Ingram's March 2023

MANUFACTURING | AVIATION AND AEROSPACE | 50 KANSANS YOU SHOULD KNOW

KANSAS’ BUSINESS MAGAZINE

Ingrams.com | March 2023

Destination Kansas Your Guide to Investing and Thriving in Kansas

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DESTINATION KANSAS MARKET OVERVIEW

WELCOME TO KANSAS IN 2023. BUT TAKE NOTE: IT’S NOT THE SAME STATE IT WAS LAST YEAR. AND IT’S NOT GOING TO BE THE SAME NEXT YEAR AS IT IS TODAY. Kansas: A Dynamic Economy Is Driving Fundamental Change

The Sunflower State, right now, is experiencing something of a metamorphosis. Think of it no more as merely an agricultural powerhouse—though it remains just that—but as an emerging center of excellence in advanced manufacturing. True enough, the aerospace industry has helped establish the state’s bona fides in manufacturing, roots that go back to the age of wooden wing struts and canvas exteriors on biplanes. Within the past year, however, there has been extraordinary change. Unprecedented change, in fact. Kansans, by their nature, may be entrepreneurial and willing to take calculated risks. But the calculus began changing in early 2022. That’s when the state began drawing up bold incentives that eventually hooked not a marlin, but a whale: Panasonic Energy’s $4 billion plant to produce batteries for electric vehicles. Dirt began moving last summer, and 4,000 employees are expected to be punching the clock with high-paying jobs sometime in 2025. State incentives in that deal topped $1 billion. Again, unprec- edented. Yet only a start—within months, the state had an nounced $381 million in incentives for EMP Shield to build a $1.9 billion computer-chip plant in Coffey County, an hour south- west of Kansas City, and $304 million in incentives as part of a $1.5 billion expansion at Wichita-based Integra Technologies. Do the math on those three deals: $7.4 billion in high-tech industrial development. And for some perspective: The entire state General Fund spending for 2022 was $8.5 billion. Those deals, and the downstream effects of pulling in vendors with thousands of additional

jobs, will help reposition the Kansas economy for years to come. Beyond that, Kansas is poised to become a national center of excellence in life-sciences research and commercialization with the $1.5 billion National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility coming fully on-line this year in Manhattan. So consider these developments another cherry on top of all the factors that make Kansas a unique attraction as a place to live, to raise a family, to establish a career, to own a business, or to operate one. Or heck, just a place to visit for a weekend or one-of-a-kind vacation. It’s a place where all the pieces come together to support and sustain an exceptional quality of life: A cost of living unmatched by all but a handful of states. Comparative bargains in real estate. Outstanding health-delivery. A solidly pro-business public sector. Refined cultural amenities with visual and performing arts. Activi ties for all manner of outdoor enthusiasts and weekend warriors. First-rate schools and highly regarded research universities. Scenic beauty—no, it’s not all a flat expanse of wheat stubble. No state is without its unique issues and challenges; Kansas is no exception. But in a setting where nearly 60,000 farms remain in operation, and untold thousands of city dwellers are first-generation removed from those settings, the can-do attitude is always on display. Why Kansas? Well, there are about 3 million people who are living there. They can’t all be wrong.

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Editor-in-Chief and Publisher Joe Sweeney | JSweeney @ Ingrams.com Editorial Director Dennis Boone | DBoone @ Ingrams.com Vice President of Sales Michelle Sweeney | MSweeney @ Ingrams.com Art Director Traci Faulk | Production @ Ingrams.com Contributing Writer Matt Smithmier | Editorial @ Ingrams.com Copy Editor Nancie Boland | Editorial @ Ingrams.com INGRAM’S MAGAZINE 2049 Wyandotte Kansas City, MO 64108 816.842.9994 n www.Ingrams.com

Destination KANSAS DestinationKansas.com

CONTENTS | 2023 Special Edition

FEATURES

THE KANSAS EDITION

1 Welcome to Kansas 4 Executive of the Year and C-Suite Awards 6 Why Kansas? Top Reasons to Choose Kansas 6 Did You Know? Tidbits About the Sunflower State 8 Must Do’s When in Kansas REASONS TO CHOOSE 10 Centrality and Prime Location 11 Transportation and Infrastructure 12 Cost of Living 14 Real Estate Values 17 Education and the Workforce 18 Health Care and Community Services BUSINESS CULTURE 21 A Productive Work Force 22 Leading Industry Sectors 23 Business Climate and Economic Conditions

Banking The nation’s markets are recoiling in response to big-bank failures, but the climate in Kansas remains, on the whole, calm, executives say. By Dennis Boone

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Top 25 Kansas-Based Banks

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Manufacturing It’s long held a position of significance even bigger than agriculture in Kansas, but the manufacturing sector is about to get even bigger. By Matt Smithmier

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Top 25 Manufacturers in Kansas

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Aviation and Aerospace Two subsectors of manufacturing are leading the way among Kansas companies in that sphere. By Dennis Boone 50 Kansans You Should Know Executives, entrepreneurs, educators and more are reshaping what it means to live, work, play and own a business in the Sunflower State. Enjoy Ingram’s 13th installment of 50 Kansans You Should Know. By Dennis Boone and Matt Smithmier

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LIFESTYLES 27 Quality of Life 28 Hospitality and Tourism 30 Entertainment and Culture

