Ingram's May 2024

The More Things Change …

Major pillars that define business here are stronger than ever.

by Dennis Boone

Health Care America’s health-care system entails much more than acute-care facilities, but even that slice is a dominant share here. This year, 10 of the Top 25 companies on Ingram’s 100 list of the region’s biggest enterprises were either hospitals, health care insurers, or employee-health-plan brokers. The marketplace we know today was shaped largely by developments over the past 25 years: The 1998 creation of a pub lic health authority to relieve the state of Kansas from management of a financially struggling University of Kansas Hospital. That triggered the biggest turnaround in regional health-care fortunes, creating what today is the region’s largest institu tion in terms of either revenues or pa tient admissions. In 2002, the Nashville-based for profit hospital company HCA entered the market by snapping up hospitals flying the Health Midwest flag. Today, that divi sion, with seven hospitals, supplemented by specialty-care centers and physician offices, is nearly step-for-step with KU Health System in terms of market share. And the past three decades saw the ex pansion of another KC-centric enter prise, Saint Luke’s Hospital, establish a metro-wide footprint with hospital facili ties in Lee’s Summit, Overland Park and the Northland, a profile that may change further, with a Missouri-wide target mar ket after the recent merger into the BJC HealthCare system based in St. Louis. As a group, health-care interests gen erate the greatest number of jobs in this region’s economy: 82,386 jobs last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statis tics. Construction/Design At one point, the Kansas City region was able to declare itself as the nation’s capital for engineers on a per-capita basis.

Unlike major financial centers in the U.S., major manufacturing nodes and ma jor transportation hubs, where a sharp downturn in a key sector can wreak havoc across the region, Kansas City has long been known for the rich diversity of its commercial ecosystem. And the diversity isn’t static. We’re branching into new spheres. For most of its history, this region was known, first, as a transportation center: The Missouri River, flowing to the Mis sissippi and then the Gulf Coast, opened the vast expanse of Louisiana Purchase territory to exploration, settlement and commerce. The railroads that came in the mid-19th century connected us to emerging population centers on either coast and helped establish us as an agri business capital. The 20th century saw this region make its bones as a center for financial services and health care. Over the past half-century, the trans portation piece has blossomed into a new level of logistical prominence, espe cially in the 21st-century transformation of consumer buying habits. The need to ship goods quickly made our centrality the most important determinant in the massive building boom for warehousing and distribution over the past 15 years. That same 50-year run has witnessed the emergence of what today is often dubbed the Silicon Prairie, where companies spe cializing in health-care IT and informat ics and financial-services technology are booming. And most recently, we’ve seen pro found shifts in the construction of huge data centers that will help drive the pres ence of innovative companies exploring new frontiers in artificial intelligence and Big Data. The manufacturing sector, a longtime strength, is adding new sinew with advanced manufacturing—witness the looming startup of production in sub urban Johnson County, where Panasonic

Energy’s electric-vehicle battery plant is set to go online in 2025. That $4 billion project is the most expensive investment in the his tory of economic development in Kansas. All of those developments have fu eled the growth of a metro region that once consisted of an employment hub— Downtown and the central business dis trict—ringed by a series of suburbs that saw significant growth after World War II, followed by a secondary burst of ex pansion that started about 50 years ago with the completion of the Interstate 435 ring around the metro area. During that span, the population of the metro area has doubled, and our understanding of what constitutes a sub urbs has shifted from those inner-ring bedroom communities well beyond the confines of Jackson County in Missouri or Johnson County in Kansas. As a result today’s Kansas City Metropolitan Statis tical area roams across 318 square miles in 14 counties. Here’s a look at some of the changing nature of key business sectors over the 50-year span: Agribusiness Almost from the city’s inception, we’ve had a hand in feeding a growing country. That role intensified with the invention of the refrigerated rail car in the 19th century, allowing New Yorkers to sample beef from the heartland. More than a century ago, Associated Wholesale Gro cers took the first steps to becoming one of the nation’s biggest grocery-dis tribution players, and Seaboard Corp. began its first steps from grain milling to becoming a global shipper of poul try and pork. A Michigan company that relocated here under the name Lansing Trade Group—we know it today as the local division of The Andersons—would emerge as a powerful force in grain stor age, milling and futures trading.

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I ngr am ’ s

Kansas City’s Business Media

May 2024