KC's largest private company may be moving to KCK (Leawood: hotel, tax)

[adebord]

Kansas offered 25.5m to move. MO offered 29m to stay. They still moved.

There is no reason to be downtown. The airport needs to be at MKC or have non stop rail service to MCI. Without it downtown is just another suburb with a skyline.

[rwiksell]

Originally Posted by adebord

Kansas offered 25.5m to move. MO offered 29m to stay. They still moved.

There is no reason to be downtown. The airport needs to be at MKC or have non stop rail service to MCI. Without it downtown is just another suburb with a skyline.

What is your source on the $29 million figure?

...

As if proximity to a major airport is the only factor in locating your business. The vast majority of major airports in this country are not close to a downtown area, and most of them do not have non-stop rail service.

Why do people keep acting like it's actually an option to move MCI back downtown? No one is actually proposing this (except on this forum, maybe.)

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by adebord

Kansas offered 25.5m to move. MO offered 29m to stay. They still moved.

There is no reason to be downtown. The airport needs to be at MKC or have non stop rail service to MCI. Without it downtown is just another suburb with a skyline.

I personally think they chose KCK because of their agribusiness culture and Western WyCo is more fitting for them. Plus the MO incentive package was not quite the same. It was very similar, but the Kansas package offered more cash up front. The MO jobs incentives were like 18-19 million and KCMO was also offering chapter 100 bonds which is basically a way to avoid city property taxes over ten years. That's not the same as getting 10 million in upfront. So the KS deal was more aggressive with more money upfront which works great when the company gets bought out, goes out of business or moves again in five years. It's dumb either way. You have two states offering a company of less than 400 employees 20 something million dollars to either stay in the metro or stay in the metro. The Metro loses.

This move has nothing to do with Downtown or KCI. This company was not interested in Downtown and I don't think proximity to KCI is all that important. They just happened to be located in that area.

As far as KCI and Downtown...

KCI is super easy to get to from Downtown. It's freaking 15 minutes away with predictable easy traffic. Getting from Downtown KC to KCI is probably easier and quicker than most large cities and their respective airports. And MKC is a fantastic corporate/gen aviation airport. Keeping MKC a great business airport for private jets etc is likely much more important to downtown than having a huge international airport there creating all kinds of logistical problems for the city from noise, to parking to traffic to height restrictions to safety issues (and a lot more).

The best thing KCI can do to help downtown is not build an extremely expensive rail line to KCI that few people will use or moving KCI so it's crammed into a tiny space like MKC. The best thing KCI can do is build a new terminal so all of KC (including downtown) can return back to having first class air service with more affordable multiple daily nonstops to every mid and major city in the country. Most business travelers hate KCI and it has nothing to do with location. If you want transit to KCI, implement a high end coach bus line from plaza/downtown to KC that runs every 30 minutes. That will be much better than a 2 billion dollar light rail line and be much more convenient to travelers and actually take less time to make the commute. Business travelers almost never use rail transit even when it's available. The only people I see using the rail in Baltimore are people that work at BWI. It's barley used by the flying public.

[adebord]

When I arrive at KCI, how do I get downtown? Rent a car? Pay some obscene cab fare? Wait and ride a bus with who knows who if it's even running?

When you arrive into a real city there is dependable rail transit to the core. Chicago, London, NY, Miami, LA.


If my customers have to rent a car to get to my office I might as well put it in a clean Overland Park neighborhood, not dirty downtown. How can you not understand this.

[brooksider2brooklyn]

Originally Posted by adebord

When I arrive at KCI, how do I get downtown? Rent a car? Pay some obscene cab fare? Wait and ride a bus with who knows who if it's even running?

When you arrive into a real city there is dependable rail transit to the core. Chicago, London, NY, Miami, LA.


If my customers have to rent a car to get to my office I might as well put it in a clean Overland Park neighborhood, not dirty downtown. How can you not understand this.

KCI is already in a nice clean suburban area. I was just in KC and noticed how nice the I-29 corridor has become and it's still rapidly developing. Sorry if you happen to live on the other side of the metro but it sounds like you fit in well down in Jo County.

[Weaubleau]

Originally Posted by adebord

When I arrive at KCI, how do I get downtown? Rent a car? Pay some obscene cab fare? Wait and ride a bus with who knows who if it's even running?

When you arrive into a real city there is dependable rail transit to the core. Chicago, London, NY, Miami, LA.

I will have to remember this the next time I fly into LaGuardia or LAX. I'm sure tons of business travelers ride the train in LA and Miami

[Bluefox]

Originally Posted by adebord

When I arrive at KCI, how do I get downtown? Rent a car? Pay some obscene cab fare? Wait and ride a bus with who knows who if it's even running?

When you arrive into a real city there is dependable rail transit to the core. Chicago, London, NY, Miami, LA.


If my customers have to rent a car to get to my office I might as well put it in a clean Overland Park neighborhood, not dirty downtown. How can you not understand this.

I dk. It's a little far but it's not awful. The shuttles to downtown aren't obscenely expensive. I agree about the bus... it should have more expanded service. Rail to KCI is a pipe dream. Maybe one day.

Re: the other cities, LAX isn't super convenient depending on where you need to go. Traffic to and from is a nightmare. NYC doesn't have direct rail from Manhattan to LaGuardia, you have to take a train to Queens then a bus. Chicago is nice because you have the Blue Line straight to O'Hare and the Orange Line straight to Midway.

[SPonteKC]

Originally Posted by adebord

If my customers have to rent a car to get to my office I might as well put it in a clean Overland Park neighborhood, not dirty downtown. How can you not understand this.

Well, downtown is not dirty and Overland Park doesn't impress or excite anyone who's ever been to any other pleasant suburb anywhere. I know when I have to go out of town, on business or otherwise, and wind up in the suburbs, I'm always disappointed and put out to not get to see the real unique and interesting and fun parts of a city I'm visiting.

[adebord]

Originally Posted by Bluefox

I dk. It's a little far but it's not awful. The shuttles to downtown aren't obscenely expensive. I agree about the bus... it should have more expanded service. Rail to KCI is a pipe dream. Maybe one day.

Re: the other cities, LAX isn't super convenient depending on where you need to go. Traffic to and from is a nightmare. NYC doesn't have direct rail from Manhattan to LaGuardia, you have to take a train to Queens then a bus. Chicago is nice because you have the Blue Line straight to O'Hare and the Orange Line straight to Midway.

KC has to be exceptional to survive. Cities aren't just competing with their regional neighbors anymore, they are competing globally for business.

KC needs rail to the airport. It needs to be fantastic, not "good enough".

Thousands of people a day arrive at KCI from international points of origin. I want people from London, Singapore, Tokyo, NYC and LA to show up and say "wow, this is convenient. I wish we had this." instead of "wow, this airport sucks and it's in the middle of nowhere!!"

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by adebord

KC has to be exceptional to survive. Cities aren't just competing with their regional neighbors anymore, they are competing globally for business.

KC needs rail to the airport. It needs to be fantastic, not "good enough".

Thousands of people a day arrive at KCI from international points of origin. I want people from London, Singapore, Tokyo, NYC and LA to show up and say "wow, this is convenient. I wish we had this." instead of "wow, this airport sucks and it's in the middle of nowhere!!"

KC likes having a 1960's Greyhound bus stop for an airport. Trust me. Few people in KC are interested in impressing anybody...