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HIGHLIGHT | 2023 EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR AND C-SUITE AWARDS LUNCHEON

Excellence in Leadership: How Suite It Is

Ingram’s introduced its Executive of the Year award in 2021 by starting at the top, with CEO Bob Page of The University of Kansas Health System, followed last year by Pat Ottensmeyer of Kansas City Southern Railway. Well, a good thing got even better this year, as we expanded the recognition across the C-suites of Corporate Kansas City. Burns & McDonnell’s Ray Kowalik was rec- ognized as Executive of the Year on March 10

at Fiorella’s Event Space in Overland Park, along with six other high-achieving exec- utives from leading organizations in the Kan- sas City region. More than 130 fellow work ers, family members and friends shared lunch, then listened as honorees took the stage to accept their awards and offer some thoughts on their personal approach to leadership, driving growth, and building successful corporate cultures.

EXECUTIVE Year of the 2023 C-SUITE Awards and

Awards Luncheon

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1. Burns & McDonnell CEO Ray Kowalik , who announced his pending retirement just a day earlier, reflected on the firm’s growth surge. | 2. Accompanying KC Division President Tammy Peterman were The University of Kansas Health System’s Doug Gaston , left, and Ty Bagka . | 3. Ingram’s Joe Sweeney presenting Steve Levy of McCownGordon Construction with his award for Chief Operating Officer. | 4. Colleagues, friends and family filled the event space. 6. Mariner Wealth Advisors’ Jeff Poe took the honors for CFO. | 6. Tammy Peterman addressed the role of communication in helping her hospital’s staff navigate the pandemic. | 7. Gayle Hickman and Liz Chapman, left, were on hand to celebrate with Husch Blackwell’s CIO honoree, Blake Rooney , center, along with Cameron Rooney and Brent Chapman . | 8. CMO honoree Beth Wade of VMLY&R. | 9. Guests at the Mariner Wealth Advisors table take in the awards presentations. | 10. George Guastello , left, with Ray Kowalik , Mick Haverty and Bob Regnier . | 11. Terracon’s Stephanie Price , honoree in the category of Chief People Officer. | 12. Russell Rein, left, and Bob Page , right, with Tammy Peterman’s son-in-law, Ben Allison . | 13. Celebrating with Jeff Poe were Mariner Wealth’s Anne Dorian and Katrina Radenberg. | 14. The Burns & McDonnell contingent.

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No, the correct answer isn’t “Why Not?” The value proposition for doing business in the state rings loud and clear from every corner and every sector. Here are some thoughts from executives around the state about the conditions that make Kansas an ideal place to live and work: WHY KANSAS?

David Toland SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR OF KANSAS Disruptions in global sup ply chains have led com panies to seek a stronger U.S. footprint, to ensure on-time and on-budget manufacture and delivery of their products. Kansas’

Tom Devlin CHAIRMAN/CEO, DEVLIN ENTERPRISES With the people in Wichita, and Kansas as a whole, most have a good work ethic; a handshake is still a handshake. You can trust people. There’s no such thing as the other side of

the tracks, or saying that you can’t make it here if you’re not a Harvard MBA grad. There’s an entrepreneurial spirit, and if you have a good idea and are a hard worker, you can start a business and be successful. In Kansas, every body has an opportunity.

central location and outstanding infrastructure has propelled us to the top of the list for com panies looking to make these types of invest ments. Our team has been laser-focused on embracing the new opportunities we’re seeing in this industry.

DID YOU KNOW?

• Kansas was admitted to the Union on Jan. 29, 1861, as the 34th state.

• Even though agriculture is a big industry in Kansas, but far from the biggest: At $6.2 billion in GDP, it’s No. 9 on the list, well down from finance/insurance/ real estate at No. 1 ($29.17 billion), manufacturing ($26.39 billion) at No. 2 and professional services at No. 3 ($18.66 billion). • Kansas has seven public state universities overseen by a Board of Regents and 19 public community colleges. • Tourism is a robust sector in Kansas, yielding more than $7 billion in spending from more than 35 million visitors a year. • Among the attractions that give Kansas its quirky appeal is the World’s Largest Ball of Twine in Cawker City. It now weighs in at more than 10 tons. • The first African American actor to win an Oscar was Wichita native Hattie McDaniel for her portrayal of Mammy in Gone with the Wind (1939).

• The biggest city in Kansas is Wichita, with a 2022 population estimated at 395,700. The most populous county in the state is Johnson County, in the Kansas City suburbs, with 613,219. Together, they are home to more than one-third of the state’s residents.

• The state was named after the Kanza Indians.

• Kansas is dead-center among the 48 contiguous states, and in the middle of that sits Smith County.

• The windiest city in America is Dodge City, in southwest Kansas.

• The state’s GDP is $162.2 billion.

• Most of the 82,000 square miles of the state— 88 percent of its land—is devoted to agriculture.

