AMC to move 450 employees from downtown to Leawood in 2013 (Kansas City: condo, crime)

[lifelongMOgal]

That is a huge loss for downtown.

AMC Entertainment will move its headquarters to Leawood?s Park Place - Kansas City Business Journal

[kcmo]

Just tossed my AMC vip card. Will never again set foot in an AMC theater. Ever.

45 million in cash to build a 30 million dollar building and move a company 15 miles within same metro where no employees will move (only change commutes)? And to a wealthy suburb on top of that? It really doesn't get much more absurd than that.

[aragx6]

I can't even blame AMC for this. They're a company and they want to make money. It's government's job to not hand out tax incentives like flippin candy bars in some pathetic attempt to "win"

No place is perfect, obviously, but the system is so broken here as to seriously begin affecting my overall opinon of this metro.

Pathetic.

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by aragx6

I can't even blame AMC for this.

I can't either, but I will. I spend a lot in AMC theaters and always went out of my way to go to them. I'm dead serious, I won't go to one again.

But yea, if somebody gave me $800,000 to move from my $120,000 old condo in the city to a $600,000 home in a brand new subdivision and still had money left over to pay off all my credit cards and buy two brand new cars, I would probably do it no matter how much I hate suburbs.

But still shame on AMC for taking the bait and especially shame on Kansas. Most people in KC will see this as KCMO failing and Kansas prospering which shows just how brainwashed people in KC really are.

The state of Kansas must be loaded. That's all I can say and for the life of me, I can't figure out why companies are not lined up waiting to get into Kansas from all over the country because you really don't see incentives like this thrown around anywhere else. Not at this level and certainly not for a wealthy suburban location. It just shows how desperate KS is because nobody from outside the area is interested in KS no matter the incentives and so KS has to buy companies, and boy do I mean buy them from KCMO.

[MOKAN]

Originally Posted by kcmo

I can't either, but I will. I spend a lot in AMC theaters and always went out of my way to go to them. I'm dead serious, I won't go to one again.

But yea, if somebody gave me $800,000 to move from my $120,000 old condo in the city to a $600,000 home in a brand new subdivision and still had money left over to pay off all my credit cards and buy two brand new cars, I would probably do it no matter how much I hate suburbs.

But still shame on AMC for taking the bait and especially shame on Kansas. Most people in KC will see this as KCMO failing and Kansas prospering which shows just how brainwashed people in KC really are.

The state of Kansas must be loaded. That's all I can say and for the life of me, I can't figure out why companies are not lined up waiting to get into Kansas from all over the country because you really don't see incentives like this thrown around anywhere else. Not at this level and certainly not for a wealthy suburban location. It just shows how desperate KS is because nobody from outside the area is interested in KS no matter the incentives and so KS has to buy companies, and boy do I mean buy them from KCMO.

Maybe because Kansas and Kansas City are not that attractive to companies scouting new locations. When was the last time a large corporation came to the KC metro?

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by MOKAN

Maybe because Kansas and Kansas City are not that attractive to companies scouting new locations. When was the last time a large corporation came to the KC metro?

Actually KCMO has brought some pretty nice companies to town over the years. Some are no longer in KC (Tranamarica for example), but they have brought in some nice catches and continue to do so. Go back over the last year and you will find more companies from out of town moved to the MO side than the KS side while the 90% of the new jobs in KS were poached from KCMO.

JoCo lands a call center once in a while. Much of what KS brings to the metro simply comes from KCMO and they are often companies that KCMO brought in from outside the metro only to have KS steal them once they get established in MO and can use incentives to lure them over.

Missouri does not go after Kansas companies like KS does to MO and if they do get into a economic bidding war, they won't offer NEAR as much cash and incentives as KS does because they know it's not worth it.

What's really sad is how kansas people are so completely brainwashed that this is good for KS and what's even more sad is how stories like this tend to be supported by most people in joco as just an example of kcmo failing and people actually enjoying such perceived failure as a positive for kansas. You will find examples of this in the comments section of any media source that reports moves like this.

Again, all this crap is the one thing that makes me so glad I no longer live in KC. The state line is a total disaster there.

And people wonder why there is so much resentment toward KS from MO side residents. At least those MO side residents that pay attention to what's going on.

[xenokc]

Originally Posted by kcmo

Again, all this crap is the one thing that makes me so glad I no longer live in KC. The state line is a total disaster there.

Of all the factors a person would consider to choose a place to live, this is a high one for you? If this is KC's primary problem, most would take this problem over say, the hassles of living in larger cities.

I agree the state line divisions are an issue and in this case the resources should be spent on bringing in outside companies, not battle each other. But it's hardly something that makes it unappealing to live here. Not even remotely a factor for most (nearly all) people who decide to live here.

[Mathguy]

KS is putting it's money into these types of initiatives.

MO is putting HUGE sums of money into tourism initiatives to draw metro $$$ to the state. (Look at the road construction leading to branson etc. over the past 10-20 years alone) Then you have places like the Sprint Center (which I will be at spending hundreds on Friday) and the new 400+million Kauffman center not to mention all the incentives for the pro-teams.

So basically, KS is poaching businesses while MO poaches huge sums of entertainment related $$$ by subsidizing those efforts.

Really, at what point do we get to hate on MO for their efforts to crush any attempt by KS to move up from something like 49th in state tourism revenue?

P.S. City wage tax of 1% and having to send your kid to private schools @ 12k a year aren't going to help matters either. Companies hear these complaints too and impacts thier ability to hire and retain employees.

[kcmo]

^ tongue in cheek, it has zero impact, but it's by far one of the most annoying things about KC and I don't miss hearing directly from people how ghetto, crime ridden, corrupt etc my home town is or how the kcmo etax is so bad etc from the people that freeload off all the things I used to fund via taxes plus my own etax contribution.

It's just annoying and it wouldn't keep me from living there, but KC would be a much nicer town if the metro wasn't at war with itself on every issue.

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by Mathguy

KS is putting it's money into these types of initiatives.

MO is putting HUGE sums of money into tourism initiatives to draw metro $$$ to the state. (Look at the road construction leading to branson etc. over the past 10-20 years alone) Then you have places like the Sprint Center (which I will be at spending hundreds on Friday) and the new 400+million Kauffman center not to mention all the incentives for the pro-teams.

So basically, KS is poaching businesses while MO poaches huge sums of entertainment related $$$ by subsidizing those efforts.

Really, at what point do we get to hate on MO for their efforts to crush any attempt by KS to move up from something like 49th in state tourism revenue?

P.S. City wage tax of 1% and having to send your kid to private schools @ 12k a year aren't going to help matters either. Companies hear these complaints too and impacts thier ability to hire and retain employees.

What in the world are you talking about? What does building roads in Branson have to do with Kansas stealing companies from kcmo? You Kansans will find any excuse in the book to justify this stuff won't you? I'm sorry Kansas is not a tourism state. I guess the only way to fix that is for KS to steal KCMO's museums, sports teams, etc. I'm sure it would if it could.

And for the love of god, stop with the etax and schools being an even remote reason for these moves. Taxes are lower in MO and there are plenty of fine suburban school districts within 10-30 minutes of Downtown KC, Park Hill being in the city limits itself and only 10 minutes from downtown. Most people DON'T have school aged kids anyway and none of this matters because a company like AMC isn't going to give a rip about schools when looking for a place to office. Do you honestly think that kcmo's urban problems are unique to kc??? They took the cash and ran. As soon as people in KC accept that for what it is, the sooner it will stop and that 47 million can be used for something more productive.