Kansas City Becoming a True National Hub for E-Commerce
KANSAS CITY—Amazon.com has decided to add yet another giant distribution facility to region, which has recently absorbed millions of square feet of new space.
By
Brian J. Rogal |
brianjrogal |
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Updated on July 13, 2016
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BNSF’s Logistics Park Kansas City; Amazon agreed earlier this year to occupy a new 822K spec here.KANSAS CITY—The Kansas City region has just gotten yet another boost from the nation’s top e-commerce firm. Officials fromAmazon.comsay they intend to add a third distribution center to their rapidly expanding operations here. The 855,000 square foot facility will employ more than 1,000 workers, and will open up a new portion of the region to industrial development.The company first made a big splash in Kansas City earlier this year when it agreed to occupy the entirety ofNorthPoint Development’snew 822,104 square foot speculative development at Logistics Park Kansas Cityin the Kansas suburb of Edgerton, the region’s largest spec development.Amazon also operates a 267,000 square foot fulfillment center atLenexa Logistics Center.The confidence that developers now have in Kansas City was shown shortly thereafter, whenNorthPoint announced it would build two additional specs at Logistics Park, one of 765,927 square feet, and another with 927,155 square feet, setting a new record for a spec project. “A company with the might and heft of Amazon does wonders for the credibility of your city,”Tim Cowden, president and chief executive officer,Kansas City Area Development Council, tells GlobeSt.com. “Our development pipeline is loaded; there will soon be several major announcements that will have a major impact on the region.” “Being able to reach 85% of the US population within two days is a tremendous advantage for distributors,” he adds. Furthermore, “we have a significant amount of high cube, modern distribution space ready to go.”In the last three years, the Kansas City area has attracted many e-commerce companies including Amazon,S&S Active Wear,FoodServiceWarehouse.com,ReallyGoodStuff.comandJet.com. These companies will invest $150 million and occupy over four million square feet, according to the development council.Industrial developers added 7.3 million square feet of space in the region since the start of 2015, and net absorption has totaled about 6.6 million square feet over that same period of time, according to a recently-published report by Cushman & Wakefield . “ The Johnson County submarket has been the driver in the recent construction boom and currently has about 3 million square feet of speculative space under construction.” Cushman & Wakefield,Seefried Industrial PropertiesandUSAAwill help develop the new Amazon facility on land previously owned by NorthPoint Development near the southwest side of I-70 and the Turner Diagonal freeway. And the location itself could also prove important, Cowden says. This portion of the submarket has not seen new development yet, but once the infrastructure necessary for this project is finished, other builders will be able to put it to use. In addition, the project will allow Amazon to “tap into the labor force in Wyandotte County,” which until now, has not had access to any of the jobs created by the company. But however that shakes out, the fact that a company like Amazon has made two such significant investments in just six months “says to the world that Kansas City is ready.”
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