KANSAS CITY—Officials from S&S Activewear say they plan to locate a new distribution center in Olathe, KS, a suburb of Kansas City, and create hundreds of new jobs for the region. It's just the latest shot in the arm for a sector that in the past year, driven by demand for new distribution facilities, has really taken off.
"The additional Midwest warehouse puts us over 1.5 million square feet of inventory, with a big portion of that inventory in the most accessible region of the country," says Margaret Crow, director of marketing at S&S. "It will give our customers a larger overnight delivery area with later cut-off times.
Founded in 1988, the national wholesaler has more than 60 brands. Its products include t-shirts, fleece, sport shirts, hats, bags, aprons, performance apparel and uniforms. With four locations—Bolingbrook, IL, Santa Fe Springs, CA, Robbinsville, NJ and now Olathe, KS—the company can reach customers in 46 states with 1- or 2-day shipping.
Opening this new facility "will also have a positive impact on our service level in Bolingbrook by shifting some of that volume to Kansas City," Crow adds. "We're always working to improve our shipping speed and accuracy and this is an important step in that direction."
The company will occupy a 473,000 square foot shipping and receiving facility at I-35 Logistics Park. Dan Jensen, principal with Kessinger/Hunter & Co., LC, negotiated the lease. This new location will expand the company's one-day ground shipping transit area to include KS, MO, OK, and portions of TX and CO.
"Adding S&S Activewear to the area is yet another proof point that our Kansas City region is an ideal location for distribution and logistics centers," says Tim Cowden, president of the Kansas City Area Development Council. "We are thrilled with their decision to locate in our region and create 200 jobs after considering other markets across the Midwest."
"Large scale bulk/modern spaces are fueling the market in Kansas City right now, both in terms of new construction and absorption," according to a second quarter snapshot by Cushman & Wakefield. The market saw just over 1 million square feet of absorption in the modern bulk sector. And new deliveries pushed the vacancy rate up to 7.97%, roughly equal to where it was last year, even though 5.6 million square feet of inventory had been added to the market.
In the second quarter officials from NorthPoint Development announced they would begin construction on the 822,104 square foot Inland Port XIV at Logistics Park Kansas City, which C&W calls the largest speculative building ever in Kansas City.
Furthermore, the economic outlook, especially for industrial jobs, looks rosy for Kansas City. The Bureau of Labor Statistics found that through the end of May the manufacturing sector, trade, transportation, and utilities, and the goods producing sector combined to add 8,900 jobs over the previous 90 days.
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Brian J. Rogal
Brian J. Rogal is a Chicago-based freelance writer with years of experience as an investigative reporter and editor, most notably at The Chicago Reporter, where he concentrated on housing issues. He also has written extensively on alternative energy and the payments card industry for national trade publications.
