GSA picks CenterPoint, Zimmer for $500M plant

[BSykes]

A team of Zimmer Real Estate Services and CenterPoint Property Trust won bidding to develop a new $500 million nuclear weapons parts plant in Kansas City.

The General Services Administration said Tuesday that [CompanyWatch allows you to receive email alerts with stories related to your companies of interest. CenterPoint Zimmer LLC won a competitive bidding process to design and build the plant for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration. The plant, which will replace an aging facility in the Bannister Federal Complex, will be built north of Missouri Highway 150 on Botts Road.

The plant will be across the highway from the CenterPoint-KCS Intermodal Center, a 1,340-acre project being developed by CenterPoint and Zimmer.

http://kansascity.bizjournals.com/kansa ... ily14.html

[geeman68]

A team of Zimmer Real Estate Services and CenterPoint Property Trust won bidding to develop a new $500 million nuclear weapons parts plant in Kansas City.

The General Services Administration said Tuesday that [CompanyWatch allows you to receive email alerts with stories related to your companies of interest. CenterPoint Zimmer LLC won a competitive bidding process to design and build the plant for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration. The plant, which will replace an aging facility in the Bannister Federal Complex, will be built north of Missouri Highway 150 on Botts Road.

The plant will be across the highway from the CenterPoint-KCS Intermodal Center, a 1,340-acre project being developed by CenterPoint and Zimmer.

http://kansascity.bizjournals.com/kansa ... ily14.html

I live down in Grandview and travel 150 HWY and there is a lot of development and things going on right there.  Not sure I like living next to a nuclear weapons parts facility.  Time to move downtown. 

[NDTeve]

I'm sure this has been discussed somewhere but what happens to the Bannister Complex?

[GRID]

I'm sure this has been discussed somewhere but what happens to the Bannister Complex?

Most of it will probably be mothballed.  They say they have had some interest in the plant, but they will never be able to fill it back up.  Hopefully there is a plan to clean up the site.  It would be a good location for distribution centers, light industrial etc.

[NDTeve]

Most of it will probably be mothballed.  They say they have had some interest in the plant, but they will never be able to fill it back up.  Hopefully there is a plan to clean up the site.  It would be a good location for distribution centers, light industrial etc.

Agreed. Bet that would be an expensive clean-up...I'm sure they'll be happy to be out of that flood zone though.

[shinatoo]

I read that site cleanup cost will prevent any new uses. It would have to get SuperFund funding to get it cleaned up. It's basicly going to be a toxic dump that will continue to rot that part of town.

[BSykes]

I read that site cleanup cost will prevent any new uses. It would have to get SuperFund funding to get it cleaned up. It's basicly going to be a toxic dump that will continue to rot that part of town.

Wow. Awesome. This sucks. You'd think that they'd be made to clean up their mess...

Do you remember where you read this? I'd like to check it out. Thanks.

[KCFutbol]

What do they need to clean up? This is a non-nuclear facility, isn't it?

[LenexatoKCMO]

What do they need to clean up? This is a non-nuclear facility, isn't it?

Nuclear or not - its been a manufacturing plant since way back before anyone gave a crap about pouring industrial waste out the back door. 

[shinatoo]

Wow. Awesome. This sucks. You'd think that they'd be made to clean up their mess...

Do you remember where you read this? I'd like to check it out. Thanks.

Seams like it was in the Star about a year ago.

[shinatoo]

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/s ... ily38.html

“The contamination on the (Bannister) site was caused largely during the production of aircraft engines during WWII,” Scott said in a letter to the City Council, whose support for the project included final approval of a 25-year, 50 percent tax abatement for the new plant site. “It has been in the process of being cleaned up ever since, and effectively.”

Since 1991, the NNSA has spent $65.8 million on environmental remediation at the Kansas City NNSA plant, and the government expects to spend an additional $52 million preparing the entire 5.2 million-square-foot Bannister complex for reuse or sale.

[shinatoo]

This is the link to the doom a gloom article I remember,
http://www.nukewatch.org/media2/postData.php?id=2196

[BSykes]

This is the link to the doom a gloom article I remember,
http://www.nukewatch.org/media2/postData.php?id=2196

Thanks for tracking that down for me... I had no idea how badly polluted that area was.

I love this line:

"Hoopes also acknowledged that the inside of the building may still have spent uranium and beryllium dust but said that should not be a problem as long as certain areas in the building are not disturbed."

I'm sure that buyers are going to be lining up around the block to get their hands on this "prime piece of real estate."

GSA should definitely be responsible for cleanup.

