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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Chiefs game against the Miami Dolphins in Germany earlier this football season was part of the ongoing effort to export American football around the world but it’s also helping business and elected leaders achieve their goals.
“Right now the trends are showing that we’re going to announce a couple of these European companies that we met with on this trip in the first quarter of next year,” said KC SmartPort President Chris Gutierrez.
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Those investments were already in the works before nearly 20 elected and business leaders went to Frankfurt to explain why German businesses should invest in Kansas City, but they help lay the groundwork for what could come next.
“We had about 70-plus people, standing room only. in a conference room in Frankfurt and…[Kansas Governor Laura Kelley, Missouri Lieutenant Governor Mike Kehoe, and Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas] talked about why Kansas City, what’s happening in our market,” Gutierrez said.
Gutierrez said those leaders had a lot to talk about because both German and Kansas City area businesses are often working through similar challenges with their supply chain and labor markets. He says the American Midwest is a popular place for European companies trying to reach American consumers.
“People call it ‘near-shoring, re-shoring, ally-shoring,’ we’re seeing the trend,” Gutierrez said. “Probably 80% of our deals are foreign companies looking at the Midwest or Kansas City right now.”
Hunt Midwest President and CEO Ora Reynolds says there are already some foreign-investment success stories in the massive Subtropolis business complex.
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Above ground, Hunt Midwest’s KCI 29 Logistics Park is building more than 20 million square feet of industrial space right by the airport.
Reynolds said that’s the type of project where the relationships made in Germany could lead to more business in the next few years.
“When one German company or one Japanese company comes here, then everybody says, ‘That must be a place that is a good place to do business,” Reynolds said.
Panasonic’s massive investment in western Johnson County is already a beacon to other international businesses who want to work with the electric vehicle battery maker and will soon be making their own investments in the metro.
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“We have a lot of interest from global companies that looked at Panasonic and said, ‘Wow, there is credibility in the Kansas City region,” Reynolds said.
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