Panasonic Electric Vehicle Battery Plant (Mystery Kansas 'Mega Project')

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FangKC
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Re: Mystery Kansas 'Mega Project'

Post by FangKC »

Part of the problem has been the loss of restaurants and cocktail lounges in the past that serviced downtown business leaders and workers. This happened as many older buildings were demolished for new towers and surface parking. The restaurant and lounge spaces weren't really replaced in the new buildings. The older buildings with restaurant spaces provided cheaper rents. When those started disappearing, restaurants moved or shut down. There aren't many new towers that provided those spaces--and had they, the rent was much higher. An increase in rent can make a profit margin disappear, or become risky during economic downturns.

There was no one at the time thinking about the cause and effect of this type of change. I'm not talking about food courts or quick in-and-out takeout places. I'm talking about proper sit-down dining establishments. Even downtown hotels used to have high-quality sit-down restaurants.

Thus, businesses that required that type of client engagement slowly started moving to the Plaza.

My point is that for many years downtown was desolate in that regard until P&L opened. There's still a lack of good restaurant spaces downtown that are affordable for new restaurant operators.
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Re: Mystery Kansas 'Mega Project'

Post by dukuboy1 »

Well I would argue the Plaza has the upscale chain dining that most C suite Executives would be familiar with & that they’ve eaten at in other cities. However downtown, including the Crossroads offers more true dining destinations in terms of high end, cutting edge menus. There are more James Beard Chef joints in that area than the Plaza. But I get the appeal of the Plaza. They know Capital Grille, McCormick & Schmidt, Eddie V’s etc. plus all those places are fantastic so you cannot go wrong. But making out the DT landscape as barren of fine dining is a bit of a stretch.
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Re: Mystery Kansas 'Mega Project'

Post by brewcrew1000 »

https://www.yahoo.com/news/shocking-kan ... 00436.html

This could turn out to be a bigger blunder then the Foxconn stuff in Wisconsin

"The state’s agreement with Panasonic doesn’t require the company to create 4,000 jobs — or any jobs at all. Nor does it create minimum wage or salary standards for the firm"
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Re: Mystery Kansas 'Mega Project'

Post by earthling »

Tying the incentives to the capital investment into the site rather than job count is different but wouldn't go as far as to conclude it's a mistake. Kansas took the bet that salaries will be decided by shifting market rate, not a condition in contract - and today labor is tight, so less risky bet. I could see why Panasonic wanted to structure it this way as robotics and automation will likely be a higher % part of the manufacturing process going forward, over decades. Even if 4K jobs could be hit (always highly suspect), the quality of high paying jobs may/should continue to grow, such as jobs to maintain robotics and automation. And that attracts opportunity for other similar manufacturers.

If any mistake was made, it was mentioning 4K jobs in the PR. The incentives for capital investment approach not necessarily a mistake but a lot harder to make look pretty in PR statements.

Will be interesting to see how this approach plays out. The short sighted reactions in the comments are amusing.
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AlkaliAxel
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Re: Mystery Kansas 'Mega Project'

Post by AlkaliAxel »

I wonder if that was one of the provisions that allowed them win out over Oklahoma too
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Re: Mystery Kansas 'Mega Project'

Post by alejandro46 »

Tbh tying it to capital investment is a good idea too. That way less chance of hiring people just to sit around in exchange for tax breaks.

Foxconn was a fly by night company, entering a new market directly with new products. Panasonic has established US presence, deep pockets and experienced leaders. I don’t know 100% obv, but I don’t think I’d even remotely compare to the FC cluster in WI.
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Re: Mystery Kansas 'Mega Project'

Post by normalthings »

alejandro46 wrote: Mon Jul 25, 2022 9:47 pm Tbh tying it to capital investment is a good idea too. That way less chance of hiring people just to sit around in exchange for tax breaks.

Foxconn was a fly by night company, entering a new market directly with new products. Panasonic has established US presence, deep pockets and experienced leaders. I don’t know 100% obv, but I don’t think I’d even remotely compare to the FC cluster in WI.
Isn’t there a Panasonic warehouse near KCI already
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Re: Mystery Kansas 'Mega Project'

Post by Highlander »

When is construction on this project scheduled to begin? I thought I read somewhere that it would start producing batteries by 2024 which seems a little optimistic.
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Re: Mystery Kansas 'Mega Project'

Post by Cratedigger »

Can we rename the thread?
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Highlander
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Re: Mystery Kansas 'Mega Project'

Post by Highlander »

Cratedigger wrote: Sat Aug 06, 2022 6:38 pm Can we rename the thread?
Rename and move to Kansas Suburbs. KC Rumors is a forum that can only be seen once you are logged in.
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Re: Panasonic Electric Vehicle Battery Plant (Mystery Kansas 'Mega Project')

Post by alejandro46 »

Sounds like Oklahoma may get a plant in addition to Kansas.
After being competitors for a $4 billion, 4,000-job electric vehicle battery manufacturing facility, Kansas and Oklahoma may become something else: megaproject siblings.

