THE LOCAL OUTLOOK
Economist sees positives in K.C. area By Jeff Fox jeff.fox@examiner.net
There is upbeat news in economist Frank Lenk’s latest assessment of the region’s economy: Assuming the nation’s economy stays on its slow but steady course of improvement, the Kansas City area should do better that the U.S. as a whole. “This is welcome news, given a local economy that has struggled to keep up with national growth during the recovery,” Lenk writes in his semi-annual forecast for the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce. Lenk also is director of research services at the Mid-America Research Council. Lenk sees two advantages for the
area. One is that sectors expected to do well in 2012 and 2013 – financial services, wholesale trade, professional and technical services, even non-profits – are somewhat concentrated here. The other is that our relatively low cost of living frees consumers’ wallets for shopping, health care, eating out and even looking at buying a house. He sees the growth in Kansas City’s gross regional product growing 3.4 percent this year, compared with 3.1 percent for GDP nationwide. By the end of 2013, the region’s employment growth should be back to the 2 percent a year rate the area enjoyed until around the 2000.
“This return to historical trends marks the culmination of a long struggle,” Lenk writes. The area ended the decade of the 2000s with fewer jobs than it started with. That is slowly coming around. The metro area is expected to add 22,000 jobs this year and 28,0000 in 2013. Most of those will be in the services industry. Government, which has been cutting overall jobs at all levels for a few years, is expected to cut another 1,000 this year but rebound in 2013. This assumes that the U.S. economy keeps growing. Should there be some combination of higher oil prices, a big hit to the dollar or the onset of inflation, then gross domestic product falls notably, Lenk says.
“Like the U.S., it will be until at least 2014 before the region regains all the jobs it lost during the Great Recession, regardless of the scenario,” Lenk writes. “Should the region experience another recession in 2013, however, this achievement would likely be postponed to 2015 or beyond.” Lest anyone forget, Lenk points out that the Federal Reserve is keeping interest rates at historically low levels for at least another couple of years. “The economy is not healthy – that’s what interest rates being held near zero percent signifies,” he writes, adding that once things are good “many economic challenges” can then be addressed.
business bits Arvest Bank closes Union Bank purchase Arvest Bank has completed its purchase of Union Bank, giving it 18 banks and 33 ATMs in the Kansas City area. Those locations include the former Union Bank sites at 4340 S. Noland Road and 8959 East U.S. 40, just west of Blue Ridge Cut-off. Arvest, based in Bentonville, Ark., has more than 230 locations in Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Kansas.
economic growth in the state in the years ahead. The Missouri Bioscience Portal is at www.ded. mo.gov/bio. It touts the state’s third-lowest-in-the-nation cost of doing business, its low energy costs, its skilled workforce and its 21 bioscience centers. It has links to resources for startups, incentive programs and other information.
State Treasurer Clint Zweifel has championed since taking office, the Missouri Linked Deposit Program, designed to aid businesses with up to 99 employees as well as farmers. Zweifel manages the program.
New ideas for U.S. 40? The Mid-America Regional Council is studying development options for a couple of key interHEBCO moving to Independence sections in Eastern Jackson County. An Overland Park plumbing supply sales U.S. 40 is among six corridors in the metro area CVS store moving agency, HEBCO Inc., is moving to a new headbeing studied. Specifically, the idea is to look Susquehanna Center on U.S. 24 in Indepenquarters at 4304 S. Washington Ave. That’s in at redevelopment potential with “conceptual dence is being redeveloped to include a CVS the commercial and light industrial area west of plans” for what are described as three typical store, which currently sits slightly to the east. Noland Road and south of Interstate 70, behind locations: 40 at Adams Dairy Parkway in Blue CPH recently sold the site for $2.35 million, acthe strip center with Harbor Freight Tools, Savers Springs, at Noland Road in Independence and at cording to Kokua Realty Company of Grain Valley. and the MaMa Garden Chinese buffet. Prospect in Kansas City. There’s also supposed The property also includes Blockbuster and Papa HEBCO is bringing five full-time employees and to be “a strategy for redeveloping abandoned Murphy’s Pizza. one-part time employee. The company will have or underperforming strip centers,” according to both offices and its warehouse at the site. It says MARC documents. New online tool it plans to grow and, during the next five years, The Rock Island corridor also is being studied. The Missouri Department of Economic Develop- add five employees. The other corridors being studied are Troost ment has a new website to promote biosciTo buy the facility, the company is getting a Avenue, North Oak Trafficway, State Avenue in ence, which officials say will be a key driver of $210,000 low-interest loan through a program Kansas City, Kan., and Shawnee Mission Parkway
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Eastern Jackson County Business Review
and Metcalf. Those have existing development plans but also the complications of overlapping jurisdictions, like the Kansas City/Independence line hopscotching across 40. KCP&L adds $1 million to customer assistance fund KCP&L has expanded its Connections programs to help seniors, lower-income customers and families who are struggling to pay electric utility bills during the extremely hot summer. The utility added $1 million to its assistance programs, which include Dollar-Aide, helping residents who struggle to pay utility and water bills; Family Relief Fund, offering up to a $150 credit on KCP&L bills during summer months; and Reconnection Relief, helping those whose utilities were disconnected before the Hot Weather Rule took effect. KCP&L also has asked the Missouri Public Service Commission to extend the Economic Relief Program. For information about the programs, call 1-800-526-3348 or visit www.kcpl.com/connections. Compiled by Jeff Fox Fall 2012