities Management Association.

 Kevin joins Kadean’s Operations team and will be responsible for local and national project oversight, working together with the Project Management team to ensure projects are delivered successfully­­­­­­­­­­­­.  He has more than 40 years of building design and construction industry experience, including robust experience in mechanical and electrical systems that will bolster Kadean’s ability to focus on projects with more complexity during preconstruction and during the build.  Kevin previously worked for The Opus Group, where he was Senior Project Manager.  

“We’re extremely excited to have Kevin and Kourtney join the St. Louis office.  Both construction veterans add to our continued focus and commitment to local clients and growth.” Said Mike Eveler, President of Kadean Construction.

Kadean Construction is a 59-year-old design-build focused commercial construction company specializing in pre-construction, construction management and general contracting services at the local, regional and national level in the industrial, healthcare, multifamily, cannabis, hospitality & entertainment, institutional, food & beverage and commercial markets.  For more information, visit www.kadean.com. 

Holland Construction Services has completed construction on Phase II of the Sunnen Station Apartment complex near Manchester and South Hanley Roads in Maplewood, Missouri. The new four-story, 121-unit apartment community includes an attached 61,000 sq. ft. two-level parking garage with 187 spaces and indoor/outdoor recreational facilities.

The multi-family development, developed by the Sunnen Family in conjunction with Cozad Commercial Real Estate, is the first new apartment construction in the City of Maplewood in several years.

“Phase I of Sunnen Station Apartments is currently 100% occupied so we knew there was clearly a need for this type of development in the area,” said G.T. Cozad, Principal at Cozad Commercial Real Estate. “The new development includes many of the same modern amenities as Phase I, including on-site recreational facilities such as a fitness center, and a swimming pool. We’re excited to give St. Louis residents an additional high-quality housing option.”

Rick Kallaus, member of the Sunnen Family, added, “The City of Maplewood has been a great partner for us so we were happy to continue development in this location. Holland also has tremendous expertise in multi-family developments and did a fantastic job on Phase I so this felt like a seamless project for us.”

Holland completed Phase I of the complex in 2017 which sits adjacent to Phase II and is connected by a shared parking lot. The complex is also adjacent to the Sunnen Station MetroLink Station and the Sunnen Business Park. Holland project manager Steve Bauer said their previous experience with the developer helped the project run smoothly.

“This has been a fantastic project for Holland as a whole,” said Project Manager Steve Bauer. “Our biggest challenge was discovering debris and boulders the size of cars underneath the foundation when we first started digging. Fortunately, the owners understood those challenges and knew we would get the job done. This development will be a perfect addition to the Maplewood community.”

Sunnen Station Apartments Phase II is currently leasing. For more information about the development, go to www.sunnenstationapts.com. The architect on the project was Tim Sandweg.

Holland Construction Services is a full-service construction management, general contracting, and design/build firm guided by the principle of providing clients the best possible build experience on every project. Holland has been providing quality construction services throughout Illinois and Missouri since 1986, when it was founded by company CEO Bruce Holland. Holland offers pre-construction, construction, and virtual design & construction services to commercial, education, healthcare, industrial, multi-family, municipal, recreation, and senior living clients. The St. Louis Business Journal ranks Holland as a “Best Places to Work” and one of the top 15 contractors in the St. Louis area by volume. For more information, visit Holland’s website at www.hollandcs.com. 

Cozad Commercial Real Estate is a full-service commercial real estate and property management firm that was established in 1987 by former CEO G.T. Cozad, Jr. In 2012, MD Real Estate Advisors was created and remains the only dedicated healthcare brokerage firm in St. Louis. By combining a solution-oriented focus with industry-leading real estate services, Cozad is able to offer a vast array of expertise and technical knowledge to real estate clients and property owners both locally and nationally. Cozad Commercial Real Estate has consistently been named one of the top most active real estate firms as well as one of the largest property management firms in St. Louis. For more information about Cozad, visit www.cozadgroup.com.

Winco Window Company, located in University City in St. Louis, is the first local business to receive a showstopping, custom mural celebrating daily life and diversity in the community. The freshly painted mural, which can be seen on the wall of Winco’s sister company Achitectural Metals Inc., is courtesy of local artist Byron Rogers and University City High School art students as part of a collaborative art project by the Olive Beautification Committee. Winco is honored to take part in this special cultural activity.   Winco president Bill Krenn and Vice President Woody Miller managed the project.   