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Roy Jensen DIRECTOR, UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS CANCER CENTER

Tammy Peterman THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS HEALTH SYSTEM I can’t respond without mention ing the people: We believe people are the most important asset

I came back to Kansas because I be lieved it was the best place to build a Cancer Center that was really focused on cancer-drug discovery. I don’t think I could be successful any place else, because there just isn’t any place else that has the assets that it is going to

of any organization. There are great people everywhere—I believe the combination of competence and humility are trademarks of Kansans. Kansas is full of business lead ers and entrepreneurs, leading and inno vating in our region. We all benefit from the vision and investment made right here.”

take to make this work. No place else has the KU School of Pharmacy … a strongly supportive university administration, a committed state government that puts their money where their mouth is, a partnership with the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, a robust pharmaceutical CRO industry, the JCERT initiative, and a medical center/hospital that is undergoing an incredible renaissance because of visionary leadership.

Keith Hughes CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD, FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF HUTCHINSON

Allan Swan PRESIDENT, PANA SONIC ENERGY OF NORTH AMERICA At Panasonic, we are driving forward EV bat tery manufactur ing capacity and innovation in

Kansans have the same attri butes that we think about here and promote as core values for our company: integrity, honesty, commitment, caring. We throw in the courage to take on new things. That’s what we expect and find in the state of Kansas. The culture in this state is very sound; we have great people, great entrepreneurs in the state, and a lot of people with great ideas willing to take managed risks.

America. Kansas, with its inviting com munity, exceptional talent and vision for the future, is the perfect home for our next chapter and we’re glad to be here.

• Helium was discovered in 1905 by researchers at the University of Kansas, exploring samples taken two years earlier from a natural-gas well drilled in the small town of Dexter. • Wichita is home to the nation’s second-largest private company, Koch Industries, a $115 billion enterprise with vast holdings in energy processing, consumer goods, and other business lines. • The highest point in the state—Mount Sunflower— isn’t a mountain at all; rather, it’s the point where the Great Plains of western Kansas reach their zenith, 3,300 feet higher than the lowest point near the borders of Missouri and Oklahoma. • Among the big national—even global—business brands that started in Kansas are Pizza Hut, White Castle, Learjet, Cessna, the Coleman Co., Rent-a- Center, Residence Inn, Black & Veatch, and more recently, Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers.

• It may be the Sunflower State, but Kansas is surpassed by both Texas and Nebraska in sunflower production.  • The first voting rights for women were introduced in Kansas.  • The helicopter was invented in Kansas. • Both the cowboy boot and cowboy hat were made for the first time in Kansas.  • Thousands of original Hollywood film reels, including Ben Hur, The Wizard of Oz, and Star Wars, are permanently stored deep under- ground at the Kansas Underground Salt Museum in Hutchinson.  • Hutchinson is also home to the world’s largest collection of U.S. and Soviet-era Space Race artifacts at the Kansas Cosmosphere & Space Center.

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KANSAS

MUST DOs IN

Kansas Has What You’re Looking For A wealth of entertainment options calls to residents, visitors. Sporting events, shopping, science—whatever your interests, you’ll find new depths of experience in Kansas. Whether you’re new to the state, just visiting, or a long time resident, the range of exciting, intriguing, and edu cational opportunities is limited only by your imagination. Far from being just another flyover state, Kansas is teeming with attractions you won’t find anywhere else. Take sporting events, for one. The state has two uni versities that are members of the Big XII athletic confer ence, competing against other NCAA schools in a range of sports. Despite being among the smallest institutions in that conference, both play at championship levels in bas ketball and football. Museums your thing? The Kansas Cosmosphere in Hutchinson has a collection of space artifacts from both the U.S. and the former Soviet Union that rival the famed Smithsonian in quality and depth. There’s a presidential museum in Abilene and a tribute to the world’s most fa mous female aviator in her hometown of Atchison. Looking for truly unique experiences? There’s nothing— anywhere in the world—quite like Big Brutus, the long-re tired steam shovel that carved out the coal-mining strip pits of southeast Kansas and now towers over the landscape as a roadside attraction. Let’s not forget, this state is also home to the World’s Largest Ball of Twine (in Cawker City) and

World’s Largest Hand-Dug Well (in Greensburg). Don’t let the endless miles of summer wheat fool you: There’s a lot to do out there. Here are a few of the highlights: ALLEN FIELDHOUSE, LAWRENCE At least once in their lives, college basketball fans must take in a game in this venerable cathedral of college basketball. The 16,300 fans who pack it for virtually every game make for one of the most intimidating venues in America. In fact, they set a Guinness record for the loudest college arena in 2017 when the crowd uncorked a roar that was 130.4 decibels. The Jayhawks have lived up to that by winning 87 percent of their home games since Allen opened in 1954. Considered one of the nation’s premier basketball programs, KU validated that claim by winning the NCAA tournament in 2022. It carried a No. 1 seed into the 2023 NCAA Tournament after winning the regular-season conference championship. • Tickets: Season tickets start at $500 but require an additional donation to the Williams Education Fund on a sliding scale, depending on seating. Individual- game tickets can be purchased through third-party vendors • 1651 Naismith Dr., Lawrence, KS 66044 • www.kuathletics.com • 785.864.8200 BILL SNYDER FAMILY STADIUM, MANHATTAN Take it from Pete Carroll, now head coach of the Seattle Seahawks. he former Southern Cal coach once brought his 11th-ranked Trojans to K-State’s home field, and when he left with a 27-20 loss, he called

