Chief Investment Officer & General Counsel

Spencer Thomson

Spencer has over 35 years of real estate-related experience through work in his family’s title insurance company, as a real estate broker, as an attorney specializing in commercial real estate law, and as a real estate developer and investor. For 30 years, Spencer’s law practice has focused almost exclusively on real estate law, including extensive work in the areas of acquisitions, leasing, zoning, development and financing of major commercial real estate projects with a further emphasis in the use of development incentives such as Tax Increment Financing (TIF), Transportation Development Districts (TDD), Community Improvement Districts (CID) and other public tax incentives.

Spencer has successfully closed well over $2.5 billion in commercial real estate acquisitions and financings in varied property classes including retail, shopping malls, hospitality, office, multi-family (apartment complexes and condominium projects), senior housing and industrial warehouses and distribution centers. For several years, Spencer has been one of a select few to serve as approved outside counsel for a NYSE traded retail REIT and a second private retail REIT both headquartered on the east coast of the United States.

Spencer was an integral part of the development teams that redeveloped three large, regional malls in the greater Kansas City area encompassing over 2 million total square feet of buildings.

Spencer has acted as counsel on numerous signature projects in the Kansas City metropolitan area over the past several decades. Those projects include the redevelopment of the Longview Farm property in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, the ground-up development of the Plaza Colonnade office building project in the Country Club Plaza area of Kansas City, numerous major projects in the Downtown Kansas City, Missouri Central Business District—including the redevelopment of the President Hotel and Hotel Phillips, the H&R Block World Headquarters and the JE Dunn World Headquarters among others.

Spencer has been an integral part of the development teams, including often as a principal owner and/or manager, on several successful commercial and residential development projects, including: Southtowne Plaza in Belton, Missouri that includes a Menard’s Home Improvement Center, Aspen Dental and a Class-A multi-family component; Emporia Pavilions in Emporia, Kansas anchored by Hobby Lobby, Marshalls, Ross and others; and the North Ridge Senior (55+) Living community in Blue Springs, Missouri.

Prior to forming Thomson, LLC (formerly Thomson Walker, LLC) as a boutique real estate law firm in 2012, Spencer was a full equity partner in the Real Estate and Development Department of the Husch Blackwell law firm for over 13 years.

Spencer has been regularly recognized for his achievements in the real estate and law fields by numerous organizations over the years, including being named in The Best Lawyers in America, 2007-2023, Chambers USA, 2007-2023, Super Lawyers, and being recognized by Ingram’s magazine as one of Kansas City’s “40 Under 40” in 2007. Spencer is a 2008 graduate of the Kansas City Tomorrow leadership program sponsored by the Civic Council of Kansas City, Missouri and formerly served as Chair of the Clay County, Missouri Board of Tax Equalization. In 2006, Spencer was named by the Governor of Missouri to serve on the Eminent Domain Task Force that worked with the Missouri General Assembly to rewrite eminent domain laws for the state.

Spencer earned his B.S.B.A. in Business Management from Rockhurst University in 1990 and his J.D. from Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri in 1993.