Kansas City’s Economic Development Strategy Appears Rudderless
Oracle/Cerner is consolidating offices all over the metro signaling additional layoffs. Not great for one of Kansas City, Missouri’s biggest employers.
The Sprint/T-Mobile maintained a diminished presence in Johnson County.
We got Congress to bring the USDA office to KC but near half the employees refused to transfer.
Waddell & Reed financial service firm bailed on a brand-new downtown office parking garage with a building on top. After that, in one of the more depressing “wins,” Blue Cross KC announced they will wheel their chairs up the street and take Waddell & Reed’s place. This essentially moved the same number of jobs up the street saving a lot of egg on the face of elected officials and economic development boosters who got burned.
Juxtaposed with other metros including Phoenix, Boise, and the entire state of Ohio, which have seen monumental investments by automakers, chip manufacturers, and others major employers that plan to build things in America, Kansas City and our region feels utterly rudderless.
Who is captaining the ship?
What is the vision?
Are we going to find and attract new, emerging industries?
What fundamentals are missing from our region?
It is true Kansas City has had success in bolstering and growing our critical logistics industry. We also have had some success in growing mid-level tech start-ups. We continue to be a major engineering/architecture/construction hub for the region, U.S., and world. Some major employers like Garmin continue to grow.
But with major federal funding, a corporate reassessment of supply chains, and major innovation occurring in the climate technology, healthcare solutions, and other emerging industries, it just feels like we are falling behind and lacking any sort of vision beyond our core legacy industries. Sputtering along when we should be taking advantage of this truly once in a century period of time.
Kansas City’s Economic Development Agency has felt more like a tax incentive granting agency rubber stamp than one seeking to define the vision for the city. The KC Area Economic Development Corporation appears at time to be more focused on branding than business attraction and growth.
The bright spot in leadership has been shown by the Laura Kelly administration bringing a Panasonic battery plant to DeSoto. Despite qualms about the deal’s details, the type of industry is cutting edge for the region and taking advantage of nation-wide and global trends. Rumors are that the second phase will start quickly after the first and a battery recycling plant will accompany it.
So, what are we doing?
The Kansas City area and Kansas City, Missouri in particular seem to be primarily focused on building physical spaces for “businesses” without much of a vision (or at least public vision) as to what type of businesses will be there. It’s why the EDC’s focus has been on incentives for physical development.
This is also demonstrated by the continued obsession with speculative office space. The trend is baffling. The remote work debate continues to rage across office-bound businesses putting in doubt recruiting established businesses to new locations much less Missouri. Some speculative office space is good but by God you must have a vision for who you’re targeting.
Perhaps, as one city council person told me once, “I don’t always agree with you but a lot of that is you just don’t know all the information.” Extrapolating that out to a broader economic development strategy, isn’t that kind of a problem? It isn’t that everyone needs to know the ins and outs of economic development, business attraction, and job growth but people who pay attention should know where the ship is going.
We have many of the financial tools to attract employers, but we lack a clear vision and some hustle, which we can learn from the Kelly Administration who seem to announce new investment every week.
I’m sure people who are more clued in will tell me I’m just missing the details and there is a lot of work being done. Perhaps that is true, but it is not well communicated and the results have been mixed.
My layman ideas are:
Create a vision and leadership group for economic beyond our legacy industries.
Double down on robust small business growth, which is occurring with KC BizCare. It’s cheaper and often has better jobs growth.
Tap into industries that are productive for the world. I continue to be amazed learning more and more about climate technologies and I continue to be depressed that more of them are not in Kansas City.
I don’t want Kansas City to continue to plod along adding logistics center after logistic center. I see this almost every month in City Planning Commission. I joke we will all be loading trucks at Amazon distribution centers by 2030 (or unemployed because of robots). We need some clear vision that looks into the future. We need leadership that prioritizes what types of positive jobs and impactful things we will build here rather than simply just focusing spaces for vague future “businesses.”
We are in time of historic investment in businesses and jobs here in America. The pandemic, wars, and unrest overseas have made businesses and government rethink manufacturing and production in America. We have monumental challenges from climate to housing to workforce development that are requiring new solutions, jobs, and ideas.
Kansas City needs to take advantage of it. Other places already are.
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