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that venue “the most intimidating fans that we have ever played against.’’ The second-smallest school (by enrollment) in the Big XII packs a pret ty powerful punch, especially when it gets to play in front of nearly 52,000 fans on Saturdays in the fall. It’s an experience not to be missed if you’re into college football. The Wildcats have rewarded their faithful with conference championships in 2003, 2012, and again just this past season. • Tickets: Season and individual-game tickets are available through the athletic office website, with packages for 2023 home games starting at $200 or through third-party vendors for single games • 2201 Kimball Ave., Manhattan, KS 66502 • www.kstatesports.com • 800.221.2287 BOTANICA, WICHITA Botanica, the Wichita Gardens should top the list of tourist sites for any horticulturalists. It’s 30 themed gardens appeal to Green Thumbs of all ages, and the center is open year-round. Educational and entertainment assets like the Downing Children’s Garden, the Monster Woods, and Botanica’s treehouse help keep the little ones engaged. You can see flora from across the world and through the centuries with exhibits like the Elizabethan display in the Shakespeare Garden, home to but a few more than 4,000 plant species on display. • Tickets: Adults $10, Seniors/Youth/Military $8, Children 2 and younger are free • 316.264.0448 LEGENDS OUTLETS, KANSAS CITY The day it opened in 2006, The Legends made Wyandotte County the top tourist destination in Kansas. Its collection of retail shops, theaters, nightspots, and restaurants flipped the script on lifestyle center attractions in the Midwest. Most of the shopping has been converted to outlet-mall models, drawing in consumers from well outside the four-state area. It’s part of the $1.2 billion Village West development that sprawls over 1,500 acres, including stadiums for both pro soccer and car racing. • 1843 Village West Pkwy., Kansas City, KS 66111 • www.legendsshopping.com • 913.788.3700 KANSAS SPEEDWAY, KANSAS CITY Owned and operated by NASCAR, the Kansas Speedway is a 1.5-mile oval track racing venue in western Wyandotte County’s Village West entertainment district. It hosts two annual NASCAR events—this year, the AdventHealth

400 in May, and Hollywood Casino 400 in September, among other events. The track opened in 2001 and seats 48,000. • Tickets: Single-event adult tickets start at $54 • 400 Speedway Blvd., Kansas City • www.kansasspeedway.com • 866.460.7223 COSMOSPHERE, HUTCHINSON Incredible artifacts from real space flights can be found in this unique attraction not far from Wich ita. Among those: the very capsule that brought home the three-man crew from the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission. Roughly 150,000 people each year follow the layout’s two tracks that chronologically trace the U.S.-Soviet space race, dating back to the end of World War II, but that exhibit is just one piece of a fascinating set of experiences. • Hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays; 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Sundays. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays • Tickets: $26.50 for adults, $17.50 for children 4-12, $23.50 for seniors. Ages 3 and under are free • 1100 N Plum St, Hutchinson, KS 67501 • www.cosmo.org • 800.397.0330 EXPLORATION PLACE, WICHITA Your kids will take over scheduling for the day when they set foot into this children’s museum on the banks of the Arkansas River in Downtown Wichita. In the Air Capital of the World, you can expect exhibits that will speak to the city’s role in aviation history, but there are also displays and activities featuring geography, meteorology, and the history of Kansas and its people.

• Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m., daily, except for Thursdays, when it’s open 10 a.m.-8 p.m. • Tickets: All-access passes run $17.50 for those older than 12 ($15 for seniors) and $12 for ages 3-11 • 300 N. McLean Blvd., Wichita, Kansas 67203 • www.exploration.org • 316.660.0600 Koch family, have helped Wichita assemble a world-class zoo that rivals those of many major metropolitan areas. The walk-through exhibits like the rain forest make you part of the experience, bringing you face to face with the creatures that inhabit the space. More than 3,000 animals from 400 species take you across Africa, Asia, North America, South America, and Australia. The recent addition of penguins even gives you some of the flavors of Antarctica. • Hours: Daily, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. • Tickets: Book online and get $2 off the gate prices of $22 for adults, $17 for seniors, and $17 for children ages 3-11 • 5555 W. Zoo Blvd., Wichita, KS 67212 SEDGWICK COUNTY ZOO, WICHITA Zoologically inclined donors, including the iconic

• www.scz.org • 316.660.9453

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DESTINATION KANSAS REASONS TO CHOOSE

Centrality and Prime Location

DIVERSE GEOGRAPHIES, ECONOMIES CREATE A MOSAIC OF THRIVING STATEWIDE COMMERCE.

There is no single lifestyle that is ‘typi cally Kansan.’ The state boasts an array of living options, from big-city bustle to small-town charm, from the campuses of research universities to family farms; Kansas has it all. That diversity makes it impossible to provide simple definitions for life in Kan sas, as its prime locations demonstrate. But let’s start with Johnson County, the most populous in Kansas. It is one of the top counties in the country in terms of per capita income and education. Its buy ing power generates a local economy that is difficult to underestimate. One metric that describes its impact: the county is responsible for just under 30 percent of the entire state’s GDP—more than $48 billion. The 104 other counties—com bined—throw off $114 billion in GDP. Major areas here include older north east Johnson County and expanding quad rants south and west. Southern Johnson County contains a broad band of upper bracket residential, retail, and even com mercial development. In the west, devel opment is active along and west of I-435, especially near the K-10 Highway “Smart Corridor” geared to attract businesses in the bioscience and life science industries. Along that same corridor, though, a massive infusion of development capital was announced in 2022 when Panasonic Energy designated De Soto as the home for a $4 billion electric-vehicle battery plant, set to open in 2025. What’s dramatic about this region is the number of other hotspots. Wyandotte Coun ty is increasingly moving toward a position as one of the economic leaders in the region. The Kansas Speedway and surrounding de velopment in the western part of the county are the key factors. Located near the strate gic interchange of I-70 and I-435, the Speed way brings hundreds of thousands of visitors each year to Indy car and NASCAR racing. The location has served as a catalyst for the creation of Village West, a retail and entertainment destination that almost im

