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

Find out what's going on in the Sunflower State's portions of the Metro here.
earthling
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Re: Mystery Kansas 'Mega Project'

Post by earthling »

No empathy for KS, they did indeed exploit the situation. Taking an objective view doesn't mean empathy for one side. But there's more to it than just one sided luring. The companies that bit are also to blame. And when you have Topeka focused on KS side of KC metro growth and Jeff City focused more on STL, it would be more surprising if this didn't happen.
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normalthings
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Re: Mystery Kansas 'Mega Project'

Post by normalthings »

GRID wrote: Thu Jul 21, 2022 11:41 am
normalthings wrote: Thu Jul 21, 2022 11:22 am Kansas will 100% try to do convention center at village west or expand OP if KC does not make needed investments in the next 15 years.

Bartle needs a major renovation. Missing a 5 star hotel. Missing an event plaza (BAP). Missing convention hotels on the level of peers like IND. kansas is 100% willing to do this
And before somebody says. "see, it's KCMO's fault for not keeping up with other cities". But the primary reason KCMO can't do these things as well as other cities is because it does not have the critical mass of urban core companies etc it takes to sustain things like five star hotels which would not just benefit the convention center, but the overall downtown community. Once again, too much of KC's private and corporate wealth is now in Kansas and most do not give a single shit about downtown KC. Nashville or Denver and even Indy can build these types of hotels.

KC just does not have the type of focused business community on downtown and the convention business alone just can't support it. It's a big reason to get a stadium downtown. KC needs other reasons to have more hotels etc. But then you have the cultural problem that KC is suburban culturally, that most people do not want a downtown stadium now. It's a terrible cycle that KC has itself in.

When Stan Durwood died and AMC of all companies left downtown for KS, that was the nail in the coffin. Hopefully things start to turn around with the new owners of the Royals etc, but the damage done is so deep that KC's downtown and entire urban core will always struggle. It's just a fact.
VisitKC taxes needed to be expanded to cover the entire metro. Downtown 5 star hotels happen in peer cities with incentives. People are willing to do them in KCMO but need incentive
earthling
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Re: Mystery Kansas 'Mega Project'

Post by earthling »

^With KCMO essentially invested in Loews aren't there conflicts of interest? Would probably be easier to upgrade an existing hotel property to a 5 star flag.
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AlkaliAxel
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Re: Mystery Kansas 'Mega Project'

Post by AlkaliAxel »

GRID wrote: Thu Jul 21, 2022 11:52 am
AlkaliAxel wrote: Thu Jul 21, 2022 11:47 am The two peas in a pod^
And you sound like a Trumpter who just ignores the facts honestly. It would really help if more people were honest with KC's problems and how they developed. It would make fixing or reversing those problems much easier.

There is a reason Downtown KC lacks modern hotels for example. It's really not that hard to understand. It can be fixed, but ignoring why the problems exist in the first place is not going make things any easier.
I don’t disagree with ALL of what you’re saying.

But shortly we’re gonna have the Royals downtown stadium officially announced & also have the World Cup in pipeline at the same time. So I think we can draw more hotels out of that. I’m very optimistic those two will get it done.
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normalthings
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Re: Mystery Kansas 'Mega Project'

Post by normalthings »

earthling wrote: Thu Jul 21, 2022 12:04 pm ^With KCMO essentially invested in Loews aren't there conflicts of interest? Would probably be easier to upgrade an existing hotel property to a 5 star flag.
KCMO came close to getting one with Hotel Bravo. I think we still could with a new developer but the incentive request may need to increase.

KC can not incentivize a downtown hotel greater than 300 or 350 rooms under the Loews agreement
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AlkaliAxel
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Re: Mystery Kansas 'Mega Project'

Post by AlkaliAxel »

normalthings wrote: Thu Jul 21, 2022 12:50 pm
earthling wrote: Thu Jul 21, 2022 12:04 pm ^With KCMO essentially invested in Loews aren't there conflicts of interest? Would probably be easier to upgrade an existing hotel property to a 5 star flag.
KCMO came close to getting one with Hotel Bravo. I think we still could with a new developer but the incentive request may need to increase.

KC can not incentivize a downtown hotel greater than 300 or 350 rooms under the Loews agreement
Bravo might have a better excuse from the council this time. They can atleast justify it with like “oh we need this type of hotel and more hotel stock for the World Cup” and then just get it through
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normalthings
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Re: Mystery Kansas 'Mega Project'

Post by normalthings »

AlkaliAxel wrote: Thu Jul 21, 2022 12:58 pm
normalthings wrote: Thu Jul 21, 2022 12:50 pm
earthling wrote: Thu Jul 21, 2022 12:04 pm ^With KCMO essentially invested in Loews aren't there conflicts of interest? Would probably be easier to upgrade an existing hotel property to a 5 star flag.
KCMO came close to getting one with Hotel Bravo. I think we still could with a new developer but the incentive request may need to increase.

KC can not incentivize a downtown hotel greater than 300 or 350 rooms under the Loews agreement
Bravo might have a better excuse from the council this time. They can atleast justify it with like “oh we need this type of hotel and more hotel stock for the World Cup” and then just get it through
Bravo is 100% dead. The people who sank bravo do not care about WC.
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AlkaliAxel
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Re: Mystery Kansas 'Mega Project'

Post by AlkaliAxel »

normalthings wrote: Thu Jul 21, 2022 1:08 pm
AlkaliAxel wrote: Thu Jul 21, 2022 12:58 pm
normalthings wrote: Thu Jul 21, 2022 12:50 pm

KCMO came close to getting one with Hotel Bravo. I think we still could with a new developer but the incentive request may need to increase.

