Plans to fully transport Kansas City International Airport into the 21st Century and exploit fully its impact on economic development were unveiled in a formal report in May 2005. With suggestions for on-site business incentives, new roadway initiatives and a greater level of inter-agency cooperation, the proposal seeks to reverse what has been considered slow economic development results from the airport, which opened in 1972.

Within a span of three days, business and community leaders had three opportunities to view the “Kasarda Plan.” This 160-page study outlines an economic development effort that, if successful, could impact all of Platte County and the Northland.

“This study takes KCI and Kansas City to where they should be going in order to maximize the potential that everyone’s talked about for 30 some years,” said Pete Fullerton, executive director of the Platte County Economic Development Council. “This helps us really look at how to make the airport a major player in making this corridor achieve the greatness it should.”

Jointly commissioned by the Kansas City Department of Aviation and the Platte County EDC, the study was conducted by John D. Kasarda, Ph.D., director of the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Among the highlights, the plan called for development of a virtual airport city, an “aerotropolis” that will include KCI’s 10,000 acres and involve large portions of Platte County that surround the facility.

Timing for the effort is significant. Kansas City Manager Wayne Cauthen came here in 2003 following success with development at Denver International Airport. Locally, development along the I-29 corridor and surrounding the airport is accelerating, although much of that development is unrelated to aircraft.

“Many of the new top employers have nothing to do with the travel business,” Fullerton noted. “If we could add that and other airport-related development, the mix would be much healthier.”

In one respect, the slow pace of airport development may be an advantage. The report noted that nowhere in the country is there a major airport with such a vast area of open land within a 15- to 20-minute radius. This relative openness provides property that is ready for development based on 21st Century logistics and “aerotropolis principles,” rather than being built with older technology.

Carrying the recommendations to reality will not be easy. A multitude of jurisdictions, funding issues and market forces will be involved. However, the study quickly drew a number of comments that come down to a simple conclusion: why didn’t they think of that before?

Kasarda said the most obvious recommendations are physical: creation of a KCI business park, completion of a roadway circling the airport, and promotion of retail and other development to provide a more comprehensive business environment. The study also recommends expansion and better alignment of existing Foreign Trade and Enterprise zones to help create an “airport city” and related economic development.

With air cargo seen as a priority, the plan calls for positioning KCI as a leading multimodal air logistics hub that will attract commercial development linked to the airport. The report notes the need to better integrate facilities that are already present: air, highway and possibly rail transportation along with high-tech communication services.

In the report, Kasarda notes KCI’s advantages are so significant that extensive growth will occur regardless of the study. “The question is, will such development occur intelligently, fully leveraging KCI and providing the economic, environmental and aesthetic returns that bring the area long-term competitive advantage and better quality of life,” he said. “Or will it occur in the spontaneous, haphazard, economically inefficient and unsightly manner that has characterized development around so many other major U.S. commercial airports?”

Existing plans will play a role. The extension of Tiffany Springs Parkway west from I-29 would provide a logical entrance into a new KCI business park and provide a key connection with I-435. The biggest challenge is funding the estimated $30 million project.

Another existing plan involves extension of Ambassador Drive, which will connect the area, which now holds Boardwalk Square and nearby Zona Rosa, with airport-related commercial development to the north.

“Punching Ambassador from Boardwalk Square up toward the airport…basically opens the equivalent of Kansas City’s Corporate Woods,” noted area development attorney Tim Kristl. “That has huge office and commercial potential.”

The airport vicinity clearly has room for extensive growth. Approved development proposals now on the drawing board include 14.5 million square feet of office, 17.8 million square feet of industrial and 2.6 million square feet of retail—potential employment for 250,000 people.

Kasarda reported that one element lacking to drive this development is a central focus. “What the KCI Business District and Aero-tropolis require is an airport-anchored core business development, much like a central business district of a metropol-itan central city,” he noted. “Such a core business development already has been proposed and substantial efforts taken toward its realization. This is the forward-looking concept of Kansas City International Air Business Park.”

As an answer, Kasarda recommended a business park on 640 acres in the undeveloped southeastern sector of the airport property. It leverages the aviation and air cargo facilities with the nearby highway network to attract time-sensitive manufacturers, distributors and service providers. Efforts to examine development and marketing of the property began almost as soon as the report was published.

Driving demand for all this activity would be the creation of an “air logistics hub,” an integrated multimodal transportation and industrial complex that would enable companies surrounding KCI and throughout the region to respond rapidly to suppliers and customers.

Costs for the work would be extensive. Road improvements to access the business park will only begin with Tiffany Springs’ $30 million. Rail and other costs would equal or exceed that amount.

