Reenergizing 'Downtown'

At KCI, Developing the Footprint

Kansas City International Airport currently utilizes some 3,500 acres of its 11,000-acre footprint, according to K.C. Aviation Department director Mark VanLoh. Since his arrival in mid-2004, VanLoh has led a resurgence in development activity. Among the projects ...

• An 800-acre deal with developer Trammel Crow signed in 2006 in which the Dallas-based firm is the master developer for the KCI Business Airpark, located on the southeast corner of the airfield. Trammell Crow will seek to attract air cargo facilities, logistics firms, distribution facilities, light manufacturing, and commercial office space. First to be built: a 500,000-square foot warehouse. Comments VanLoh, “Their cargo operation in Dallas is phenomenal, and that’s what impressed us.”
• In February the Kansas City City Council approved a 30-year lease with the KCI Motorsports Park, which plans to develop 300 acres west of International Airport. Plans call for an investment of $25 million in a subsidy-free development. “It’s a private country club for people who own sports cars and race cars,” explains VanLoh. “If in the next ten years FAA tells us, ‘Your parallel runway — it’s time,’ we can move them. There are no buildings to move. I think that’s exactly what the FAA wants to see airports doing to increase their revenue potential while saving space for future development.”
• The Ambassador Building at KCI, which the aviation department acquired in 2006 and which is having success attracting out-of-town tenants. “The company that it was built for went bankrupt,” says VanLoh, “so we purchased it from the Pritzker family.”
• Discussions for a second on-airport hotel are underway.
• KCI has signed a due diligence agreement with a Las Vegas company for creation of a unique ‘expo’ on 200 acres that would profile large equipment which isn’t readily shipped around the globe for demonstration. Says VanLoh, “I think it’s brilliant. If you’re a foreign company and you want to buy some Caterpillar or John Deere equipment, you’ll fly into K.C., stay in the hotel, and the next day walk out and see the equipment. You’ll be able to take it out in the dirt and play with it. When you buy it, you’ll send over your mechanics team. They’re talking earth-moving equipment; drilling equipment; mining equipment.”

The Kansas City Airport System is an Enterprise Fund Department of the City of Kansas City, MO.

$100 MILLION INVESTMENT

• $20 million primary runway reconstruction
• Taxiway realignment, per FAA recommendation
• All-purpose GA Terminal Building
• Self-service avgas; aircraft wash area
• 107-unit T-hangar complex, with three sizes (construction to start in November, 2007)
• Non-primary runway overlay
• Associated drainage, other infrastructure; environmental studies.