The Hard Charger
By Pam Clinton | Wichita Business Journal | 2003 uploaded online 2013
Jo Zakas, owner, Clifton Square Office and Shopping Village
Jo Zakas likes to say, “If something isn’t standing in your way, you must be on the wrong track.”
Zakas, owner and developer of Clifton Square Office and Shopping Village, says that saying reflects the path she’s traveled throughout her career.
Zakas’ business career began at the age of 17, when she talked the owner of Greenwell Insurance agency into letting her buy the company out of her profits. Shortly after, she opened Budget Inc., a premium finance company.
Clifton Square, a shopping and office complex in the College Hill area of Wichita, is one of her major accomplishments.
Zakas says instead of living with a deteriorating block of homes across from her newly developed Happiness Plaza shopping area project — homes that included what she calls a “hippie colony,” complete with red light — she decided to buy the homes and create a quaint shopping area.
She put the red light in her office.
“Everybody said it would never work,” Zakas says. “I just kept prodding along.”
Zakas says an early roadblock to the concept was the city requirement that she buy two more pieces of property within 60 days to secure a zoning change.
“They never dreamed I could do it, the homes weren’t even for sale,” Zakas says. “But I did it within 60 days. Then I just kept going around the block.”
To secure one of the final properties, Zakas says she purchased a nearby house, painted it, updated it and convinced one of the holdouts to trade houses with her.
Ed Dwire, of Malone, Dwire and Jones, who sold Zakas a piece of property more than 20 years ago, says Zakas has an unusual mixture of integrity and drive.
“Her word is her bond, and she does what she says,” Dwire says.
Zakas works hard, but she loves to travel. Zakas recently returned from a trip to China with nine other people. Two of her favorite places are Hong Kong and India. She says traveling abroad does not make her nervous. “You just have to be alert, and use common sense,” she says.
Wealth of experience
Zakas has had a varied professional experience. She was one of the founders and CEO of KSAS-TV, Channel 24; hosted a news talk show; published The Wichitan magazine; and co-founded the National Business Women of Wichita chapter.
Zakas was the first woman to serve on the Kansas State Banking Board — and first nonbanker to serve as chair. She also co-founded the Expansion Network.
She has served as executive in residence at Wichita State University and at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H.; and recently established the Clifton Square Foundation.
Zakas also has been involved with the Wichita Convention & Visitors Bureau, Small Business Administration, Kansas Good Roads Association, Wichita Area Chamber of Commerce, and the U.S. Defense Advisory Board for Women in the Military.
“I think it’s important to give back to the community,” Zakas says, “and I think it’s very important that as women we do everything we can to help other women. We need to be cheerleaders and encourage each other.”
Cathy Feemster, the publisher of the East Wichita News whose offices are located in one of Zakas’ Clifton Square offices, is a cheerleader for Zakas.
“I really admire Jo, because she’s pretty much a self-taught person and she’s not only survived, but she’s been very successful,” Feemster says.
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Wichita Business Journal 2003 Women in Business – Jo S. Zakas
