OFFICIAL: H&R Block HQ

KC_JAYHAWK · Post by **KC_JAYHAWK** » Mon Dec 15, 2003 4:47 pm

If the city can cough up $200M to give to a crummy, out of state airline, they sure as heck better give all the necessary incentives to make this deal happen.

scooterj · Post by **scooterj** » Mon Dec 15, 2003 4:52 pm

KC wrote:accountants party

From what it sounds like H&R would be on the west end close to P&L and President (if still standing)....arena would be on the east end around McGee or Grand with the entertainment district in between.

Too bad, putting the tower at the east end would fill the skyline better. Also putting it on the west end would block the view from my office window.

(Though I'd have a kick-ass view of the construction.)

KCK · Post by **KCK** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 10:36 am

Id like it more if they tried to fill in the gap between midtown and downtown. I mean looking at KCMO from Kansas, it looks like there used to be a big row of skyscrapers, but the ones in the middle fell over.

TheDude · Post by **TheDude** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 10:47 am

was at a forum the other day where CEO Ernst spoke; after he made sure no reporters were in the room, he spoke of where HR will relocate. Unless he was trying to throw everyone off, the general sense everyone got from this discussion was that H&R is headed to KS. I wont go into details, but it was interesting nonetheless.

QueSi2Opie · Post by **QueSi2Opie** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 12:15 pm

TheDude wrote:was at a forum the other day where CEO Ernst spoke; after he made sure no reporters were in the room, he spoke of where HR will relocate. Unless he was trying to throw everyone off, the general sense everyone got from this discussion was that H&R is headed to KS. I wont go into details, but it was interesting nonetheless.

Anybody got a few hundred cans of spray paint, a ton of flyers, and a thousand or so picket signs? If H&R Block wants to be greedy and run to JOCO, they need to get the fvck out of the metro PERIOD!!!

KC_JAYHAWK · Post by **KC_JAYHAWK** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 12:30 pm

If H&R Block chooses Kansas, it will be the biggest slap in the face this city has ever seen.

QueSi2Opie · Post by **QueSi2Opie** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 12:46 pm

It's official! H&R Block's new address will be 10800 Switzer as they will develop their headquarters on the 40 acres of land just south of I-435/west of Highway 69 in Overland Park.

QueSi2Opie · Post by **QueSi2Opie** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 12:46 pm

Psych!

KCK · Post by **KCK** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 1:47 pm

H&R Block had better at least stay in the metro area. I wonder why you think it would hurt the metro area for H&R Block to be in Kansas. Does it hurt the metro area for Sprint to be in Kansas. Even if H&R Block moves to Overland Park, the people in Missouri and Kansas who work for them can still be able to keep their jobs.

LyRiCaL GanGsTa · Post by **LyRiCaL GanGsTa** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 2:23 pm

DeadManSquaking, are you clueless? Of COURSE it hurts if companies move to Kansas. Kansas City MO is "The City". When people like CBS Sports, CNN and any other media or tourists look to KC they see the city - the core - the epicenter of a city to see what is happening there. They DONT look at sububan fringe sponges like op and lenexa.. How moronic are you not to understand this?

Sprint Execs and KCMO politicians should be shot for the blasphemy committed on the Kansas prairie in the 90's.

QueSi2Opie · Post by **QueSi2Opie** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 2:35 pm

DeadManWalking wrote:H&R Block had better at least stay in the metro area. I wonder why you think it would hurt the metro area for H&R Block to be in Kansas. Does it hurt the metro area for Sprint to be in Kansas. Even if H&R Block moves to Overland Park, the people in Missouri and Kansas who work for them can still be able to keep their jobs.

First off, Sprint was founded in Kansas and has always been headquarted in Kansas.

Secondly, it's not jus' a matter of jobs, it's a matter of abandoning the urban core for the Kansas burbs. If H&R Block goes to JOCO, I'd imagine that the proposed entertainment district and downtown arena would see major set backs, if not die out all together. This would seriously damage downtown KC while OP continues to steal all of KC's thunder. Yes, they're still in the KC Metro, but the shift across state line would be both insulting and damaging to the city. We want to revitalize downtown with a major headquarters, not continue to let the arrogant and greedy leaders of JOCO bribe businesses away from Kansas City.

Maybe Krispy Kremes will anchor the downtown entertainment district. Welcome to Krispy Kremes Arena, home of the Kansas City Donuts indoor soccer franchise.

scooterj · Post by **scooterj** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 3:28 pm

In addition, KC loses the income tax from all those employees and the sales taxes when they go out to get lunch and run errands near work every day. That's a lot of money over the course of a year.

If it's a new company recruited from outside the area I'd prefer it go to KC but anywhere is goes in the area is a win. An existing company moving within the area benefits no one except the Board as any potential tax benefit for the winning city is usually eaten up by tax incentives.