KC can not incentivize a downtown hotel greater than 300 or 350 rooms under the Loews agreement
Bravo might have a better excuse from the council this time. They can atleast justify it with like “oh we need this type of hotel and more hotel stock for the World Cup” and then just get it through
Bravo is 100% dead. The people who sank bravo do not care about WC.
We’ll have to remove some of them through the elections in April. I’ve got atleast 4 good candidates marked down
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Re: Mystery Kansas 'Mega Project'

Post by dukuboy1 »

would love to see some of the largest KCMO companies have a stronger downtown "HQ" type presence.

HOK Sports architecture (Now Populous), moved from river market to the Plaza. Why did they do that verses setting up shop downtown or look to fill a spec building? I'm sure the answer was taking advantage of a sweet deal in old BOT building and timeline was faster but I would think a world renowned architecture firm might have wanted a super cool building in the heart of downtown amongst other sky scrapers instead of plain jane building at the end of a dead end street. Also why doesn't Burns & Mac have a downtown HQ or occupy something more downtown instead of their giant suburban campus? Those are 2 of the largest employers 100% within the city of KCMO.

I think the city needs to find the next big players in town and do everything they can to cultivate their success, help grown them and nurture them and get them to build downtown.

I think with things like the 670 cap and downtown baseball will do well to spur other projects and get more focus downtown, especially as the residential population grow not only downtown but in the Rivermarket, Columbus Park, and Crossroads. People like to live close to work and the more ppl living in and around the downtown core will hopefully bring companies with them over time.
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normalthings
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Re: Mystery Kansas 'Mega Project'

Post by normalthings »

Populous moved to the Plaza because it’s a better place to entertain and host team owners, government officials, and team partners. Their reasoning was very transparent.

Burns and Mac likes being close to KS housing and doesn’t have the need to entertain clients that Populous, WR, HOK, etc have.
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Re: Mystery Kansas 'Mega Project'

Post by AlkaliAxel »

I think the reason, sort of related to what he’s saying^, is that downtown didn’t really become a real destination in KC until like 2016-17ish and most of these companies made their new office decision before that. So back when Populous was moving, the Plaza was probably still the destination of the city. Same for Burns & Mac, etc.

I would expect newer companies ever getting new office will take a stronger look, and yes especially after the south loop cap, Royals, etc are fully installed. It’s sort of a no brainer to be down there at that point.
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normalthings
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Re: Mystery Kansas 'Mega Project'

Post by normalthings »

AlkaliAxel wrote: Thu Jul 21, 2022 4:35 pm I think the reason, sort of related to what he’s saying^, is that downtown didn’t really become a real destination in KC until like 2016-17ish and most of these companies made their new office decision before that. So back when Populous was moving, the Plaza was probably still the destination of the city. Same for Burns & Mac, etc.

I would expect newer companies ever getting new office will take a stronger look, and yes especially after the south loop cap, Royals, etc are fully installed. It’s sort of a no brainer to be down there at that point.
Downtown is still not the vibe of the Populous clientele. I think really not allowing Plaza office towers was the final straw that allowed Kansas to take it all
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Re: Mystery Kansas 'Mega Project'

Post by earthling »

Well downtown could use more variety, including corporate restaurants that appeal to MBAs? But let's face it, KC has mostly suburban minded decision makers on locations. And they love free parking, which Plaza can only offer so much of. But let's just keep blaming it on Kansas for actually giving what local decision makers want.
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normalthings
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Re: Mystery Kansas 'Mega Project'

Post by normalthings »

earthling wrote: Thu Jul 21, 2022 4:41 pm Well downtown could use more variety, including corporate restaurants that appeal to MBAs? But let's face it, KC has mostly suburban minded decision makers on locations. And they love free parking, which Plaza can only offer so much of. But let's just keep blaming it on Kansas for actually giving what local decision makers want.
Think Plaza could have competed in a way that Clayton was able to keep STL businesses from entirely heading to their outer suburbs as happened in KC
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Re: Mystery Kansas 'Mega Project'

Post by earthling »

STL biz perhaps doesn't have as many suburban minded decision makers?
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Re: Mystery Kansas 'Mega Project'

Post by AlkaliAxel »

earthling wrote: Thu Jul 21, 2022 4:41 pm Well downtown could use more variety, including corporate restaurants that appeal to MBAs? But let's face it, KC has mostly suburban minded decision makers on locations. And they love free parking, which Plaza can only offer so much of. But let's just keep blaming it on Kansas for actually giving what local decision makers want.
It’s getting better. Brian Platt is doing a great job influencing things in there to the right direction for one.
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normalthings
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Re: Mystery Kansas 'Mega Project'

Post by normalthings »

What jobs have we landed? He’s great but no big movements yet or rumored even
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AlkaliAxel
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Re: Mystery Kansas 'Mega Project'

Post by AlkaliAxel »

normalthings wrote: Thu Jul 21, 2022 5:18 pm What jobs have we landed? He’s great but no big movements yet or rumored even
Since he joined it's been a remote world. But he's done wonders to get public projects going and putting higher standards for everything.
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Re: Mystery Kansas 'Mega Project'

Post by beautyfromashes »

DT is still really, really sleepy during weekday evenings. Until there is a continued influx of more residents, I don't see many more larger companies moving DT. We have to focus on people. Baseball helps with this. More housing, streetcar, etc. It's so much better than 20 years ago. At least the weekends are somewhat of a buzz, but it needs to be much higher.
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Re: Mystery Kansas 'Mega Project'

Post by AlkaliAxel »

beautyfromashes wrote: Thu Jul 21, 2022 6:43 pm DT is still really, really sleepy during weekday evenings.
This is where I see the Royals will matter the most, as you said
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