Submitted by Schmersahl Treloar & Co

It’s been a tumultuous year for many businesses, and the current economic climate promises more uncertainty for the short term, if not longer. Regardless of how your company has fared so far in 2022, there’s still time to make moves that may reduce your federal tax liability. Read on for some strategies worth your consideration.

Time your income and expenses
When it comes to year-end tax reduction strategies, the granddaddy of them all — for businesses that use cash-basis accounting — is probably the practice of accelerating deductions into the current tax year and deferring income into the next year. You can accelerate deductions by, for example, paying bills or employee bonuses due in 2023 before year end and stocking up on supplies. Meanwhile, you can defer income by holding off on invoicing until late December or early January.

You should consider this strategy only if you don’t expect to see significantly higher profits next year. If you think you will, flip the approach, accelerating income and pushing deductions into the future when they’ll be more valuable. Also, bear in mind that reducing your income could reduce your qualified business income (QBI) deduction, depending on your business entity.

Maximize your QBI deduction
Pass-through entities (that is, sole proprietors, partnerships, limited liability companies and S corporations) can deduct up to 20% of their QBI, subject to certain limitations based on W-2 wages paid, the unadjusted basis of qualified property and taxable income. The deduction, created by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), is set to expire after 2025, absent congressional action, so make the most of it while you can.

You could increase your deduction by increasing wages (for example, by converting independent contractors to employees or raising pay for existing employees) or purchasing capital assets. (Of course, these moves usually have other consequences, such as higher payroll taxes, that you should weigh before proceeding.) You can avoid the income limit by timing your income and deductions, as discussed above.

If the W-2 wage limitation doesn’t limit the QBI deduction, S corporation owners can increase their QBI deductions by reducing the wages the business pays them. (This won’t work for sole proprietorships or partnerships, which don’t pay their owners salaries.) Conversely, if the wage limitation does limit the deduction, S corporation owners might be able to take a greater deduction by boosting their wages.

Accelerate depreciation — while you can
The TCJA also increased the Section 168(k) first-year bonus depreciation to 100% of the purchase price, through 2022. Beginning next year, the allowable deduction will drop by 20% each year until it evaporates altogether in 2027 (again, absent congressional action). Combining bonus depreciation with the Section 179 deduction can produce substantial tax savings for 2022.

Under Sec. 179, you can deduct 100% of the purchase price of new and used eligible assets in the year you place them in service — even if they’re only in service for a day or two. Eligible assets include machinery, office and computer equipment, software, and certain business vehicles. The deduction also is available for improvements to nonresidential property.

The maximum Sec. 179 deduction for 2022 is $1.08 million and it begins phasing out on a dollar-for-dollar basis when your qualifying property purchases exceed $2.7 million. The maximum deduction also is limited to the amount of your income from the business, although unused amounts can be carried forward indefinitely.

Alternatively, you can claim excess amounts as bonus depreciation, which is subject to no limits or phaseouts in 2022. Bonus depreciation is available for computer systems, software, vehicles, machinery, equipment, office furniture and qualified improvement property (generally, interior improvements to nonresidential property).

For all their immediate appeal, bonus depreciation and Sec. 179 expensing aren’t always advisable. You may, for example, want to skip accelerated depreciation if you claim the QBI deduction. The deduction is limited by your taxable income, and depreciation reduces such income.

It might be wise to have some depreciation available to offset your income in 2023 through 2025 so you can claim the QBI deduction while it’s still around. You might think twice, too, if you have expiring net operating losses, charitable contributions or credit carryforwards that are affected by taxable income.

The good news is that you don’t have to decide now. As long as you place qualified property in service by December 31, 2022, you have the option of choosing the most advantageous approach when you file your tax return in 2023.

Get real about your bad debts
Business owners are sometimes slow to accept that they’re going to go unpaid for services rendered or goods delivered. If you use accrual-basis accounting, though, facing the facts can land you a bad debt deduction.

The IRS allows businesses to deduct “worthless” debts, in full or in part, that they’ve previously included in their income. To show that a debt is worthless, you need to show that you’ve taken reasonable steps to collect but without success. You aren’t required to go to court if you can show that a judgment from a court would be uncollectible.

You still have time to take reasonable steps to collect outstanding debts. It’s important to keep detailed records of these efforts. If you determine you can’t collect, you may be able to deduct some or all of those debts for 2022.