[shinatoo]

Or this one

There are many landfills, and one is considered classified, containing unknown materials and weapons from World War II.

Currently, according to a federal report, there is no known cost-effective way to remove pollution from the “tight, silty clay soil” under buildings without removing the buildings themselves.

About 58 acres of groundwater are contaminated. Using current technologies and cleanup standards, groundwater treatment could continue hundreds of years, the report said.

Paint Ball complex???

[BSykes]

Paint Ball complex???

Ha. Maybe...

How about a Wal-Mart!

[BSykes]

Kansas City advances new $673M nuclear parts plant

http://kansascity.bizjournals.com/kansa ... a=e_du_pap

The Planned Industrial Expansion Authority on Friday adopted four resolutions advancing a proposed new 1.5 million-square-foot plant for the National Nuclear Security Administration at Missouri Highway 150 and Botts Road.

The motion to adopt the resolutions cut short public comments, which nuclear-disarmament advocates had dominated. The motion was made after security was asked to remove Maurice Copeland, a retiree who worked at the NNSA?s aging plant in the Bannister Federal Complex, which the new plant is designed to replace.

?People are sick and dying? from exposure to beryllium and other substances at the plant, Copeland said. Copeland, who thinks his wife developed cancer as a result of contaminants he brought home on his clothing, also charged that polluted pools were paved over with parking lots at the current plant and that employees received the equivalent of hazardous-duty pay for working in certain parts of the building.

Michael Brincks, acting regional administrator for the General Services Administration?s Heartland Region, later responded to a PIEA board member?s questions regarding the allegations, saying of the hazardous-duty pay: ?I?ve never heard of that. I don?t think that?s true.?

Copeland, claiming he had been called a liar, then asked for a chance to respond. After he was denied, he became loud and was removed from the premises.

The vote that quickly followed advances a proposal that previously was referred to as a $500 million project. During Friday?s PIEA meeting, the project?s total development costs were estimated at $673 million.

One resolution adopted authorizes the PIEA to enter into a contract with Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. for financial consulting and investment banking services related to the NNSA plant project. Another resolution expressed the PIEA?s intent to accept a contract proposal from the development team of Zimmer Real Estate Services LC and CenterPoint Property Trust.

In March, the GSA announced that the Zimmer/CenterPoint team had been selected to develop the new NNSA plant after a competitive bidding process.

But PIEA Executive Director Al Figuly said details of the development agreement still are being worked out. The PIEA is expected to approve a final development agreement in July; the Kansas City Council then must approve it.

If there are no glitches, the GSA?s Brincks said, design and construction could begin in the fall. Relocation from the Bannister site is expected to begin in the winter of 2011, and full occupancy of the new plant is expected by the summer of 2013.

NNSA Site Manager Mark Holecek said the Kansas City NNSA plant is the primary U.S. source for manufacturing, assembling and procuring non-nuclear components needed for maintaining the nation?s nuclear stockpile. By moving from 3.2 million square feet at the current plant to 1.5 million of modern space at the new plant, Holecek said, the NNSA expects to save $100 million a year in operating costs.

To achieve those savings and keep 2,100 high-paying federal jobs in the region, the GSA?s Heartland Region sought and received 2008 congressional approval of financing for the new plant. Congress authorized the NNSA to spend as much as $38 a square foot for the space through a 20-year lease agreement.

That will provide about $58.9 million a year, or about $1.18 billion in 20 years, to cover development, debt-service and other costs, including $1.25 per foot per year for the plant?s utility costs.

But largely because of the economy and high materials costs, the GSA announced in July 2008 that its initial round of bidding for the project had produced a ?bid bust,? meaning no proposals were priced under the lease cap.

With material costs starting to improve, the project was rebid the same month, GSA Project Manager Doug Benton said. To ensure success, he said, the GSA changed some project requirements and involved the PIEA, a city agency.

Plans call for the PIEA to issue bonds for the project and to take ownership of the plant during the 20-year lease term, during which the facility will be leased to the developer and subleased to the NNSA. The NNSA is expected to have a 10-year lease renewal option, but the developer will take ownership of the building after 20 years.

In the meantime, PIEA ownership will allow construction materials to be exempted from sales tax and the project to be exempted from property taxes.

The development plan, however, calls for $5.2 million a year in payments in lieu of property taxes. That money will be split equally between debt service on $40 million worth of public infrastructure improvements associated with the project and local taxing jurisdictions.

[im2kull]

I'm all for new construction, and large projects in KC...but this whole refusal to cleanup and acknowledge the existance of toxic materials deal stinks to high hell.