mediately became a draw for visitors from four states, with major retail outlets and the 700,000-square-foot Legends Outlets shopping center. Yet that’s not all. From Lawrence to Leavenworth, this region contains sev eral other major thriving areas, as well as numerous smaller areas that attract their share of residential and commercial growth because of advantages such as af fordability and quality of life. Lawrence has grown from a college town to a virtual extension of the Kansas City metropolitan area over the past gen eration and now rivals the larger Johnson County communities of Overland Park and Olathe as a magnet for entertainment, dining, and shopping. The campus of the University of Kansas provides residents of Lawrence with additional cultural ameni ties—museums, artistic venues for theater and dance, and musical options. South-central Kansas is dominated by Wichita, both economically and cul turally. The city’s longstanding history of entrepreneurial development, going back nearly a century with the advent of com mercial aviation, has helped make it the logical choice for rural Kansans looking for more urban lifestyles without the neg atives often associated with the nation’s largest metropolitan areas. Retail trade in Wichita has long revolved

around the commercial nodes that straddle the community. But the bustling growth of the Rock Road corridor on the east side of town, as well as Maize Road to the west, has formed retail and entertainment spines that reach the northern fringes of the community. Topeka, the government seat of the state, has all the benefits of a community of 126,000-plus residents and the added advantage of being just an hour from Downtown Kansas City and only minutes from Lawrence to the east. Downtown Topeka, an area undergo ing a noticeable if not prolonged renewal, contains an unusually high number of gal leries, along with the city’s outstanding range of fine and performing arts offerings. The latter include events at the Topeka Per forming Arts Center, the Civic Theatre and Academy, and the Symphony Orchestra. And across the state, communities for tunate enough to have a university pres ence through the Regents system—Salina, Pittsburg, Emporia, and Hays—also enjoy artistic, entertainment, and retail options envied by many cities of similar size. The availability of higher-paying uni versity jobs also primes the pumps for those local economies, which in turn con tributes to wage structures that, combined with the remarkable quality of life, help provide the population stability missing in many parts of small-town America.

Leveraging Location | Logistics Park Kansas City, in Johnson County, is a stellar example of how the region’s centrality is fueling a boom in industrial, warehousing and distribution spaces.

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DESTINATION KANSAS REASONS TO CHOOSE

BY LAND OR BY AIR, TRAVERSING THE SUNFLOWER STATE IS FAST AND EFFICIENT. BUT IT'S THE QUALITY OF THOSE ASSETS, NOT JUST THEIR NUMBERS, THAT IMPRESSES. Transportation and Infrastructure

The federal interstate highway system in Kansas is both the heart and soul—and while invoking anatomical terms—the backbone of a system that moves freight and people across a span of 82,000 square miles. While there are ample rail and air assets (more on those in a minute), the four-lane (or more), divided, limited ac cess federal system consists of:  Interstate 70, which nearly spans the continent, carrying traffic from Kan sas City, Mo., on the eastern border to the Colorado state line, 424 miles to the west.  Interstate 35, running just over 235 miles from South Haven (on the Oklaho ma border) to the west side of Downtown Kansas City, Mo.  Interstate 35 runs up the middle of the state to the north through Wichita in south-central Kansas and crosses I-70 and continues on to Canada.  The various connecting “belt” in terstate stretches around the Kansas City and Wichita areas, plus the 50-mile spur known as I-335, linking Emporia in east central to I-70 in Topeka. Supplement those with more than three dozen federal highways that, while lacking interstate-system designation, of ten provide interstate-quality driving and shipping conditions—in many cases, at least four lanes, divided, with limited ac cess. That asphalt web, in total, accounts for thousands of high-speed lane miles. Running like layers of a cake across the state, they include (from north to south) U.S. 36, closely following the northern border with Nebraska, U.S. 24, about halfway between that highway and I-70, U.S. 50 from the Colorado border in southwest Kansas to Emporia, before turning northeast to Kansas City; U.S. 54, from Liberal in the far southwest to the Missouri border, and U.S. 160, calving off from U.S. 54 in the southwest to run north of the Oklahoma border all the way to southwest Missouri.

Open Roads | An ample supply of interstate highways, rail lines, and airports helps leverage the unique centrality of Kansas for business and personal travelers alike.

Wherever you are in the state, you’re either close to a high-speed route or close to a link that quickly connects to one. The nice thing about all of those connec tions, though, is that they are generally perceived as being among the best high ways in the nation. Consumer Reports, in a 2022 survey of business owners, ranked Kansas No. 6 nationwide for the quality of its roads. After years of belt-tightening at the state house, draining funds from the Trans portation Department to shore up other needs, Kansas has resumed spending with solid results. The Tax Policy Center reports that the state spent slightly more than $626 per capita on highways last year, compared to the national average of $616. Two large airports—Kansas City In ternational and Dwight D. Eisenhower National in Wichita—provide ample pas senger service, often as connecting flights to larger markets.