QueSi2Opie · Post by **QueSi2Opie** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 3:33 pm

Can H&R Block be trusted? Only if they don't become a greedy, hypocritical sell-out! Here's the History...

The American Dream That Began on Main Street Now Lives on Main Streets Everywhere

Main Street in Kansas City, Mo., stretches more than 70 blocks, from the riverfront through residential neighborhoods. On its 44th block sits a modest, but modern office building. You might not recognize it as the world headquarters of one of the most enduring and respected brand names in the country were it not for the familiar green H&R Block sign that welcomes visitors and employees to H&R Block's World Headquarters.

It is here perhaps, that co-founder Henry W. Bloch can best appreciate what he and his brother Richard accomplished. When they started their bookkeeping business, it was with one office - on Main Street even then, just a few blocks farther north - and little interest in doing taxes. Today, the company they built has transformed itself into America's financial partner, operating out of more than 9,000 tax offices and 98 Financial Centers in the United States, as well as more than 1,000 tax offices in Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom, serving more than 19 million taxpayers worldwide. What happened in between is a success story marked by tenacity, persistence, and the promise of the American dream.

A Bomber, a Library, an Idea
Henry and Richard Bloch were born and raised in Kansas City, the second and third sons of a prominent Kansas City lawyer. Henry graduated from the University of Michigan, while Richard graduated from the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania. (Older brother Leon studied law at the University of Missouri-Columbia.) During Henry's junior year, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and he enlisted in the Air Force, which eventually sent him to Harvard Business School to study for a military career. While there, a chance visit to the library played a pivotal role in the birth of the brothers' business.

"I always wanted to do something different, something more than just a job, something to contribute to society," Henry recalls. "And my brothers and I were always thinking up different businesses we could start, but none of them felt right. Then one day I saw a little pamphlet in the Harvard library that gave me the idea we were looking for."

The "little pamphlet" was a copy of a speech a Harvard professor had delivered to a group of insurance men. In it, he said there were three kinds of business: big business, small business, and labor. "Big business and labor were both very powerful, but small business really had no one to turn to," he said, "and small business was really the backbone of this country. The future", he declared, "would be in helping small businesses."

Henry excitedly wrote his brothers about his vision of providing accounting, temporary workers, collection, management services, and more for small business.

The full list included well over a hundred services - even income tax preparation.

Henry worked as a stockbroker briefly after he got out of the Air Force. Then, with a $5,000 loan from his aunt, the 24-year-old Henry rented a storeroom office for $50 a month and opened United Business Company. Working with his brother Leon, Henry landed a bookkeeping assignment for a hamburger stand eight blocks south of the rented Main Street office. More accounts followed and the business grew. Eventually, Leon returned to law school, and Richard became Henry's partner.

Luck Favors the Prepared - and the Preparers
Business thrived and the company grew into bigger offices up and down Main Street. By 1954 (the beginning of the same basic tax code the United States still uses), United Business Company had 12 employees keeping books for various clients. Henry and Richard were working seven days a week, long into each night. Something had to give.

"We had been doing taxes for a guy named John White who worked in display advertising at The Kansas City Star," Henry recalls. "We told him we couldn't keep doing his taxes because we were too busy with our other work. But he suggested, 'Why don't you really try making a business out of taxes before you get out entirely?'"

So John White went back to the Star and had a small ad made up that showed a man behind an eight ball, with a simple headline: "Taxes, $5." He convinced the Blochs to run the ad twice. The day the first ad ran, Henry was out visiting customers when he got a message to call his office. Richard answered breathlessly.

"Hank, get back here as quick as you can," he said. "We've got an office full of people!"

Later Henry learned just how well-timed their ad was. Until the mid-'50s, the Internal Revenue Service had actually filled out tax returns at no charge for anyone who went to their local IRS office. Errors were common, however, and when people complained, the IRS began eliminating the service. The Blochs' first ad appeared at the same time that Kansas Citians were discovering the IRS would no longer do their tax returns.

H&R Block is Born
On Jan. 25, 1955, Henry and Richard Bloch replaced United Business Company with a new firm that specialized exclusively in income tax return preparation: H&R Block Inc. Within weeks, the company grossed nearly a third of the annual volume United Business Company had taken years to develop. The IRS was about to stop filling out taxpayers' forms in New York, too, so H&R Block opened seven offices there in 1956.

A year later, H&R Block began opening franchise offices, and H&R Block doors swung open on Main Streets across the country. The company went public on Feb. 13, 1962, with a $300,000 offering - 75,000 shares at $4 per share. H&R Block became listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1969. Two years later, having survived lung cancer, Richard decided to retire and devote his time to supporting cancer research and education.