Panasonic Corp. picked Kansas over Oklahoma in July, choosing to put a facility in De Soto. But now the giant Japan-based company is considering putting another EV battery plant in Oklahoma that would be the De Soto facility's "twin," The Wall Street Journal reports. Sources cautioned that the state has no guarantees an agreement will be reached, the report says.

Oklahoma’s bid for the plant De Soto won appeared to hang up in part on incentives. While Kansas and De Soto were pooling potential state and local incentives topping $1.3 billion, Oklahoma struggled to complete its package. The state approved a cumulative $848 million in state and local incentives, but a $300 million tax increment financing district was subject to a referendum to put the issue on the ballot in November; as of last month, it remained in an ongoing court challenge. Earlier reports indicated that the first EV plant targeted a location in Pryor, near Tulsa.

The same forces driving the De Soto facility motivate Panasonic to add the potential Oklahoma facility: rising EV production creates greater demand for batteries. This includes Tesla, which Panasonic supplies and which has a new EV factory in Austin.

The coveted facilities mean jobs and collateral supporting jobs and development. In announcing De Soto’s selection in July, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly said her state would be “the production epicenter for batteries that will power the increasing demand for EVs and a more sustainable world.”

Panasonic plans a 2.5 million-square-foot plant on 309 acres in the former Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant, with documents including provisions for a possible second phase covering 296 acres.

The company has not confirmed a construction timeline, and the Kansas Department of Commerce redacted those details — and most others — from a copy of the company’s state incentives application, obtained via records request. De Soto TIF materials noted that demolition of existing vacant structures, site preparation and new construction for the $4 billion megaproject all could start this year and wrap up by the end of 2025.
Great for Oklahoma. I know they have been working hard to lure EVs after Canoo, Tesla, now to get a second Panasonic plant would be a huge win.
https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/ ... -soto.html
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Re: Panasonic Electric Vehicle Battery Plant (Mystery Kansas 'Mega Project')

Post by dukuboy1 »

interesting to see if they get it. But with CA announcing their ban on new gas powered vehicles sales staring in 2035. EV going to become a huge part of the market very quickly
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Re: Panasonic Electric Vehicle Battery Plant (Mystery Kansas 'Mega Project')

Post by normalthings »

Why not KS Phase 2
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Re: Panasonic Electric Vehicle Battery Plant (Mystery Kansas 'Mega Project')

Post by AlkaliAxel »

^Exactly what I was thinking. Take it from them. Isn’t that JoCo’s speciality to steal border states jobs? Lol

They’d need to find another site. The only thing that would worry me is if Kansas decided to put the second plant somewhere outside our metro.

Also, I don’t think we’ll have to worry about concerns that they “won’t actually fill out the 4000 jobs” if there’s this much demand that they have to make a second plant.
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Re: Panasonic Electric Vehicle Battery Plant (Mystery Kansas 'Mega Project')

Post by Cratedigger »

normalthings wrote: Fri Aug 26, 2022 10:59 am Why not KS Phase 2
Confused on this as well
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Re: Panasonic Electric Vehicle Battery Plant (Mystery Kansas 'Mega Project')

Post by Cratedigger »

Read the WSJ article. Was hoping there would be something more, but KCBJ got most of it. The original report is pretty light on details. I guess Panasonic is taking advantage of two generous incentive packages?
The Japanese company is looking at Oklahoma as the location for its new plant, though there are no guarantees that an agreement will be reached, the people said.
The new Panasonic plant would come in addition to a roughly $4 billion EV battery factory that the Japanese company said in July it planned to build in Kansas. People with knowledge of Panasonic’s plans described the two plants as twins with similar capacity.
https://archive.ph/1QU4Q
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Re: Panasonic Electric Vehicle Battery Plant (Mystery Kansas 'Mega Project')

Post by alejandro46 »

Cratedigger wrote: Fri Aug 26, 2022 11:43 am I guess Panasonic is taking advantage of two generous incentive packages?
Ya I think this is it.
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Re: Panasonic Electric Vehicle Battery Plant (Mystery Kansas 'Mega Project')

Post by somedude »

A lot of iron is onsite just south of De Soto - Looks to begin dirt-work here shortly on the project.
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Re: Panasonic Electric Vehicle Battery Plant (Mystery Kansas 'Mega Project')

Post by Cratedigger »

Interesting article running through what goes into some of these deals to lure mega projects. From the perspective of Lockhart, TX which recently lost out on Micron to New York

https://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/news ... texas.html
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Re: Panasonic Electric Vehicle Battery Plant (Mystery Kansas 'Mega Project')

Post by Highlander »

Looks like construction will begin next month on the Panasonic plant. That's surprisingly soon after the announcement.

https://www.reuters.com/business/retail ... 20vehicles.
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