Ingram's October 2023

IN THE NEWS

Tidbits of Business News from Around the Region

for an undisclosed sum. Word of the sale emerged after a joint partnership of firms based in California and Michigan defaulted on a $295 million loan earlier this year. Among the prospective new owners is HP Village Partners, which owns Highland Park Village in Dallas, and an investor who is married to a descendant of H.L. Hunt, father of Chiefs founder Lamar Hunt, and grandfather of the team’s current ownership siblings. KANSAS DOUGLAS COUNTY Housing Market Projection A Wichita State economist projects that the tight home sales market in Douglas County will likely remain that way before eventually loosening up late next year. By then, said Stan Longhofer of WSU’s Center for Real Estate, prospec tive buyers will have resigned themselves to higher interest rates, which he thinks could recede a bit to 6 percent by then.

Addressing Lawrence real estate agents recently, he said he anticipates home sales in Lawrence and other large cities in the state to be flat for another year. JOHNSON COUNTY Panasonic Hiring Ramps Up Panasonic Energy’s plans to employ 4,000 people at the battery-production plant under construction in De Soto are gathering momentum. The company says it has identified a senior leadership team, and its corporate site lists more than 200 jobs it needs to fill by next spring, including production managers, BIM designers, and controls engineers. Nearly 1,000 are slated to be on staff by next fall, and the $4 billion plant is scheduled to open in 2025.

or trail—and within 50 feet of a city sidewalk—in response to growing numbers of homeless encampments. The measure, which is set to take effect in December, would provide an excep tion for those campers authorized by the city or property owner, but for no more than 10 days within a six-month period. Two local development companies are among the firms that have emerged as candidates to remake the site of the former Indian Springs Mall at 47th and State Avenue in Kansas City, Kan. Block & Co., Realtors, in partnership with Christie Development Associates, plus Copaken Brooks and Oak Impact Group of California were chosen to submit plans for the site, which was razed in 2016. It sat vacant for 15 years after the last anchor tenant retailer left the mall in 2001. WYANDOTTE COUNTY Mall Site Competition Set

SHAWNEE COUNTY Homelessness Response

The City Council has voted to ban camping within 500 feet of any levy

Coming in January:

th Anniversary Special Edition

A special commemorative issue that will look back on how Kansas City’s business infrastructure has evolved since the first publication of Corporate Report (forerunner of Ingram’s), was published in 1974. We’ll cover the people and companies that built this region over the years, take note of the biggest stories in our publication’s history, and look ahead to what the next half century might bring.

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I ng r am ’ s

October 2023

Ingrams.com