KCI enplaned nearly 5 million passen gers last year, while Wichita’s main air port handled 1.54 million. Each site also has a prominent and growing footprint in the air cargo space. KCI’s much more voluminous cargo traffic exceeds 121,000 tons annually. The heavy lifting of transportation, of course, is the rail system that sup ports 14 freight carriers. Nearly 30 mil lion tons of goods ride the 4,748 miles of rails that crisscross the state. Not only do those shippers account for a large work force—4,296 employees as of 2021—but they offer some of the best blue-collar compensation packages in the state: an average of more than $134,000 in 2021. Class I railroads—four of them op erate in the state—accounted for 3,801 miles of the track system, while three re gional railroads operated on 1,503 miles of steel rail. Seven short-line railroads accounted for slightly less than 600 miles of track.

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DESTINATION KANSAS REASONS TO CHOOSE

Cost of Living

HOUSING COSTS ARE THE REAL EYEBROW RAISERS, BUT THE COST STRUCTURES THAT MAKE KANSAS UNUSUALLY AFFORDABLE RUN ACROSS THE SPECTRUM.

Call it the Kansas Advantage—the ability to live a comfortable lifestyle, even on a wage well below coastal compensation rates. How? Because of a low cost of living that makes the Sunflower State one of the nation’s most affordable places to call home. That plays out in various ways. For business—especially those maintaining offices on the more expensive coasts— it means the ability to acquire high level talent at a significant discount. That’s a serious competitive advan- tage right there. For workers, it means taking a step off the hamster wheel of a progressive tax system; they are able to maintain a higher standard of living within a lower tax bracket, compounding the savings from a low cost environment. According to the ACCRA Cost of Living Index for 2022, Kansas ranked No. 3 nationwide for the lowest over- all cost of living, behind only Missis sippi and Oklahoma. Using 100 as a national average across six metrics, the index placed relative costs in Kansas

at 87.5. In other words, for every $100 expended by residents nationwide, Kan sans pay $87.50. Keep in mind: That 100 baseline is a national average. Perhaps it’s unfair to compare life in Kansas with that expe rienced in, say, Hawaii or the nation’s capital, but the fact is, people in those locales are paying $184 (Hawaii) com pared to the $87.50 figure here, and folks in Washington are paying $152.50. Powering that performance is hous ing, a category where Kansas ranks behind only four other states for af fordability. The ACCRA index assigns Kansas a score of 71.1 for housing, using that same 100 as a national average. What’s that look like compared to other states? Well, consider Washing ton, D.C., the most expensive housing market in the lower 48 states. Census estimates for 2022 show the median home value in that market is $615,692. In Kansas? It’s about $157,000, per the Census, or $198,200, according to Zil low, which may be a closer reflection of true market conditions at the time.

In either case, housing in the na tion’s capital easily runs three times what the average Kansan can expect to pay. And the factor is more than 2x in the states of Colorado, Washington, and Massachusetts.

Only Mississippi and Oklahoma have more affordable costs of living than Kansas, which beat the national averages in five of six categories measured.

Housing, though, isn’t the only fac tor creating that low-cost edge. Only four other states have lower overall cost-of-living metrics than Kansas,

Buying Local | One way to hold down the cost of groceries is to live close to the sources of production. In Kansas, residents are smack dab center of the protein value chain for beef, pork and poultry, as well as grains like wheat and corn.

Xxx | Xxx

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which also enjoys a No. 7 ranking for lowest grocery costs, a No. 14 ranking for transportation costs, and near rock bottom at No. 4 for miscellaneous-item costs. And in the two other ACCRA met rics—health care and utilities—the state still runs no worse than the middle of the pack: No. 25 for utilities, still be low the national average, and No. 29 for health care, the only metric where Kan sas runs higher than the national aver age, and just barely, at that.

Grocery costs (93.7 compared to 100) are held in check by virtue of liv ing where a lot of the nation’s pro- tein chain originates—cattle ranching, meat-packing, pork processing, poultry farms and processors—all have major operations in Kansas. Fresh avocados for your toast? Not so much, but with the savings on dietary pillars, there’s plenty left over to splurge. Transportation costs overall (95.6 vs. 100) are comparatively low because people here tend to live near their

work. It’s a measure of how spoiled Kansans are that, in the urban centers, a 20-minute commute in these parts and the gallon of gas consumed are considered impositions. But compare that to day-killing and pricey commuter rail options in the east and the often insufferable highway conditions in the west. The lone metric to exceed national averages does it by the narrowest of margins: 100.4 on health care, a tick over the 100 national mean.

