Ingram's April 2024

IN THE NEWS

Tidbits of Business News from Around the Region

MISSOURI CASS COUNTY Raymore Lands Nuuly

field and will work to provide enhanced ped- iatric care to patients in southwest Missouri. In 2023, Mercy announced plans for a similar partnership with Springfield-based CoxHealth to build a pediatric hospital, but it didn’t materialize. Several other hospitals were considered for the partnership, and Mercy ultimately chose to proceed with Children’s Mercy. Based on market research, 27 percent of patients in southwest Missouri must travel outside that region for care. City Buys Parade Park Kansas City has purchased the Parade Park Homes complex in a foreclosure sale and is aligning with Flaherty & Collins Development and Twelfth Street Heri- tage Corporation on a $275 million redev- Correspondent News Updates from the Capital cities

elopment project. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development assu- med control of the housing complex in 2022, and set a foreclosure bid amount nearly $12 million. More than 1,000 new housing units are planned when the project is completed. Cold Logistics Expansion Americold Realty Trust says it will collaborate with Canadian Pacific Kansas City on a new $127 million warehouse connected to the railroad’s network. The announcement did not specify a precise location but said the 335,000-square-foot facility would be in Kansas City and create nearly 190 new jobs. CPKC’s MMX service is North America’s only single-line rail service for refrigerated shippers between U.S. Midwest markets and Mexico. Construction is ex-pected to begin before mid-year.

Urban Outfitters has begun con- struction on a 600,000-square-foot ful- fillment center in Raymore for its women’s wear brand, Nuuly, a subscription rental clothing service. The parent URBN, will invest $60 million in two phases over a five-year period to build its second Nuuly fulfillment and laundry facility. Company officials said it would triple the active sub scriber base and create 750 jobs before 2030. Google announced last month that it would expand its presence in Kansas City’s expanding tech sector with a $1 billion data center at the Hunt Midwest Business Center, along with a skilled-trade career development program in partnership with the North Kansas City School District’s alternative-education STEAM program. The firm said its continued investment in technical infrastructure, including its data centers, would play an essential role in sup porting the company’s AI innovations and growing Google cloud-based business lines. JACKSON COUNTY $5MM Sunderland Gift to KCU Kansas City University’s fund-raising for its new Center for Population Health and Equity building topped $16 million in March, propelled by a $5 million grant from the Sunderland Foundation. The university initially announced its plans to establish the CPHE in January, with the goal of serving Kansas City and Joplin by identifying contributors to health in- equities, including race, socioeconomic and geographic location. The Sunderland grant will assist in the construction and capital improvements of buildings that will house the CPHE on both campuses, KCU said. Children’s Mercy Expansion Children’s Mercy is entering into a new partnership with Mercy Hospital Spring- CLAY COUNTY Google $1B Data Center

Washington | Small Businesses Endorse Prove It Act The U.S. House Judiciary Committee has sent to the full chamber a measure meant to strengthen requirements for government agencies to analyze the impact of regulations on small businesses and increase small-business engagement in the reg ulatory process. The Prove It Act targets loopholes in the Regulatory Flexibility Act that advocates say will help address a lack of compliance by administrative agencies. Josh McLeod of the National Federation of Independent Business, an advocacy group, said approval of the measure by the full House and Senate would reduce onerous regulation burdens and red tape facing small businesses. Jefferson City | Leaner Budget Times Projected State budgets that have drawn from a $5 billion state surplus in recent years could be leaner in fiscal year 2025. House Budget Committee chairman Cody Smith, R-Carthage, has introduced a $50 billion budget proposal, coming in about $2 billion below what Gov. Mike Parson had recommended and $1.8 billion below this year’s. Like Parson’s, the House plan would address K-12 education, school transportation, and boost to $40,000 the minimum pay for teachers. It also would give most state employees raises of 3.2 percent. Further, $700 million would go to work on Interstate 44, with expansion to six lanes in Joplin, Rolla, and Springfield, with $100 million more for rural roads. Topeka | Medicaid Expansion Unlikely in ’24 Gov. Laura Kelly had hoped to push Medicaid expansion through the 2024 Legislature, but House Republicans may have put up a roadblock for this session, rejecting a Democratic effort to send the measure to the full chamber. The committee’s five Democrats were overruled by the dozen Republicans on the panel. Rep. Brenda Landwehr, the Wichita Republican who chairs that committee, said there would be no further meetings on the measure. Supporters say polls show an overwhelming majority of Kansas favor expansion, but committee Republicans said there were concerns about whether expansion’s benefits had been exaggerated, while potential cost projects were understated.

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Kansas City’s Business Media

April 2024