KCRag Forum

Cerner apparently submitted 'planning schematics' for 'food/beverage' retail at 7 Bannister site spots in late April. Office/garage, grocery store, daycare and health clinic plans posted in Oct were delayed given Oracle announcement. Two data centers as well delayed given they'll move to Oracle Cloud.

https://www.construction.com/projects/? ... ery=cerner

Talked with a guy up from Austin who is on the Oracle team charged with merging Cerner into Oracle. They are impressed by cost of living and housing in KC. Likes that Cerner owns their buildings and property and that is a plus for KC retaining and growing jobs. Not at all looking at downtown for anything.

Not surprising it wouldn't make sense for them to look downtown.

The big question now is will they invest any further into KC. Mayor Q mentioned investments, what are they? All expansions appear to still be delayed except possibly restaurant/retail spots.

And they still show 75-80% of KC job postings as able to work elsewhere.

earthling wrote: ↑Tue Jul 12, 2022 1:57 pm The big question now is will they invest any further into KC. Mayor Q mentioned investments, what are they? All expansions appear to still be delayed except possibly restaurant/retail spots.

And they still show 75-80% of KC job postings as able to work elsewhere.

I hope they don't invest in that stupid sprawl island. Man they fucked up by not pressuring Cerner to atleast put something in the core for all that money they gave them.

Personally, I think the long-term plans for the campus will be getting reworked and turn more mixed use. I don't see total on site employment reaching what was being tossed around during the TIF process but it gives hope that the fully developed area could be much better than the corporate fortress of old designs.

A higher priority should be saving jobs than developing more office space than needed given the way local jobs are being defined as work from anywhere. For the site, mixed-use and/or data center is probably best approach if no more office but KCMO really needs to be thinking about saving local jobs as many could technically base out of KC but live outside region.

KCMO should pursue Oracle to establish KC as another Oracle Hub (like Denver, Nashville, Seattle, etc) as a higher priority.

This would at least open the door for all Oracle division employees to choose KC as an optional place to live, not just Health division employees. I think there are over 80K Oracle employees in US most of whom can choose a Hub city to base out of.

Yes I repeat this often with the hopes it reaches City Hall. The local job count with largest private employer in KC metro is more important than what happens to Bannister site.

Seems like an easy two birds one stone scenario.

moderne wrote: ↑Tue Jul 12, 2022 1:27 pm Talked with a guy up from Austin who is on the Oracle team charged with merging Cerner into Oracle. They are impressed by cost of living and housing in KC. Likes that Cerner owns their buildings and property and that is a plus for KC retaining and growing jobs. Not at all looking at downtown for anything.

but with more remote work does it matter?

AlkaliAxel wrote: ↑Tue Jul 12, 2022 3:17 pm

earthling wrote: ↑Tue Jul 12, 2022 1:57 pm The big question now is will they invest any further into KC. Mayor Q mentioned investments, what are they? All expansions appear to still be delayed except possibly restaurant/retail spots.

And they still show 75-80% of KC job postings as able to work elsewhere.

I hope they don't invest in that stupid sprawl island. Man they fucked up by not pressuring Cerner to atleast put something in the core for all that money they gave them.

and that would also be nearly empty with more remote work

Rumors of Oracle layoffs coming...
https://insights.dice.com/2022/07/26/ru ... loud-race/

Is of course common after major acquisitions so would be more surprising if not. Cerner doesn't have a lot of overlap so hopefully not much impact but local backoffice to lawyers, HR, IT, etc could get hit, duplicate functions that aren't directly tied to Health biz skillset.

A close friend who is currently a remote worker for Cener still doesn't know when they'll have to go back to the office, how often they'll have to go, or if they'll ever have to go. They're being told that there's no space for them at the new campus, there's no space for them in Lee's Summit, and the initial plan to send them back to the Northland campus fell through when they sold the building. This friend has also not had a consistent schedule for a while now because the Oracle thing made some people on their team jump ship and there's still a slow trickle of experienced people leaving their department because they're tired of waiting to hear about the return to office plans and about the changes Oracle is planning.

I think existing Bannister buildings have 6K employee capacity and they claim to have over 12K local employees though I wonder how many are based in KC on paper yet not really living in metro. If they aren't going to build more offices they could convert most space to support hybrid rotation with few if any dedicated desks outside management. And W&R building downtown always an option, or expand into flex/coworking spaces (WeWork/Plexpod/etc), a great way to give employees options and flexibility.

If no expansion planning takes place in some form and they continue with most local job postings as work from anywhere don't be surprised if local employment dwindles in half within 5 years or less. The City needs to be aggressive with ensuring local jobs are maintained and also pursue a local general Oracle hub.

Supposedly about 200 Cerner let go with Oracle layoffs according to an anonymous post, not clear how many local. Under 1% of total not bad if the case considering what is typical for large mergers. The bigger issue is that most locally posted Cerner jobs don't require living in metro.

https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/ ... yoffs.html

earthling wrote: ↑Thu Aug 04, 2022 8:10 am Supposedly about 200 Cerner let go with Oracle layoffs according to an anonymous post, not clear how many local. Under 1% of total not bad if the case considering what is typical for large mergers. The bigger issue is that most locally posted Cerner jobs don't require living in metro.

https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/ ... yoffs.html

Large merger but an entirely new line of business for Oracle. I suspect the lack of overlapping responsibilities limited the layoffs. As a veteran of several mergers, they can be brutal or barely noticeable depending on business overlap and one's position/skillset with the company. HQ functions that serve a several geographic areas and functions tend to be hit hardest.

And yea, having Oracle in KC doesn't mean much if the jobs do not need to be here. I have relatives that work at (former) Cerner and rarely ever go to the office.

Yeah mentioned a few posts ago about little overlap. Oracle has mentioned their top priorities are Health and Cloud divisions so they probably don't want to disrupt Cerner right now but wouldn't be surprising in a couple years if some overlapping backoffice disappear locally - HR, Legal, some IT and roles not directly tied to Health. Anything could happen but through attrition and most forward Health roles not committed to KC, thousands of local jobs could be distributed about through the next several years.

Would hope local ecodev groups are brewing up ideas to keep or even expand Oracle jobs overall locally beyond just Health division. The default path doesn't looking promising.

A second apartment complex is being planned in the vicinity. Hope this brings momentum for a denser south side!

daGOAT wrote: ↑Mon Aug 15, 2022 6:29 pm A second apartment complex is being planned in the vicinity. Hope this brings momentum for a denser south side!

in 20 years, this could be another Section 8 complex in the area

ericwyner wrote: ↑Mon Aug 15, 2022 11:48 pm

daGOAT wrote: ↑Mon Aug 15, 2022 6:29 pm A second apartment complex is being planned in the vicinity. Hope this brings momentum for a denser south side!

in 20 years, this could be another Section 8 complex in the area

Or it could be re-imagined and the area built up with mixed use and opened to the public like it should have been in the first place.

Perhaps wishful thinking, but Oracle?

We’ve spoken with a major employer in San Francisco, who told us that they are no longer even looking to hire people in that market, just because the cost of living is so high that they have to pay their employees a prohibitively high amount for them to live there comfortably. ... We are going to be on the short list of lots of companies very soon who are thinking along those lines. They want to find cheaper office space where they can improve quality of life for their employees and not have to sacrifice anything else.

From the recent KCBJ interview with CM Brian Platt

https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity ... tives.html