COST OF LIVING BY STATE Xxx

$

RANK

STATE

INDEX

GROCERY

HOUSING

UTILITIES

TRANSPORTATION

HEALTH CARE

MISC. 91.6 90.4 91.6 95.0 95.1 91.3 94.8 92.9 95.3 94.2 99.3 99.9 94.8 97.5 96.9 96.9 94.5 97.5 95.6 98.2 92.9 106.7 97.9 99.0 96.8 99.4 99.4 104.0 102.9 102.3 101.9 102.1 106.9 104.3 114.7 113.1 116.9 105.3 127.2 115.8 109.0 111.7 120.4 115.7 110.9 121.1 118.8 127.5 99.6 99.2 92.7

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Mississippi Oklahoma

85.0 85.8 87.5 88.1 88.6 89.1 89.2 89.9 90.0 90.2 90.6 91.9 91.9 92.2 92.5 92.5 92.6 93.6 94.0 94.3 94.5 94.9 95.5 95.7 97.1 97.5 98.2 99.6 102.8 102.8 102.8 103.2 104.6 104.8 105.6 105.8 112.4 112.9 114.2 115.3 115.9 116.1 116.8 121.2 124.0 126.6 134.5 137.6 149.7

92.4 93.7 93.7 97.6 94.6 95.4 99.5 93.7 98.7 94.4 92.7 99.0 97.4 91.6 90.3 103.2

67.4 70.2 71.1 69.6 75.6 79.9 71.5 77.4 68.8 81.7 77.9 75.3 83.0 81.1 84.7 82.4 82.0 86.7 88.4 81.6 92.9 77.3 85.3 90.0 90.7 84.7 88.1 104.8 107.9 110.2 108.5 115.5 119.8 117.6 105.3 120.6 131.8 117.9 126.0 125.0 132.3 109.7 125.5 147.5 164.0 121.3 193.9 193.8 223.8 251.5 313.5

89.0 95.1 98.0 100.7 90.3 94.8 93.7 94.4 93.8 97.5 94.3 87.1 98.9 82.5 92.7 87.3 89.6 104.0 102.7 110.6 106.1 103.4 89.8 95.3 98.7 97.3 80.6 92.3 99.5 94.6 91.1 84.3 94.3 108.9 101.3 100.4 108.1 124.7 105.0 122.3 114.4 130.3 106.7 106.7 146.2 124.5 124.8 112.6 141.4 88.4 99.5

91.9 90.9 95.6 89.9 89.8 91.8 95.8 94.0 111.2

97.7 91.2 89.6 94.6 92.3 100.4 100.0 89.9 82.0 97.6 97.5 94.8 96.0 98.4 103.4 100.7 100.9 96.4 93.1 91.9 97.3 96.4 96.0 97.1 95.2 95.1 103.9 105.0 103.4 120.6 100.6 110.1 130.6 104.8 104.2 154.4 104.1 110.5 119.8 87.7 95.5 101.8 95.8 94.6 79.0 116.8 109.1 113.8 112.3

Kansas Alabama Georgia Missouri

Iowa

Indiana

West Virginia Tennessee

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51

90.5 91.9 96.5 98.9 98.7 92.4 97.8 96.6 98.6 90.9 92.3 95.2 91.0 99.0 99.4

Arkansas

Ohio

Nebraska Michigan

Texas

Wyoming

Illinois

98.5 97.4 98.6

105.8

Louisiana New Mexico South Carolina South Dakota

100.3 104.3

Kentucky Wisconsin

93.5 97.5 97.7

105.3

North Carolina North Dakota

102.4 100.7 104.6

Minnesota

Pennsylvania

104.7 112.6 108.0

Idaho Utah

96.3

100.2

Virginia Florida Nevada Colorado Montana Delaware Arizona

96.1

95.9 98.7

105.4 104.2 100.9 105.3 101.5 106.2 108.5 103.4 106.2 105.3 103.0 107.9 111.4 134.1 112.3 115.2 114.0 109.3 150.1 95.3 98.4

115.2 101.7 106.8 114.6 101.3 106.6 109.4 114.1 118.1 118.3 106.9 109.8 132.4 103.1 118.0 109.0 129.1 128.1 108.5 125.7

New Jersey Rhode Island Washington

Maine

Vermont

New Hampshire

Connecticut

Oregon

Maryland

Alaska

New York California

Massachusetts

District of Columbia 152.2

99.1

Hawaii

184.0

118.1

U.S.

100

100

100

100

100

100

100

Source: C2ER, Council for Community & Economic Research

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DESTINATION KANSAS REASONS TO CHOOSE

THE SIMPLE FACT: YOUR HOUSING DOLLAR BUYS MORE HOME IN KANSAS. A LOT MORE. BUT COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE PRESENTS REAL VALUE FOR BUSINESSES, AS WELL. Real Estate Values

During America’s westward ex pansion in the 1860s, fueled by the Homestead Act of 1862, the popula tion of Kansas more than tripled, from 107,000 a year before statehood to more than 364,000 in 1870, the first census that included it as a state. The terms suggested some back breaking work for settlers, but the pay off after five years of toil was a 160-acre parcel to claim as their own. The value proposition of real estate in Kansas has changed over the past 160 years, but compared to the 49 other states in the union, the Sunflower State is all about affordability. According to Zillow.com, the av erage price of a home in the United States is $328,745. In Kansas? It’s just $203,527—a discount of better than 38 percent. That’s not just 38 percent cheaper on the sales price; it implies lower property taxes and insurance costs as well. Plug in the current home-buying parameters of 7.02 percent for a 30 year loan, with 10 percent down. The Kansas average would leave buyers with monthly payments of $1,571— principal, interest, taxes, insurance, and PMI all rolled into that price. At the national average for a home, those same terms would command a monthly payment of $2,379. For most families, a difference of more than $800 in the monthly housing budget would be lifestyle-changing. Of course, the closer you get to the cultural and business hubs of the state—the Kansas City suburbs, Wich ita and Topeka in particular—the more housing prices skew away from state wide averages. Johnson County, in fact, was higher than the national average, at $393,000, but Wichita was less than half that—$181,000—and was even less than the statewide average. And Topeka was the most affordable of all

three markets, at $163,506. At the bottom of the scale are the more rural, less densely populated ex panses like Chautauqua County in south east Kansas. There, the average home

footage, prices were still commanding a $1.16 premium per square foot over market-wide rates of $21.91. With industrial, Johnson County is part of the exploding logistics scene in

