Ingram’s January 2023

I N T H E N E W S

Tidbits of Business News from Around the Region

MISSOURI

Plexpod Infill Project Building off of the success with Plex- pod Westport Commons, developers have filed plans to turn the adjacent urban garden into a pair of apartment buildings with a total of 100 units. KANSAS JOHNSON COUNTY PCIA on Acquisition Tear Prime Capital Investment Advisors wrapped up 2022 with a pair of acquisitions, boosting its overall level of assets under management to $20 billion and securing its spot in the region’s Top 10 wealth management firms. The biggest recent addition was Florida-based Liberty Wealth Correspondent News Updates from the Capital cities

Advisors, with $1.75 billion in AUM; Professional Financial Services, a South Dakota firm, brought in $185 million more. That gave PCIA 10 acquisitions for the year. WYANDOTTE COUNTY Historic District Expansion Unified Government is exploring an expansion of its historic Downtown district, raising from 11 to 121 the number of buildings that might be eligible for rehabilitation tax credits. The expanded district would be bordered by Seventh and 10th streets, from Nebraska Boulevard to Tauromee Avenue. If approved, more than half the buildings in the expanded district would qualify for state income tax credits—up to 25 percent of rehabilitation costs—as well as a federal tax credit of up to 20 percent of those costs.

BUCHANAN COUNTY St. Joseph Progress

Fresh off the city’s No. 15 ranking by SmartAsset for the nation’s best places to work in manufacturing, the St. Joseph Chamber has announced some of the success metrics for 2022. Among them: More than $131 million in capital investment, which helped generate 70 new jobs at an average annual salary of more than $52,000. Highlighting that was the $25 million invested by battery maker Clarios, an expansion that will bring 110 jobs when the work is complete. JACKSON COUNTY Copaken Brooks-CBC Merger CBC Real Estate Group has merged into Copaken Brooks, one of the region’s biggest names in commercial realt estate. The merger became effective Jan. 1 with Bill Crandall, CBC’s managing partner and co-founder, becoming a principal at the expanded firm, joining Keith and Jon Copaken and Bucky Brooks. NASB Dropping Mortgage Line NASB Financial will withdraw from direct-to-consumer mortgage lending by mid-March, with staff reductions of bet- ween 125 and 160. The publicly owned Grandview company said multiple factors contributed to the decision, including the spike in interest rates, sharply higher home values and the continuing barrier of low housing inventory. The bank had net in- come of $32.1 mil. for its fiscal year, a drop of 56.5 percent from $73.7 mil. in 2021. Sandwich Plant in Works The Port Authority of KC has received an application for a property-tax exemp tion of $222 million for an Iowa food company to build a 327,000-square-foot packaging and distribution center in south Kansas City. Documents filed with the city indicate that Liberty Foods would lease most of the structure in the I-49 Industrial Center. The company is one of the nation’s biggest protein processors.

Washington | House GOP Goes After IRS Expansion Moving swiftly on an agenda to undo legislation passed by Democrats in the previous session, House Republicans made one of their first moves by rescinding $72 billion for the IRS to hire new agents, despite claims by Democrats that the Inflation Reduction Act passed last year included no such provision. On a 221-210 party-line vote, the House passed a measure that directs the IRS to spend new money only on customer service and IT improvements. Republicans had claimed before the vote that the IRS would have led to tens of thousands of new hiring agents and auditors that would hound low- and middle-class Americans instead of wealthy individuals and corporations. Jefferson City | Parson Lifts Propane-Trucker Limits Gov. Mike Parson issued an executive order in December, temporarily relaxing hours of service regulations for commercial motor vehicles transport ing propane heating fuel. Current federal and state regulations limit commercial truck drivers to 11 consecutive hours behind the wheel. In the face of potential energy shortages during intense winter storms, Parson has lifted those restric tions on carriers transporting propane fuel. The order, however, does not apply to the transport of other petroleum products or fuels. Topeka | Kelly Bolsters High-Speed Connections Gov. Laura Kelly says the state has announced that $23.1 million will be awarded to six service providers that will bring high-speed broadband service to nearly 4,200 homes, businesses, schools, health care facilities, and other institutions in unserved and rural areas of Kansas. The goal is to solve the “last mile” of broadband need in targeted counties that have as few as five locations per square mile. That lack of density has prevented companies from investing resources in higher-level broadband services.

I n g r a m ’ s 7

Kansas City’s Business Media

January 2023