Besides funding, other hurdles include possible legislative issues relating to Enterprise Zones and the airport’s operation and authority. Kasarda noted, however, that one obstacle was already being addressed: better cooperation to accelerate processes such as building permits.

The most urgent recommendation in the study involved timing. Kasarda noted that delay could preclude the city, county and region from realizing the full economic potential that KCI and its nearby multimodal infrastructure offers. He indicated that several residential projects are developing on land near the airport that would be better suited for commercial development.

Other aspects of KCI’s timing bring optimism. By 2005, boardings had increased following the post-9-11 slump, even exceeding national averages. In one month of 2005, the airport hosted 650,598 passengers through its gates, an increase of 2.3 percent for the same period the previous month. In the first quarter of 2005, boardings were up three percent, well above the national average of one percent. KCI also celebrated the completion of a $258 million terminal improvement project that enhanced operations and reduced costs at the 33-year-old facility.

The airport’s consolidated rental car facility also began construction in 2005. When finished, the $90 million project will make traveling faster and more convenient.

With groundbreaking held this winter, crews have completed much of the demolition and some rough grading of the old satellite parking lot area, which previously had occupied the space. Soon, construction for the new facility will begin, creating a convenient, one-stop rental car center. Completion is scheduled for early 2007.

Every section of the metropolitan Kansas City area may claim to be the "prime expansion area."

Jackson County is the region's core. Cass County has almost unlimited space. Wyandotte is experiencing a real renaissance to match its annual Renaissance Festival. And Johnson County? What else can you say? It's Johnson County.

But the Northland may have finally drawn an inside straight in the area's economic development poker game. After years of underdevelopment, Clay and Platte counties are now seeing some of the most dynamic expansion in metropolitan Kansas City. Even during recent economic pessimism, new construction, plans and permits scarcely slowed in virtually every category.

One reason is a variation on the "location, location, location" theme. Because of its historic status as something of a metropolitan step-child, the Northland has huge tracts of land served by utilities and open for development--and only minutes from both downtown and KCI. It's a combination that is unique to the region and one that promises to make most developers' hearts skip.

Actually, several developers have already taken advantage of the situation. One of the most imaginative involved not open land but a former rock quarry where Charles Garney built Briarcliff West, now one of the city's finest collections of luxury homes and upscale commercial development. What is instructive about this still ongoing development is that Garney was able to find essentially unused space literally overlooking downtown Kansas City.

Similarly open tracts are owned by diverse organizations such as Hunt Midwest, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the city of Riverside. Already under construction are major developments such as Shoal Creek and Zona Rosa, mixed use projects that promise impact well beyond even Clay and Platte counties.

The Northland's progress involves more than just empty space. Enough development is now underway to create a momentum that in turn is generating more development. Projects that had been on hold are being taken off the shelf and updated because the growing population and commercial traffic now make them feasible.

Highway 152 from I-35 to I-29 appears largely empty except for recent housing growth and the dynamic commercial area near I-29. That will change rapidly as a cascade of projects take shape: retail centers, a major theater complex and upscale offices are currently under construction or have broken ground.

Near 152 and I-435 Hunt Midwest and others are building several mixed- use developments. Other significant projects include an upscale retail, office and residential project near Maple Woods Community College.

Some Northland development is hard to see. Many of the area's finest developments are tucked into green hills and out of sight. Riss Lake in Parkville, for example, is a nice residential areas but is virtually invisible from nearby I-29.

Far more visible is retail develop-ment along the I-29 corridor with Boardwalk Square, the Shops at Boardwalk and BarryWoods. Across I-29 to the west, Zona Rosa is expected to begin opening in 2004 and quickly become a premier regional shopping destination.

Commercial and industrial growth are equally dramatic, but less easy to categorize. The area's heaviest concentration of industrial develop-ment remains in North Kansas City. The original, 1929 district and the newer, Paseo Industrial District remain vital, with expansions and new tenants announced every year.

Another area is overlooked because it is not very visible: Hunt Midwest's SubTropolis is the world's largest underground business complex with more than 4.5 million square feet of leased space. It holds more than 50 local, national and inter- national businesses, including a foreign trade zone. Northland "recycling" may see its most elaborate chapter in Riverside where that city has used funds from one of the

Northland's three riverboat casinos for a dramatic, city-wide rebirth. The latest and largest project is a massive levee to protect 1,200 acres of potentially prime development. The city is designing an upscale mixed-use project designed to be a regional showcase.

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graphic content without permission is prohibited. | Destination Northland is a supplement to Ingram's Magazine