Affordability | This home recently listed by Wichita-based realty firm J.P. Wiegand & Sons precisely demonstrates the Kansas Value Proposition: Three bedrooms, two full baths, nearly 2,000 square feet, on a quarter-acre lot—with an asking price 20 percent below the national average of $348,000.

price early in 2022 was just $90,000. On the commercial realty side, con ditions in Kansas mirror those around the country in that it depends on which niche you’re in—office, retail, or in dustrial. The pandemic era clobbered office occupancy rates, which peaked at 24 percent last year in Wichita, the state’s largest city. That has pulled lease rates down more than 10 percent to about $14.33 per square foot. Johnson County’s office vacancies, at 19.5 percent, were a bit lower than the Kansas City market overall as the COVID-19 hangover persisted. But in the hottest subsector of southern Johnson County, which has more than three times the northern half’s square

the Kansas City region, with millions of square feet of new construction coming online each year and being snapped up right away. With a 5.0 percent vacancy rate as 2022 ended, lease rates stood at $5.26 per square foot. In neighboring Wyandotte County, the vacancy rate was even lower, at 4.1 percent, but lease rates were at $4.44 per square foot. And Wichita, with a considerably smaller footprint in the industrial sector (it has just 4 million square feet, compared to John son County’s 106.5 million), a 5 per cent vacancy rate helped keep lease rates at a more robust $5.78 per square foot.

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Education and the Workforce

TOP-TIER K-20 ASSETS HELP FILL THE SUNFLOWER STATE LABOR PIPELINE.

With apologies to third-grade gram mar school teachers everywhere, educa tion in Kansas ain’t what it used to be. The changes affecting K-20 educa tion are broad and deep, and they are taking place in every corner of the Sunflower State. For the Kansas econ omy and the employers that fuel the engine of growth, much is at stake with what’s happening in the classroom. Consider, though, the range of op portunities for that change:  Under the aegis of the Kansas Board of Regents, the state has six tra ditional public universities and one mu nicipal university that, combined, en- rolled 88,000 students last year.  The Regents also oversee 19 com munity colleges dispersed throughout the state, and in many cases, those in stitutions are often the biggest employ ers in their host cities. Those two-year schools, which generally produce work ers that fill the most immediate employ er needs, enrolled 60,000 students last year.  On the private-college side, 20 institutions are members of the Kansas Independent College Association. They comprise a diverse learning ecosystem with intimate campuses that have as few as 300 students to liberal arts set tings, many of them faith-based in their mission, with enrollments as high as 3,600.  At the K-12 level, the state has 285 public school districts serving more than 500,000 students. They range from a few hundred students in size to more than 46,000 in the biggest urban district in Wichita. Within that uni verse are at least 200 largely rural dis tricts that have fundamentally different operational and budgeting parameters than their urban and suburban coun terparts. That makes coordinating and executing policy for a geographically and demographically diverse universe especially challenging.

At every level, much is taking place to reorient the educational system to improve academic achievement and produce the next generation of the Kan sas workforce, with a particular focus on the most in-demand jobs and careers. That starts at the earliest levels. Kansas directed more than $6.6 billion to K-12 education last year, including $4.5 billion from the state’s General Fund budget—more than half of that fund’s total annual receipts.

the seventh-oldest in the United States. Regents schools issued more than 22,700 diplomas of all types last year, including nearly 14,750 bachelor’s, 6,180 master’s, and 1,612 doctoral de grees. Filling that pipeline to the work force has pushed the percentage of college-educated Kansans to 34.4 per- cent, topping the national average of 33.7 percent. At the secondary level, public school districts are reaping the rewards of ef

Grow Your Own | With programs in medicine, nursing and pharmacy, the University of Kansas School of Medicine helps drive high-quality health care for patients across the state.

On state-funded college campuses, Regents programs had total operating expenditures of $2.72 billion in 2022, much of it aimed at instruction to sup port a range of diverse industries, in cluding advanced manufacturing and life sciences. Regents schools also in clude the state’s schools of medicine and law (at the University of Kansas), veterinary medicine (Kansas State Uni versity), and the aerospace engineering program at Wichita State University, serving the Air Capital of the World, is

forts to keep older students engaged through graduation. The Kansas State Department of Education reports that for 2022, the graduation rate for pub lic high schools ticked up to 89.1 per cent. That’s the highest graduation rate since the state adopted the cur- rent calculation rate in 2010, and when you add in those who attain GED certification, 91.6 percent of the working-age population holds a diplo ma, compared to the national figure of 88.9 percent.

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