Kansas City, Kan., is in line to land a massive online fulfillment facility that would employ 1,500 initially and 3,500 in the future.
The Unified Government Board of Commissioners on Thursday night approved industrial revenue bonds for an industrial project with more than 2.3 million square feet of usable space. The facility would be built within a year near the southwest side of Interstate 70 and the Turner Diagonal.
Officials said that they could not disclose the name of the tenant for the site but that the reveal could happen in the next two weeks.
Jonathan Stites of Seefried Industrial Properties represented developer RELP Turner LLC. He told commissioners that his company has developed projects “like this” several times in the past few years. Among Seefried’s projects has been construction of two Amazon.com fulfillment centers.
Amazon announced in March that it would occupy an 822,000-square-foot industrial building at Logistics Park Kansas City in Edgerton. That building will be used for a fulfillment center and employ 1,000.
Mark Holland, mayor and CEO of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kan., wouldn’t discuss the identity of the company coming to the area but said it will employ 1,500 initially and 3,500 at build-out — jobs paying twice the minimum wage. He noted that plans for the project include 2,500 parking spaces.
“It will be among our top four employers,” Holland said.
Stites said the building will have a footprint of 856,000 square feet but will have 2.3 million square feet of usable space. The design includes an internal mezzanine, he said, that will suit sophisticated fulfillment technology.
NorthPoint Development will sell the land for the project. The active local developer had acquired the land at the intersection of Riverview Avenue and the Turner Diagonal for its Turner Commerce Center. That project called for three industrial buildings with a total of about 1 million square feet over a 10-year period.
Brent Miles, vice president of development for NorthPoint, told UG commissioners that when the company was approached about a potential sale, “the answer was absolutely no.” But that answer changed when NorthPoint heard the parameters of the new proposal.
The new project will receive a 10-year tax abatement — as was previously approved for Turner Commerce Center. Holland said the incentives are at the top end of what the UG typically grants but noted that the area will get “a $300 million project on land that’s generating $5,000 a year in (tax) revenue.”
A number of loose ends need to be tied up on the project, Stites said, but Seefried is beginning the search for a construction contractor.