Platte County abounds with good news about business development. Companies are choosing Platte County to help them write their own success stories. Some great examples of this are our 2012 Job Development Award winners:
Affinity Group Management began in 1999. It is the client services side of the National Real Estate Insurance Group. The company recently moved its operations to its new office location in the KCI Corridor. Affinity Group Management now owns the building in which it offices. The company currently employs 25 and is growing.
Chris Ragland decided to establish office locations for three of his animal health companies in Kansas City. ATS Animal Health Training Solutions, Animalytix and Axxiom now all call Platte County home. ATS offers professional development exclusively to the animal health industry. Animalytix is a business intelligence and market insight company which specials in market share reports for the leading animal health product categories. Axxiom is the animal health executive consultant and provides M&A and business strategy support to more than 30 US and international animal health manufacturers, distributors and financial institutions.
The Platte County EDC first recognized Grantham University in 2006 after they made the move to Platte County from Louisiana due to Hurricane Katrina. Since that time, Grantham has more than doubled the amount of space they occupy at Zona Rosa. The university opened with 60 employees in 2006 and now employs close to 300. Its Platte County location is the headquarters and all operations take place here.
When Mosaic Life Care was created out of Heartland Health, Platte County, specifically Parkville, was chosen as the pilot location. Now with two life care locations in Platte County, Mosaic provides services at numerous locations around the Northland. The Parkville Commons location offers primary and urgent care as well as a chef’s station with healthy cooking demonstrations and meal ideas. The Parkville location serves as Mosaic’s home office, provides meeting space for out of town guests and is the pilot for all other Mosaic locations.
In the last 24 months, NorthPoint Development has made $50 million in investments and hit 1 million square feet of development at Riverside Horizons. New construction is currently underway for multi-family and multiple millions of dollars have been used to improve the Burlington Creek development which is 85% occupied. NorthPoint Development projects have led to almost 1000 jobs.
Premium Waters is a private-label bottled water manufacturing and distribution company. Their 160,000-square-foot facility in Riverside Horizons officially became home to 115 employees in November of 2012. After outgrowing its previous facility, the company realized the need to consolidate and build and decided on Riverside for its manufacturing expansion due to accessibility for customers and personnel. The Riverside location will also serve as Premium Waters’ main training facility, bringing people in from all over the country.
Sample Express chose a location in the Parkville Commercial Underground for its new, 20,000-square-foot assembly and distribution facility. Sample Express is based out of Richmond, Massachusetts and specializes in the manufacturing and assembly of marketing tools used for building materials. Currently in the process of moving into its new facility in the Underground, Sample Express chose its Parkville location because of the low cost of doing business, central location and availability to a quality workforce. The company plans to create up to 25 jobs in its first year.
In May of 2011, Toyota Motor Sales completed a 9,400-square-foot expansion for its Service and Technical Training Facility, representing a large investment. The KCI Corridor location serves as a training center for the Midwest region for sales and technical personnel. The Kansas City Technical Training Center integrated numerous LEED elements into construction to achieve Gold certification including: automatic lighting controls and use of natural light, a 99% construction waste diversion from landfill through salvage or recycling and the native, vegetation rain gardens treating 100 percent of parking lot and storm water runoffs.
Universal Account Servicing offers comprehensive billing and account servicing for client needs. The company outgrew its space and relocated part of its operations to the KCI Corridor in August of 2012. Having grown from four to 100 employees in six years, Universal Account Servicing is looking to grow a significant amount in the next few years. The decision to move to Platte County was made based on accessibility and the company has been impressed by the county’s availability of a quality workforce.
Vintage Tech Recyclers is a leader in the electronics recycling industry. The company has developed the most responsible processes and procedures and is constantly implementing new technology. Established in 2005, Vintage Tech is committed to the environment. After looking to expand in the Midwest, Vintage Tech executives decided on its Riverside location due to highway access, central location, cost of doing business and the passion for recycling within the Riverside community. The Riverside location quickly became Vintage Tech’s pilot location for other company expansion projects.
WireCo WorldGroup is the largest global manufacturer of high-quality wire rope, synthetic rope and a leading manufacturer of electromechanical cable and highly engineered cable structures. Awarded in 2007 by the Platte County EDC with a Job Development Award after relocating their Headquarters and 90 employees to the Ambassador Building at KCI, WireCo now employs over 135 people locally and is in the process of expanding to an additional 12,000-square-feet at the Ambassador Building. Ranking number 23 in the Kansas City Business Journal’s list of “Fastest-Growing Area Businesses” based on an average annual revenue growth of 26 percent during the past three years, WireCo has nearly $1 billion in annual sales.