Start or replace your retirement plan
If you’ve put off establishing a retirement plan, or simply outgrown the plan you started years ago, you have time to possibly trim your taxes this year — and likely improve your employee recruitment and retention at the same time — by starting a new plan. Eligible employers can claim a tax credit of up to $5,000, for the first three years, for the costs of starting a SEP IRA, SIMPLE IRA or a qualified plan such as a 401(k) plan.

The credit is 50% of your costs to set up and administer the plan and educate your employees about it. You can claim up to the greater of $500 or the lesser of:

• $250 multiplied by the number of non-highly compensated employees who are eligible to participate in the plan, or
• $5,000.
You can begin to claim the credit in the tax year before the year the plan becomes effective. And, if you add an auto-enrollment feature, you can claim a tax credit of $500 per year for a three-year period beginning in the first taxable year the feature is included.

Leverage your startup expenses
If you launched a new business this year, you might qualify for a limited deduction for certain costs. The IRS allows you to deduct up to $5,000 of startup costs and $5,000 of organizational costs (such as the costs of creating a partnership). The deduction is reduced by the amount by which your total startup or organizational costs exceed $50,000. You must amortize any remaining costs.

An eligible cost is one that you could deduct if it were paid or incurred to operate an existing business in the same field. Eligible costs also must be paid or incurred before the active business begins. Examples include business analysis costs, advertisements for the business’s opening, travel and other costs related to lining up prospective distributors, suppliers or customers, and certain salaries, wages and fees.

Turn to us for planning advice
Many of the strategies detailed here involve tradeoffs that require thoughtful evaluation and analysis. We can help you make the right choices to minimize your company’s tax bill.

Call us at 314-966-2727 with any questions. https://www.stcpa.com/

HOK’s adaptive reuse design repurposed a long-vacant brick warehouse building in St. Louis’ Cortex Innovation Community into a multitenant biotech lab and office space.

The SEFA Lab of the Year Awards recognize teams for creating outstanding laboratory buildings. Recipients are lab projects that excelled in all aspects of project delivery, including planning, design and execution. 4340 Duncan earned “High Honors” in the 2022 competition.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the original 1930 Crescent Building (now 4340 Duncan) was formerly a first-of-its-kind rotogravure printing plant for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper.

HOK’s design for the adaptive reuse project transformed the building into a state-of-the-art office, lab and modular spaces for biotech companies. Large, open floor plates help enterprises in all stages of development, from startups to large-scale organizations, in need of affordable, functional space to expand and thrive.

A central zone preserves the open space where the rotogravure printers formerly stood. The monumental stairs emphasize the original three-story opening that once housed the printer. The two-story lab highlights the area where the production took place, maintaining the sense that “here is where the innovative work is happening.”

4340 Duncan also provides tenants with general support space, including a central glass wash/autoclave area and freezer farm. A roof deck on the fourth floor offers sweeping views. The anchor tenant is BioSTL, including its BioGenerator Labs, along with Confluence Discovery Technologies, Arch Oncology, Wugen and C2N Diagnostics. One hundred percent of the space is leased. BOBB, LLC, an affiliate of Washington University in St. Louis, led the development of the project and is the building’s owner.

4340 Duncan is making important contributions to the Cortex Innovation Community by sparking collaboration and innovation. Cortex, located just four miles west of downtown St. Louis’s urban core, now anchors a growing regional system of more than 425 companies and 6,000 employees spread throughout 2 million square feet of space.

Congratulations to the entire 4340 Duncan project team: Project Owner: BOBB, LLC/Washington University in St. Louis; Architecture, Lab Planning and Design, Interior Design, Lighting Design: HOK; Architecture, Interior Design: KAI Enterprises; Historic Preservation: Karen Bode Baxter; MEP and Fire Protection Engineering: Ross & Baruzzini; Plumbing and Lab Gas Engineering: Custom Engineering; Lighting Design: Reed Burkett Lighting Design; Structural Engineering: KPFF Consulting Engineers, Inc.; Civil and Structural Engineering: David Mason + Associates; Landscape Architecture: DG2 Design Landscape; Construction Manager and General Contractor: Tarlton; Graphic Designer: Kuhlmann Leavitt, Inc.; Acoustical and Vibration Consulting: AcoustiControl LLC; and Laboratory Casework and Fume Hoods: Air Master Systems.

With offices around the globe, HOK designs buildings and spaces that respond to the needs of people and the environment. HOK designers are rooted in technical excellence, driven by imagination and focused on a solitary goal: to deliver solutions that inspire clients and communities.