The Kansas City area has plenty to offer businesses that want to start, relocate or expand operations. Just check out the Los Angeles Times, which ranked Kansas City, Mo., the No. 1 underrated city in the United States; Entrepreneur magazine, which ranks this area first in places to start or grow a business in the Midwest and 11th in the nation; and Expansion Management magazine, which lists Kansas City at No. 12 on its Top 20 “Best Cities and States for Business Attraction.”
We host one of the Midwest’s fastest-growing labor markets, with 10 percent growth in the last decade; a workforce that takes fewer sick days than workers in 33 other major metropolitan areas; and five stars from Expansion Management for business healthcare costs.
Employees enjoy a cost of living below the national average and Expansion Management has given gold awards to six local school districts plus blue ribbons to three others. MSNBC also has ranked Kansas City fourth on its top 10 list of underrated U.S. cities because of the current downtown renovations, our historical landmarks and blues/jazz history, museums, fountains
and barbecue.
“And our economy is very diverse,” says Ashlie Hand, director of communications for the Kansas City Area Development Council (KCADC). “We mirror the United States economy almost to the percentage point.”
Major Industries
Architecture/Engineering
The Kansas City office of HOK (Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum, Inc.) is part of a network with 1,600 employees who provide architecture, conservation, consulting, construction and engineering services, as well as interiors, lighting design, and planning and visual communications for facilities and real estate projects around the globe. HOK has enjoyed special recognition for sustainable planning and design and sports architecture.
Kansas City-based HNTB Architecture, Inc. has served clients for 93 years, primarily in aviation, education, corporate, education and government. Its portfolio includes convention centers in Kansas City, Boston and San Diego; airports in Dallas, Chicago and Tucson; and transportation facilities in New Jersey, Indianapolis and Denver.
Burns & McDonell has provided engineering, construction, environmental and consulting services to commercial customers since 1898. The company received multiple 2005 Engineering Excellence Awards, an Exceptional Service Award from the Illinois Department of Transportation and a 2003 Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA) Mid-America award.
Creative
Kansas City is second only to Chicago in the size of its advertising community. Bernstein-Rein Advertising, Barkley Evergreen & Partners and Kuhn and Wittenborn are a few of 200-plus ad agencies that serve clients across the nation, winning numerous awards for their efforts.
But the creativity doesn’t end there. Hallmark Corporation has been a fixture in Kansas City since the early 1900s. The company currently sells half of all greeting cards in the nation.
Finance
American Century Investments has operated for almost 50 years from its Kansas City headquarters. The company offers information about mutual funds, retirement and college savings for individual investors, asset management for commercial and nonprofit entities, and retirement plans for small businesses. Since its inception, Kansas City’s own H&R Block has provided income tax preparation services to nearly 22 million clients across the nation. Henry W. Bloch founded the company 53 years ago.
Biotech/Animal Health
With its world headquarters in Kansas City, Mo., Cerner Corporation provides information technology that supports the healthcare industry. In almost 30 years of operation, the company has developed a client list of more than 6,400 businesses from around the world and 24/7 availability to serve them.
Located in Shawnee, Bayer Animal Health develops drugs for animals, from family pets to livestock, and flea prevention to joint disease therapy for horses. The company also is part of an initiative to create an Animal Health Corridor in this area, which recently drew MWI Veterinary Supply, Inc., of Meridian, Idaho, to create a Midwestern distribution center in Edwardsville, Kan.
Transportation/Distribution
The Texas Transportation Institute has named Kansas City one of the nation’s least congested major urban areas in terms of mobility. And Kansas City International Airport ranks as the 18th lowest among the nation’s busiest airports for low-cost air travel.
“No U.S. city is more than a three-hour commercial flight away, so KC is an excellent choice for companies that need to move human resources efficiently across the continent,” explains Tim Cowden, senior vice president of business development for KCADC. “HQ companies…rave about KC’s accessibility to their customers and staff around the world.”
Kansas City’s rail system carries 300 daily freight arrivals and departures. One of the nation’s largest railroad companies, BNSF started in Kansas City more than 150 years ago. It has merged nearly 400 different railroad lines; absorbed 32,000 miles of track; and grown to include 40,000 employees, 6,300 locomotives and 220,000 freight cars.
“KC offers a unique combination of affordability and accessibility not typically found in a major American city,” Cowden says. “While there are many benefits of a Kansas City location, in particular, our region’s central location offers business — regardless of the product or service it provides — a competitive advantage.”
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