KCRag Forum

Kind of funny that the issue isnt even KS v MO anymore; Olathe is trying to recruit a business from its next door neighbor (Lenexa) utilizing incentives!! Talk about swimming in your own excrement....WHEN IS THIS MADNESS GOING TO STOP??????


LATEST NEWS
4:04 PM CST Tuesday
Olathe City Council will consider bringing group's HQ to town
Jim Davis
Staff Writer
The Olathe City Council will consider plans on Tuesday night to bring a national organization's headquarters to Olathe from Lenexa.

The National Board for Respiratory Care is to occupy a 100,000-square-foot building in Corporate Ridge Office Park. The City Council will consider abating property taxes on the project. The 55 percent abatement would run for 10 years.

Corporate Ridge is being developed by Opus Northwest LLC. The suburban Minneapolis-based company expects to sell the building and 8.3 acres of ground to the board.

Gary Smith, the board's CEO, said he likes Corporate Ridge's visibility and accessibility. The board has run out of room at its current location in Lenexa, Smith said. About 130 people work at the board's headquarters.

Dave Harrison, Opus' director of real estate development in Overland Park, said he expects to start work soon in Corporate Ridge on another building for Pivot International Inc.'s North American headquarters. That project was to have been completed by now. A slowdown in Pivot's business caused the delay.

Pivot makes high-tech voting machines. It's also now based in Lenexa.

Harrison said he's chasing two other deals for Corporate Ridge but declined to identify the prospects.

The office park at the northeast corner of Kansas Highway 10 and Ridgeview Road could contain as much as 1.2 million square feet of buildings.

Corporate Ridge's development stalled two years ago, after Verizon Wireless dropped plans for a 1,200-job call center.

REACH JIM DAVIS at 816-421-5900 or jdavis@bizjournals.com.

Capitalism sucks.

Here's to Olathe. Biggest shithole suburb I've ever came across. Oh wait I forgot about Gardner.

ShowME wrote:Here's to Olathe. Biggest shithole suburb I've ever came across. Oh wait I forgot about Gardner.

LOL

Nothing like a suburb taking a company from a neighboring suburb and using tax breaks to do it.

I have yet to hear even the slightest mention of Blue Springs luring a company from Lee's Summit, or Liberty trying to take one from Gladstone, but those JoCo cities learn well from each other.

It serves them right for all the damage they have done to KCMO over the past couple of decades.

It will and is already starting to go full circle though.

ShowME wrote:Here's to Olathe. Biggest shithole suburb I've ever came across. Oh wait I forgot about Gardner.

You must not get out much......there is worse....much worse.

Man....the mis-info in this place is excruciating. Here's the deal....

The JoCo EDC's (Lenexa, Olathe, OP, Shawnee, Leawood, Gardner, etc) formed and signed an agreement several years ago promising NOT to pirate one anothers firms as such tactics are counterproductive and equate to a zero net win for the communities.

Here's an example of how it all works...

If XYZ Widget is currently located in Lenexa and is considering a move to Olathe, the Olathe EDC must contact the Lenexa EDC ASAP and suggest they try to retain their business. Lenexa then attempts to retain XYZ Widget....when all avenues have failed, Lenexa then, and not until, tells Olathe to do what they can to retain the firm to JoCo. Municipal incentives will not be considered until the originating municipality has exhausted its efforts.

THEREFORE..... Olathe is not actively going to Lenexa to snag businesses.

The Kansas side is organized, but will not extend the same "gentleman's" agreement to its MO bretheren.

Good2Great wrote:Man....the mis-info in this place is excruciating. Here's the deal....

The JoCo EDC's (Lenexa, Olathe, OP, Shawnee, Leawood, Gardner, etc) formed and signed an agreement several years ago promising NOT to pirate one anothers firms as such tactics are counterproductive and equate to a zero net win for the communities.

Here's an example of how it all works...

If XYZ Widget is currently located in Lenexa and is considering a move to Olathe, the Olathe EDC must contact the Lenexa EDC ASAP and suggest they try to retain their business. Lenexa then attempts to retain XYZ Widget....when all avenues have failed, Lenexa then, and not until, tells Olathe to do what they can to retain the firm to JoCo. Municipal incentives will not be considered until the originating municipality has exhausted its efforts.

THEREFORE..... Olathe is not actively going to Lenexa to snag businesses.

The Kansas side is organized, but will not extend the same "gentleman's" agreement to its MO bretheren.

great post...thanks for the info...

but the basic premise is the same--cities that don't provide incentives for retention will lose companies to other cities that provide incentives for recruiment. same deal w/ the MO v KS issue and incentives.

VIVA LA PIZZA STREET!!

TheDude wrote:VIVA LA PIZZA STREET!!

Alright, I'm gonna come clean. When I first got married I ate at Pizza Street in Olathe about 6 times. I use to have them make both cream cheese/jalapeno pizza and barbeque pizza. My wife now controlled my finances and gave me $25 for a night out with the homies. It was simple math, $2.99 for dinner, $22 for 6 pints of brew afterwards. (Always kept the flask of Jameson under the car seat too. )

Good2Great wrote:The JoCo EDC's (Lenexa, Olathe, OP, Shawnee, Leawood, Gardner, etc) formed and signed an agreement several years ago promising NOT to pirate one anothers firms as such tactics are counterproductive and equate to a zero net win for the communities.

The fact that they would not agree to similar terms with the rest of the metro area speaks volulmes about their attidude and motives. It illlustrates how they see themselves has being something separate, and (in their minds) better than the other counties. If they really wanted to be an integrated part of the metro area then they would extend the same courtesy to everyone.

TheDude wrote:VIVA LA PIZZA STREET!!

Pizza Street SUCKS.....BUT....it's better than that crap over in Missouri called CiCi's. Talk about your greasy, dirty, bacteria infested cattle calls....OMG

CiCi's is in Shawnee too. (SM Parkway and Quivira)