Ralph E. Bellar, Jr., Member

With more than 30 years' experience in commercial and residential real estate development, Ralph E. Bellar, Jr. represents developers, national and regional companies, tenants, and retailers in a variety of real estate matters. He handles construction, leasing, land acquisition, land use, purchase and sale contracts, development and easement agreements, pipeline and utility easements and licenses, financing, bond financing, zoning, and subdivision matters. Ralph acts as general counsel to a number of community improvement districts and transportation development districts in the state of Missouri.

Ralph has extensive experience assisting developers and companies in obtaining economic development incentives such as tax increment financing, Chapter 99 and Chapter 353 real property tax abatements, Enhanced Enterprise Zone tax credits and tax abatements, Chapter 100 industrial revenue bond financing, and in the formation of community improvement districts, transportation development districts and neighborhood improvement districts. While representing clients on zoning, platting, subdivision, land use, special benefit districts, and related development matters, Ralph regularly appears before city councils, plan commissions, tax increment financing commissions, and zoning boards in both Missouri and Kansas.

Ralph has been involved in many large projects in the Kansas City metropolitan area, including three of the largest office buildings in Kansas City: the Town Pavilion (38-story office/retail building), the 1201 Walnut Building, and One Kansas City Place; the representation of one of the nation's largest retailers in acquiring property to open its first stores in the Kansas City metropolitan area; the development of Barry Towne (346-acre mixed-use development); the sale of the historic Boley Building to a company for use as its corporate headquarters; the Plaza Colonnade project (a $72 million public/private venture with the public library, resulting in a new library, office building, retail, and parking garage); Summit Fair (a 500,000-square foot retail development in Lee's Summit, MO); and the Streets of West Prior (a 73 acre mixed-use project in Lee’s Summit, Missouri).

Chair of the Recruiting Committee for the Kansas City office since 1995, Ralph has also run the summer associate program since the same year. He is a member of the Missouri Bar as well as the Kansas Bar and Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association, where he was the Chairman of the Real Estate Law Committee. Other accolades include The Best Lawyers in America® 2009-2024, Ingram's Best Lawyers in Kansas City® 2008-2012, and AV® Preeminent™ Peer Review Rated by Martindale-Hubbell. Ralph is actively involved in several community organizations and charitable activities.