By 1978, H&R Block offices prepared more than one out of every nine tax returns filed in the United States. In a 1986 test with the IRS, H&R Block filed 22,000 returns electronically from two sites. The test was a success: Electronic filing significantly reduced the amount of time required for a taxpayer to receive a refund. More than a decade later, H&R Block's trademarked "Rapid Refund" service has become synonymous with electronic filing. Now, the company files nearly half of the total number of returns filed electronically with the IRS.

The "New" H&R Block
Consumers today want more from their local H&R Block office than just tax preparation. They already think of H&R Block as a financial services company, and they've asked America's most trusted tax partner to become their complete personal financial partner.

To meet the needs of its clients, H&R Block has transformed itself from a company focused exclusively on tax preparation to a company that provides comprehensive financial services. On Jan. 12, 2000, H&R Block announced a complete menu of financial services, including brokerage services, annuities, mutual funds, and IRAs, would be available through the company's H&R Block Financial Centers and at its expanded Web site.

In July 2000, H&R Block put a new "face" on the company when it introduced a new logo and brand identity program. The announcement further reflects the company's transformation from the nation's most trusted tax preparer to America's year-round financial partner. Just one month earlier, Henry Bloch announced his retirement from the company he founded. Henry stepped down as chairman and became honorary chairman of H&R Block in September 2000.

Today mainstream Americans can continue to look to H&R Block as an affordable - and approachable - partner. The "new" H&R Block is poised to help Americans meet their financial needs.

The Summit · Post by **The Summit** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 9:12 pm

If one of KCMO's most high profile and successful companies chooses to bolt the city for suburban Kansas during one of the most ambitious urban comebacks in the country, I truly feel sorry for everyone in KC.

Itâ€™s such a disgrace. If Johnson County really knew what was good for them, and the region as a whole, they would pull out of this and show everyone for once they want whatâ€™s best for the metro area.

What is wrong with KC??? There just isnâ€™t any pride here what so ever, who next Hallmark? DST?

This is what I miss about living in St. Louis, so much pride from the residents and businesses alike.

If Block does move to KS, I will no longer use them for my business or personal taxes and will tell everyone I know the same.

KC, You tried.

KCPowercat · Post by **KCPowercat** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 9:14 pm

what? Tried? Nothing has been announced.

Post by **bahua** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 9:15 pm

I'd love to see a 40+ story HQ building at the corner of 14th & Main. That'd fill that area in a lot. It'd be a great cornerstone to Mayor Barnes' proposed district of prosperty there.

ShowME · Post by **ShowME** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 10:04 pm

The Summit I agree with you that St. Louis people have more pride in there city saying that you really have the same problem with St. Charles County except St. Louis' situation has one more variable. Companies move from the City to the County then to St. Charles County. Here they move for the most part from KCMO to Johnson County.

KCDevin · Post by **KCDevin** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 10:10 pm

they have too much pride, well, they are too biast or just big headed. i apologize to the forumers who arent but that is what i've seen.
STL has major problems with its city which are worse than KC. Like the 12% of its people moving to the suburbs and its high crime.
Guys, why are you acting like we failed? Nothing has even been announced like KC said.

QueSi2Opie · Post by **QueSi2Opie** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 10:19 pm

KCDevin wrote:they have too much pride, well, they are too biast or just big headed. i apologize to the forumers who arent but that is what i've seen.
STL has major problems with its city which are worse than KC. Like the 12% of its people moving to the suburbs and its high crime.
Guys, why are you acting like we failed? Nothing has even been announced like KC said.

It jus' feels better not to get our hopes up so high. The ultimate Christmas gift for KC and the metro (except JOCO) would definitely be H&R Block announcing it will build it's headquarters in downtown KC, an entertainment district, and a new arena.

LyRiCaL GanGsTa · Post by **LyRiCaL GanGsTa** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 10:33 pm

First off, Sprint was founded in Kansas and has always been headquarted in Kansas.

Q..you are correct.... HOWEVER, The original company was started in a little town in fartville kansas somewhere way out west. As the company grew, it moved east toward THE BIG CITY, KCMO - where it could get exposure and draw from a technical and professional workforce in KCMO. They came to KC, the area that is, and set up several offices. While thier main hdqtrs building was in Westwood KS, just a rocks throw from State line, the huge majority of thier workers were in KCMO during the 70's & early 80's. As JO cty grew and built, US Telecom began moving more-and more of thier workers into KS. The fact is this - Sprint would NOT BE IN OP if there were no Kansas City Missouri! Sprint DID abandon KCMO because as a fortune 500 company, they SHOULD HAVE BUILT DOWNTOWN, everyone knows this, they pussed out and KCMO politicians ( Cleaver- the loser) helped them with thier inept liberal pablum and filthy stupid politics.