Olathe

[Highlander]

The KC Star indicates that Farmers Insurance will move a further 750 or so employees to Olathe.  The article is a bit confusing because it did not state where the employees were coming from (as in inside or outside the metro).  The endorsement of the KC area developement council and OneKC seems to indicate that the jobs will be brought in from outside the area.  Generally, I hate to see business march off to the suburbs but I'd rather have them in our suburbs then someone else's. 

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/12698465.htm

[LenexatoKCMO]

Isn't farmers headquartered out of Tulsa or somewhere in OK? 

[Highlander]

Isn't farmers headquartered out of Tulsa or somewhere in OK? 

I believe they are based in LA.

[shinatoo]

It appears that they are saying more than half of those will be new jobs and the rest are exesting jobs in Olathe. They indicated that this was a big win for "OneKC" so i bet its not scalping from another municipality.

[Highlander]

A better article is in today's business journal news.  Looks like most of the incentives went to keep Farmers here as they were "threatening" to move to OKC or Pheonix.  In return for the tax abatement, they offer to add jobs over the next three years.  In a sense, it's more a case of Farmers extorting the incentives out of Olathe by threatening to move than it is a recruiting plum for the area.  We wil see if those jobs ever materialize.

[CorneliusFB]

JLL is listing the Farmers office portfolio in Olathe for sublease. 310,881sf of office space. It includes 16850 w 119th, 17000 w 119th and 10551 S Ridgeview. Not sure if this is their entire space use in the area, but that square footage would be about 1200 - 1400 employees.

[FangKC]

My sister works for an insurance company. Many staff worked from home during the pandemic, and the company (not Farmers) discovered that it's working fine. This may be true for Farmers as well, and they realize they can get by with a lot less office space.

[Cratedigger]

https://thinkkc.com/news/blog/thinkkc-b ... -kc-region

Chick-Fil-A DC coming to Olathe

The company plans to invest $31 million in the market distribution center, creating more than 60 jobs. The facility will be located at Lone Elm Commerce Center in Olathe, developed by Frontier Real Estate Investment, formerly Heise-Meyer.

The Olathe facility will be Chick-fil-A’s fifth distribution center in the U.S. and the company’s first in Kansas. Chick-fil-A Supply’s market distribution centers are aimed at supporting and creating greater flexibility within the company’s supply chain.

[trailerkid]

https://thinkkc.com/news/blog/thinkkc-b ... -kc-region

Chick-Fil-A DC coming to Olathe

The company plans to invest $31 million in the market distribution center, creating more than 60 jobs. The facility will be located at Lone Elm Commerce Center in Olathe, developed by Frontier Real Estate Investment, formerly Heise-Meyer.

The Olathe facility will be Chick-fil-A’s fifth distribution center in the U.S. and the company’s first in Kansas. Chick-fil-A Supply’s market distribution centers are aimed at supporting and creating greater flexibility within the company’s supply chain.

^^ The most Olathe thing to ever come to Olathe.

[Cratedigger]

More Olathe industrial news. An unidentified retail company's subsidiary, 1918 LLC, was approved to be issued up to $257 million in industrial revenue bonds to build a $152 million beef carcass processing and packaging plant in Olathe, Kansas. The plant will be responsible for the Choice Beef cuts for most of the company's stores in 11 states and will create 667 jobs, including 156 skilled positions and 471 unskilled positions, over the next decade. In addition to the bond, the company is seeking incentives through two Kansas programs.

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

[Highlander]

More Olathe industrial news. An unidentified retail company's subsidiary, 1918 LLC, was approved to be issued up to $257 million in industrial revenue bonds to build a $152 million beef carcass processing and packaging plant in Olathe, Kansas. The plant will be responsible for the Choice Beef cuts for most of the company's stores in 11 states and will create 667 jobs, including 156 skilled positions and 471 unskilled positions, over the next decade. In addition to the bond, the company is seeking incentives through two Kansas programs.

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

40 of the jobs will have a starting salary of $94,000. The other 621 will start at $35,000. Yikes.

[TheLastGentleman]

“beef carcass processing and packaging plant”

A return to tradition in the kansas city area

[empires228]

More Olathe industrial news. An unidentified retail company's subsidiary, 1918 LLC, was approved to be issued up to $257 million in industrial revenue bonds to build a $152 million beef carcass processing and packaging plant in Olathe, Kansas. The plant will be responsible for the Choice Beef cuts for most of the company's stores in 11 states and will create 667 jobs, including 156 skilled positions and 471 unskilled positions, over the next decade. In addition to the bond, the company is seeking incentives through two Kansas programs.

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

40 of the jobs will have a starting salary of $94,000. The other 621 will start at $35,000. Yikes.

