After Transamerica Occidental Life Insurance Co. yanked 500 jobs from Downtown in January, the Kansas City Area Development Council whipped up a nationwide postcard mailing for site selection consultants.

"Think opportunity," the postcard implored, beside a photo of Town Pavilion, where Transamerica once filled eight floors and remains the marquee tenant.

The area's chief business retention and recruitment shop is using a similar lemonade-from-lemons spin to tout the rest of Downtown, whose midyear vacancy rate of 18.8 percent was the fifth highest of 43 markets tracked by CB Richard Ellis Group Inc.

"We couldn't be more hyped," said Bob Marcusse, CEO of the KCADC.

Marcusse's contrarian strategy gets provisional buy-in from Jeff Kaczmarek, his counterpart at the Economic Development Corp. of Kansas City.

Kansas City's profile is ill-defined in the rest of the country, Kaczmarek said.

"Cities get images," he said. "We get crossed off, and we don't even know about it. People say: 'It's Kansas City. Why should I be interested?'"

To shake what it views as outsiders' dated and dowdy misperceptions of Downtown, the KCADC is finishing a documentary. "Mending the Heart of an American City," about Downtown's revitalization, will debut next year. Marcusse said he's confident the $500,000 project's completion will coincide with and contribute to strengthening demand for downtown offices.

The film, conceived three years ago, will chronicle what Marcusse termed an unparalleled convergence of resurgence -- $4.5 billion of investment in Downtown.

"We have to reset our image," he said.

High-level marketing -- the film is being pitched as cable TV fare -- is just a start, said David Feehan, president of the International Downtown Association in Washington.

"The most powerful form of advertising," Feehan said, "is word of mouth."

Successful downtowns exhibit what he called "community DNA," defining characteristics that impart a discernible identity -- "what makes this place like no other."

Establishing a compelling future vision will "create a place where people want to be," he said.

H&R Block Inc.'s belief in Downtown is evinced in a headquarters that opened last year.

The tax preparation giant, No. 29 on the Kansas City Business Journal's list of the Top 100 Area Private-Sector Employers, buttressed its bet on Downtown by becoming the documentary's first corporate sponsor.

The KCADC regularly engages its members to help sell Kansas City -- for instance, at an April visit by site consultants.

The three-day event was staged "with military precision," Marcusse said.

Tim Cowden, the KCADC's senior vice president of business recruitment, said the council's responsiveness is emblematic of the work ethic he promotes.

"We attempt to outexecute our competition," said Cowden, whose name and phone number are on the opportunity postcard.

This message registers with Jonathan Sangster, an Atlanta-based consultant with CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. who participated in the April tour.

Sangster, who professed to having been "shocked and amazed" by Downtown's transformation since his last visit four years ago, said its high-rise offices are most suitable for headquarters.

The EDC's Kaczmarek said this opportunity still must be fulfilled.

© Kansas City Area Development Council