Sprint Campus running out of room after many companies poached from KCMO fill it up. (Kansas City: real estate, sublease)

[kcmo]

Sprint campus fills bigger spaces, shifts focus to smaller tenants - Kansas City Business Journal

Phil Kirk, a former chairman of DST Realty, released a study last year indicating that the low sublease rates are only part of the story. The report indicated that an $18-a-square-foot lease rate effectively drops to $10, or as low as $5, when other economic development incentives offered to companies relocating to the Sprint campus are factored in.

Class A office space rents for the $25 a square foot normally.

So an office campus that was built with incentives is now using incentives to undercut other offices in the metro along with incentives to poach jobs from MO like PEAK.

After stealing Fishnet, Keybank, JP Morgan etc from KCMO, I guess the Sprint Campus will now have to look at smaller KCMO based companies to poach.

It's really neat how Kansas is in the office real estate business! Must be nice to live in a state where tax money is used for corporate welfare when it could go to transit, schools and roads!

[adebord]

The schools and roads are already great and don't create too many jobs that aren't entirely supported by the .gov.

Maybe you should pitch that idea to Missouri before they go bankrupt.

[luzianne]

Maybe it's time for Missouri to do something to stay competitive instead of expecting businesses to stay there just because it's Missouri.

[augiedogie]

I'm happy seeing money go to corporations as incentives, which are really just tax relief, which will result in people having jobs, being productive, producing products that benefit society. I'm much happier with that kind of government aid, than aid to phony balloney "green energy companies", that take billions in tax money, and then file bankruptcy and you end up with nothing. I'm also not too happy when government employs far more people than necessary, as is our money losing post office dept., losing 25 million a day. And I'm not too happy with the govt. spending billions to pay able bodied people to stay home, when they could be out looking for work. So, you can complain all you want, but govt. spends all kinds of billions in wasteful foolish matters, that yield nothing but greed corruption, and sloth. At least these tax cuts to attract businesses don't result in even more people sitting on their butts, doing nothing.

[luzianne]

Originally Posted by Prairieparson

I'm happy seeing money go to corporations as incentives, which are really just tax relief, which will result in people having jobs, being productive, producing products that benefit society. I'm much happier with that kind of government aid, than aid to phony balloney "green energy companies", that take billions in tax money, and then file bankruptcy and you end up with nothing. I'm also not too happy when government employs far more people than necessary, as is our money losing post office dept., losing 25 million a day. And I'm not too happy with the govt. spending billions to pay able bodied people to stay home, when they could be out looking for work. So, you can complain all you want, but govt. spends all kinds of billions in wasteful foolish matters, that yield nothing but greed corruption, and sloth. At least these tax cuts to attract businesses don't result in even more people sitting on their butts, doing nothing.

[GraniteStater]

I agree with kcmo this isn't just incentivizing businesses, this IS an extreme case of corporate welfare at its worst. I am AGAINST any form of welfare that isn't productive period! Businesses can mostly grow and expand on their own without Kansas citizens tax dollars being dolled out for inappropriate uses when the rest of the state mostly falls apart outside of very few areas. Putting all the economic eggs in the JOCO basket might sound good in reality, but it makes no sense for the overall health and functioning of the rest of the state. Also, what about all of those companies KS brings in using tax breaks and they vacate after a period of time? The taxpayer is on the hook again!

[luzianne]

As I said, maybe Missouri should be doing something to make businesses WANT to stay in Missouri, instead of just expecting them to stay. Why would they if they can get a better deal elsewhere? That's like saying if I provide crappy service my clients should still stay with me, even if another company gives them better service at a better price. No, you have to remain competitive, and Missouri can't seem to understand that.

I think it's kind of funny, though, that a couple of people who don't even live in Kansas/Johnson County, and in fact hate Kansas and Johnson County, are so "concerned" about Kansas taxpayers.

[SPonteKC]

Kansas is bankrupting itself and pursuing a policy of wealth redistribution that is not only morally repulsive, but ultimately self-destructive. The chickens are already coming home to roost in its budget and as a native and someone who dearly loves the people and spaces of Kansas, it pains me deeply to watch the state embrace the economic model of robbing from the growing ranks of its poor to fatten the wallets of its shrinking corporate class.

It's a policy that has ruined Kansas' once-lovely small towns, made its family farms extinct, shuttered its factories and turned its cities into abandoned slums, and it's all based on a marketing gimmick that tricks you into thinking you are "winning" when the reality is you are being made a pawn.

Sad.

The only solace I have is in the fact that most of Kansas is rapidly depopulating, and because of agricultural deregulation and the impending water crisis that deregulation is about to cause, large swaths of Kansas could someday return to their impossibly majestic natural state and another generation might get to experience the kind of prairies my great-great-grandparent did when they first came here.

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by luzianne

As I said, maybe Missouri should be doing something to make businesses WANT to stay in Missouri, instead of just expecting them to stay. Why would they if they can get a better deal elsewhere? That's like saying if I provide crappy service my clients should still stay with me, even if another company gives them better service at a better price. No, you have to remain competitive, and Missouri can't seem to understand that.

I think it's kind of funny, though, that a couple of people who don't even live in Kansas/Johnson County, and in fact hate Kansas and Johnson County, are so "concerned" about Kansas taxpayers.

Ok, we should all put on rose colored glasses and just imagine that Kansas is doing so well when 3/4 to 4/5 of the state is falling apart with huge numbers of people leaving and moving elsewhere? Is that better? Obviously, the economic model is not working well for most areas outside of JOCO. While the county is gaining jobs, the metro as a whole is not performing as well overall as it did in decades past. It would just be interesting to see how the metro would fare as a whole without this huge infusion of taxpayer funded corporate welfare. That is all. That money could be put to many other uses that are more productive for the state.

[luzianne]

Originally Posted by GraniteStater

Ok, we should all put on rose colored glasses and just imagine that Kansas is doing so well when 3/4 to 4/5 of the state is falling apart with huge numbers of people leaving and moving elsewhere? Is that better? Obviously, the economic model is not working well for most areas outside of JOCO. While the county is gaining jobs, the metro as a whole is not performing as well overall as it did in decades past. It would just be interesting to see how the metro would fare as a whole without this huge infusion of taxpayer funded corporate welfare. That is all. That money could be put to many other uses that are more productive for the state.

I think this has more to do with your dislike of Johnson County than anything else.

I don't know about 3/4 to 4/5 of the state of Kansas falling apart, but if that is the case I would venture that rural Missouri is no different. People tend to move away from small towns because there is nothing to keep them there. That is true everywhere, not just Kansas. That has nothing to do with Johnson County prospering.

If the "metro" (KCMO is what you mean) wants to do well, they need to figure out ways to make businesses want to stay in KCMO. Several years ago, doctors in Kansas City moved from Missouri to Kansas en masse because of the high cost of malpractice insurance in Missouri.

I have seen talk of Missouri becoming a no income tax state. Why don't they try that, or other things to make Kansas City, Missouri a more attractive option for businesses? Why is it Johnson County's fault? The answer is, it's not. KCMO is going to have to do something to compete for businesses, not just sit there and expect it to be handed to them.

Personally, if I had to get up and go to a job every day (I own a business, so I don't have to), I would rather work in Johnson County than have to deal with the traffic to downtown KC and the traffic and congestion in downtown KC. I'd rather drive through areas with grass and trees and get to an office where I can park a reasonably short distance from the door and walk in with no hassles, than deal with one way streets, having trouble finding a parking place, paying to park, and basically going through a lot of hassles just to get to work every day.