And yet no one complains about the thousands of education jobs, including teachers, in the metro that pay just that or worse. This is the reality of our economy.

[Highlander]

More Olathe industrial news. An unidentified retail company's subsidiary, 1918 LLC, was approved to be issued up to $257 million in industrial revenue bonds to build a $152 million beef carcass processing and packaging plant in Olathe, Kansas. The plant will be responsible for the Choice Beef cuts for most of the company's stores in 11 states and will create 667 jobs, including 156 skilled positions and 471 unskilled positions, over the next decade. In addition to the bond, the company is seeking incentives through two Kansas programs.

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

40 of the jobs will have a starting salary of $94,000. The other 621 will start at $35,000. Yikes.

And yet no one complains about the thousands of education jobs, including teachers, in the metro that pay just that or worse. This is the reality of our economy.

I'm well aware of that (wife is an education major). Not only do teachers get paid horribly, the expectations on them are very high plus they are saddled with having to pay out of their own pockets for continuing education and some classroom material. It's more endemic to our society and what we value than just a function of the economy.

[TrolliKC]

Maybe it’s an in and out fresh meat processing plant

[Cratedigger]

Maybe it’s an in and out fresh meat processing plant

God I wish

In and Out isn't in any of the states the company has stores in currently so we can probably rule that out. Unfortunately.

The Olathe facility, named Project Sandhills, would take over production of the Choice Beef cuts for most of the unnamed company's stores in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri and Arkansas. It also wold be responsible for Choice Beef in all of the company's Kansas stores, according to documents filed with the city.

[Cratedigger]

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

On Tuesday night, the Olathe City Council approved the first $405 million in industrial revenue bonds of a larger $810 million bond request for Heartland Coca-Cola's bottling and packaging facility. It also signed off on a 10-year, 55% property tax abatement to build the facility.

Work on the 660,000-square-foot facility will start in the next two weeks on 116 acres southwest of 167th Street and Hedge Lane.

Heartland plans to divide the first $405 million as follows, according to documents filed with the city:

$20 million to cover costs of acquiring the land;
$175 million to cover costs to construct the building and make improvements;
$200 million to cover costs to buy furniture, fixtures and equipment;
$10 million to cover other costs.

Heartland wants to add 675 new jobs as the development progresses. The average salaries of the new positions — hired during both phases of the project — would start at $55,000 and increase to $68,500 by year 10, according to documents filed with the city.

[FangKC]

It's too bad KCMO couldn't have landed that on the old Leeds GM plant site.

[Highlander]

It's too bad KCMO couldn't have landed that on the old Leeds GM plant site.

I think they probably just prefer greenfield to brownfield and the extra cost of removing existing facilities and mitigating any environmental issues that may be hold overs from the former occupants (if any).

[Sani]

A better article is in today's business journal news.  Looks like most of the incentives went to keep Farmers here as they were "threatening" to move to OKC or Pheonix.  In return for the tax abatement, they offer to add jobs over the next three years.  In a sense, it's more a case of Farmers extorting the incentives out of Olathe by threatening to move than it is a recruiting plum for the area.  We wil see if those jobs ever materialize.

Former Farmers employee here, although I didn't start until 2016. They ended up taking incentives to build a brand-new hub in Phoenix and tried encouraging/coercing people from the Olathe office to transfer, even though there wasn't a COL adjustment or any real relocation assistance. It turned into a clusterfuck because a bunch of other insurance companies also have claim hubs in Phoenix, and the turnover there was massive while the claims staff in Olathe were applying anywhere else within the company that they could before they potentially got laid off. We were working/competing with the folks in Phoenix on the same pool of claims, and the difference in file quality was stark. In the end, they had to hire more people in KC to handle the claim volume.

Pre-pandemic, they allowed most employees to work from home two days per week, but I know a couple of people who were denied the ability to work from home full-time because their spouses were being transferred to other cities or similar. When the pandemic hit, they told everyone to take whatever equipment they needed off of their desks and work from home for a few weeks, which of course turned into being fully virtual.

I will say this: Despite spending who knows how much on that new Phoenix campus, they didn't do the obstinate thing so many companies did and force people to go back to the office just to make use of it. I know someone who works for a different company in St. Louis and has to go into the office because they just got a nice new building, dagnabbit, and management wants to see it used!

My understanding is that the offices are sort of open now, with some people sneaking in and working from the office when they need to get out of the house. Even if Farmers ends the leases they have on the existing properties, they will have some kind of a physical presence in Olathe because they need a office and parking space for the CAT (catastrophe) team and its associated vehicles. The Farmers Credit Union may also build some sort of standalone branch, since the only branches they have now are inside the offices. But I left last year, so I don't know for sure what all they have planned.