KCRag Forum

From the BizJournal today:

Kansas contains one of two finalist markets competing for a mystery company's $4 billion, 3 million-square-foot advanced manufacturing facility, which promises to deliver 4,000 permanent jobs averaging $50,000 in annual pay, plus 16,551 temporary construction jobs. The state began as one of 80 respondents to a request for proposals that the company put out about 10 months ago.

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

Wonder what this could be?

Maybe Garmin moving some production back stateside? Oracle Data Center?

Has anyone heard anything about this?

Tesla?

freedog wrote: ↑Tue Jan 25, 2022 9:12 pm From the BizJournal today:

Kansas contains one of two finalist markets competing for a mystery company's $4 billion, 3 million-square-foot advanced manufacturing facility, which promises to deliver 4,000 permanent jobs averaging $50,000 in annual pay, plus 16,551 temporary construction jobs. The state began as one of 80 respondents to a request for proposals that the company put out about 10 months ago.

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

Wonder what this could be?

Maybe Garmin moving some production back stateside? Oracle Data Center?

Has anyone heard anything about this?

I doubt it's a data center. Data Centers have almost no jobs and the jobs that are created are high paying. $4 billion sounds too small to be a chip factory based on announcements. Wish it was tech-related as those drive cargo flights. I suspect it's something a bit more traditional with maybe a blend of higher tech. EV?

The head of KCADC retweeted Lt. Governor's tweet on this project so it may be KC area but not quite metro. This is one aspect of the new law that may indicate the location of the new facility.

A 50% property tax abatement for firms and suppliers located in a foreign-trade zone. (Kansas has two zones — in the Kansas City area (New Century) and Wichita.)

Aerospace?

Toland did not identify the company's industry but described it as a "perfect fit" with Kansas' strategic growth plans. Factoring in both the manufacturing facility and suppliers that could co-locate nearby, the state could reap $2.5 billion annually in direct and indirect benefits, according to an economic impact study the Commerce Department commissioned.

Electric vehicle, battery or less complex chip plant, like RAM or something less complex than a CPU.

earthling wrote: ↑Tue Jan 25, 2022 9:41 pm Electric vehicle, battery or less complex chip plant, like RAM or something less complex than a CPU.

Micron is looking for a memory factory. Price stage $40 billion.

Ah, I've seen $7B, which is more in the ballpark. Depends on what it's used for and production capacity.
https://www.yahoo.com/now/micron-build- ... 43077.html

But yeah, based on number of jobs it sounds more like an electric vehicle plant. OTOH, there is a US drive to be less dependent on Asia for chips.

edit: Just looked up Tesla battery plants and they are about 800-1000 employees.

Tesla just is finishing up Giga Austin. They have indicated desire for an additional plan in the US to serve east coast. I don't think Kansas would work for them. They almost located in Oklahoma.

Similarly, Rivian just announced a new plant in Georgia. $5bln, 7500 jobs. Lucid won't build another new plant stateside for awhile. Ford just announced a bunch of new EV initiatves in Kentucky and TN to support F150 EV. Not sure on GM or Stellantis, I guess it could be them. Seems more likely aerospace or some other type of highly technical manufacturing I'll never be able to guess. Huge deal size though.

But if this thing goes to like anywhere in Kansas east of Topeka then it becomes irrelevant to us right

The Kansas Senate passed the economic incentive bill aiming to get this project. Called the Attracting Powerful Economic Expansion Act.

Moves to the House now

It says Kansas is one of two finalists...what is the other state?

Would be great if it were a chip/battery/tech type of plant. Hope it’s in KC Metro to use at the 2 auto plants and our central location. & transportation & logistics infrastructure already in space. Fingers crossed this goes within the metro

Heard a rumor it would be in a Foreign Trade Zone which would mean KC or Wichita

freedog wrote: ↑Tue Feb 01, 2022 9:52 am Heard a rumor it would be in a Foreign Trade Zone which would mean KC or Wichita

I believe this is not a rumor, see tweet the KCADC retweeted from the Lt. Governor's referenced above. I agree that it makes some sense for a chip fab or battery factory. Ohio recently landed a huge Intelt plan, and they can be built anywhere but they need a lot of cheap green electricity and water. KS has plenty of wind turbines and water resources.
https://time.com/6140476/intel-building-factory-ohio/

What about the Sunflower Ammo Plant site? It's about cleaned up within the next couple years and a huge contiguous parcel ready for development. I don't think it's the most likelky, just because of the work still needed to be done but maybe if they had a megaproject ready to go the final remediation process would be expedited.

https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/ ... 2022-02-01

Speculation from the KCBJ today. Mentions the possibility of an electric vehicle battery manufacturing plant linked to a joint venture of LG and the automaker Stellantis.

Also highlights the Sunflower Ammo Plant as a potential site.

Article also notes that average pay of $50k of then new project is below average for aerospace industry, so that is less likely to be behind the project.

They didn't mention a chip FAB. I think Stellantis makes sense for a battery factory in KC area. They don't have any presence here, all their factories and located in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and one in IL, but we have plenty of rail and highway links to those factories plus to ports and raw material processing plants at ports and domestically. As of now, we import all lithium from places like Chile and Australia but new mines are hopefully opening soon in Nevada and North Carolina. Stellantis has announced two upcomming battery plants one with LG (40 GWh) and one with Samsung SDI (23 GWh) but not named where they would be built as of now.

I don't know if they would want to build out west in KS simply because there's less potential applicants. KC already has a significant automotive talent pool from Fairfax and Claycomo.

Tesla has had issues hiring people for their Sparks NV gigafactory due to long commute and the fact that Reno is so small (total metro -425k population).

For reference, Tesla-Panasonic GigaNevada has output of 24 GWh in 2021 and employeed 7000 people. It's not fully complete, instead with new battery factories being constructed on-premises in Austin.

I couldn't be more underwhelmed with this being called some mega project if it's in fact a battery plant.

^Does it matter what the product is as long as it's not controversial? A $4B investment with 4K+ jobs isn't peanuts.

tell me what the jobs pay and I'm more likely to agree.

Average pay is $50k so about $24 bucks an hour plus benefits.

We need a lot more batteries in the coming decades, why not here? We actually have some cobalt in Missouri. (https://www.mocobalt.com/) and we have MO S&T. Will stay tuned to see what it is. Not a done deal, still have to beat Oklahoma. They almost landed the Tesla factory deal that went to Austin, so it wouldn't be surprising if they are the frontrunners.