Ingram's December 2022

2022 NEWSMAKERS

National Cancer Institute. That’s the NCI’s highest level of recognition, often re ferred to as the gold standard for cancer centers. Officials say it will propel the insti tute to first-choice status with cancer patients throughout the Midwest, rather than looking to Mayo Clinic in Minnesota or M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Texas. AUGUST 2 Hunt Midwest secures planner approval for a massive logistics park that could become the biggest of its kind in Missouri. KCI 29 Logistics Park envisions nearly 3½ square miles of operations on 2,136 acres currently zoned for farming near Kansas City International Airport. Within that, Hunt Midwest would create 20 million square feet of warehouse and commercial office space on 28 indust rial and four commercial lots. The extended build-out calls for construction to be complete in four phases over the next 20 years, and up to $1.5 billion in pri- vate investment. SEPTEMBER 1 The Port Authority of Kansas City issues a request for proposals on environ mental review and preliminary design for placing a cap over I-670 through Down town Kansas City. If completed, the proposed $160million project would yield a 5½ -acre park, venues for arts and theater performances, playgrounds and dog parks. 16 Coming to the rescue after Waddell & Reed backed out of its commitment for new Downtown headquarters, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City an nounces that it will lease the Class-A tower built at 1400 Baltimore Ave. and make it the new headquarters. The region’s largest health insurer had been exploring alternatives to its Class-B base across the street from Union Station. OCTOBER 5 The University of Kansas Health System announces that it will bring Olathe Health System into its fold, adding to its dominance in health-care delivery on the Kansas side of the metro area. The two entities sign off on a letter of intent to merge Olathe Health’s services and clinics into the larger system, with all 2,300 Olathe Health associates as employees included in the deal. 6 The first earth is turned on the nation’s only pro soccer venue designed exclusively for women with construction of the Kansas City Current’s $118 mil lion, 11,500-seat multipurpose venue at the Berkley Riverfront. The site will also be a venue for entertainment event and NCAA soccer matches and potentially small-college football games. NOVEMBER 1 Just a decade after its founding, Rx Savings Solutions of Overland Park is formally acquired by health-care giant McKesson Corp. in a deal that could even tually be valued at $875 million—$600 million up front and $275 million more if Rx hits certain financial performance metrics. DECEMBER 7 One more piece falls into place for the massive BluHawk multi-use devel opment in southern Johnson County with groundbreaking for the project’s indoor sports complex. It will provide 20,000 square feet of space for basketball, vol leyball and pickle ball courts, plus an ice rink, batting cages, and seating for up to 3,500 people. The $125 million facility is part of a 277-acre development owned by Price Brothers Management Co., and it’s part of an overall project cost of more than $1 billion, one of the biggest of its kind ever for the Kansas City region.

A New Energy for the Kansas City Area

July produced the biggest news of the year on the Kansas side—and the biggest economic-development deal in that state’s history. On July 13, Gov. Laura Kelly announced that Panasonic Energy has selected DeSoto, in Johnson County, as the future home for a $4 billion battery plant that is expected to employ 4,000 people when it comes on-line in 2025. The plant will produce battery-packs for electric vehicles, with Tesla anticipated to be among its biggest customers. “A new facility of this size is transformational, not only for Johnson County, but also for the entire state,” Kelly said, and state officials put numbers on the scale of that transformation: $2.5 billion in yearly economic activity. A longer-term transformation for the broader region is also at hand with the deal, said Lt. Gov. David Toland, who also serves as Kelly’s Secretary of Commerce. “We shifted our focus from recruiting companies across a state line to recruiting companies across the international dateline," he said. Securing Panasonic’s commitment took some doing on the part of Kelly’s team. Early in the year, the secrecy around an incentive package ruff led some legislators who would have to sign off on an incentives package topping $820 million. Officials at the state, county and local level now turn their attention to the massive follow-on infrastructure development required to sustain the project, including road improvements, housing for workers, expanded school facilities and more. Meanwhile, the competition for work-force talent amid sub-4 percent unemployment will only get hotter, especially with an estimated 1,000 engineers needed at the plant.

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I n g r a m ’ s

December 2022