Missouri
Buchanan County
Company Expands Presence USA 800, an employee-owned, inbound customer service center, had broken ground to expand their facility in St. Joseph by 10,000 square feet. The extra space will include an additional 240 work-stations and will be completed by mid-March 2007. The company employs 440 firmwide and 200 in St. Joseph.
Clay County
600 More Opt In for Buyout
About 600 employees at its Claycomo plant have accepted buyouts from Ford Motor Co. The departures will be staggered throughout next year. Company-wide, about 38,000 hourly union workers, or 46 percent of its union workforce, have accepted buyouts. Ford employs a total of about 5,500 workers at its Claycomo plant, which produces Ford’s F-series truck, Escape SUV and the Mazda Tribute SUV, as well as hybrid versions of the two SUVs.
Jackson County
KC Gains Large Convention
Educational Testing Service has committed to book what would be Kansas City’s largest convention for two years, 2008 and 2009. About 3,500 people will come to Kansas City each year. The convention will run each year from June 1 through June 15 and will use nearly every hotel room from Downtown through the Country Club Plaza.
HOK Hired by Minnesota Twins The Minnesota Twins have hired HOK Sport Venue Event as its lead architect for a new $522 million ballpark. The firm expects to have 15 to 20 employees working on the project. The ballpark is expected to open in 2010. American Century Buys NeighborAmerican Century Investments has purchased the former headquarters of H&R Block, which is immediately north of its offices. The mutual-fund company plans to move 600 employees to the 144,000 square foot building by next summer. The operations being shifted are primarily the retail
services side of American Century. Saint Luke’s Tops Again
Saint Luke’s Health System received the 2006 Missouri Qual-ity Award. This is the first win for the system as a whole. Saint Luke’s Hospital received the award in 1995, 1999 and 2002. The Missouri Quality Award is modeled after the Malcolm Baldrige Nat-ional Quality Award and is recognized as one of the strongest state-level quality awards programs in the country.
Platte County
Involuntary Annexation Stirs Controversy Platte City officials are keen to annex some 4,900 acres of sparsely populated land adjacent to city limits, which an overwhelming majority of city residents last year said they would approve. The land is primarily divided into two segments and was reduced from the original 6,500 acres—leaving out the most heavily concentrated residential areas. Voters may go to the polls as early as February 2007 to decide the issue. Kansas
Johnson County
Euronet Buys California Competitor Euronet Worldwide has agreed to buy Ria Envia Inc in a deal estimated at $490 million. Ria Envia provides money transfer services. The company owns 98 stores in 13 countries. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2007.
InvestMidwest Deadline Looming
The InvestMidwest Venture Capital Forum, a showcase for the best technology and high-growth companies in the Midwest, will be April 10 and 11 at the Sprint campus in Overland Park. But entrepreneurs wanting to make presentations need to submit applications in the next few weeks. The early bird deadline is December 15, while the final deadline is January 12. Last year, 30 high-growth companies presented to investors from 40 national and regional venture capital firms. Companies that have presented at InvestMidwest during its first six years have raised more than $250 million in equity investment.
Miami County
Property Taxes Surge Upward Homeowners and entrepreneurs throughout Miami County may be in for some sticker shock regarding property values. The north and northeast areas of the county registered the greatest increases, given their proximity to the Greater Kansas City metro area. The Miami County portion of Spring Hill posted the largest percentage in-crease—16.6 percent from last year to this year. Louisburg witnessed a 12 percent annual increase.
Shawnee County
Agency to Hire 90 Employees The Veterans Affairs Health Rev-enue Center is expected to hire 90 additional employees. The center, established in 2002, is set up to re-spond to health benefits eligibility and billing inquiries from veterans. In general, the positions are for telephone contact representatives and include federal benefits.
Wyandotte County
KU Hospital Offers $400 Million The University of Kansas Hospital has offered an affiliation proposal of nearly $400 million to the Univ-ersity of Kansas Medical Center, representing nearly $400 million more than the hospital’s current support of the medical center, which now stands at about $30 million a year. The proposal includes conditions, such as a 10-year master affiliation agreement and the exclusion of Saint Luke’s Hospital as a site for certain medical residency affiliations.