A N N U A L R E P O R T

M I S S I O N S T A T E M E N T

To facilitate the creation and

retention of jobs and capital investment

in Leavenworth County

6

O V E R V I E W

Leavenworth County proved again this past year that it’s a great place to live and to do business. With the location of Mid Star Lab, the long-awaited groundbreaking of a new Army Reserve Center, major expansions at Cereal Ingredients and Great Western, and new retail and commercial investment, Leavenworth County continues to provide additional job opportunities for our residents and an increased tax base for our cities and county.

LCDC marketed the county to site location consultants and businesses in Kansas City, Chicago, Phoenix, New York, New Jersey and Dallas. At the same time, we reached out to over 100 existing businesses to remove barriers to growth and provide tools for job expansion and retention. With this combined effort in 2016, LCDC facilitated the creation and retention of 230 JOBS and CAPITAL INVESTMENT OF $22 MILLION. Through our efforts, existing companies saved nearly $2.9 million through tax credits, tax reductions, energy savings, workforce training assistance and grants.

Substantial investments by the county and our communities in new business parks have already created a buzz and will reap tangible rewards in the near future. Working as a team, our communities, chambers, county and nearly 80 private sector members are creating an environment for sustained growth for years to come.

BL AINE WEEKS, LCD C PRESIDENT

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BL AINE WEEKS, LCD C PRESIDENT

6 L E A V E N W O R T H C O U N T Y P O R T A U T H O R I T YThe Port Authority board worked throughout the year on a plan to build a new business park in Leavenworth and to improve light industrial land in Tonganoxie. The projects became feasible after the Board of County Commissioners agreed to dedicate a portion of sales tax revenue to the effort. A new 81-acre business park will be built in 2017 in Leavenworth and will be owned by the Port Authority. The $9.6 million cost will be split evenly between the city and county. The Tonganoxie Business Park will receive an influx of $5 million in county funds to improve the park. LCDC will market the shovel-ready properties on behalf of the Port Authority.

The year began with the purchase of an existing building in the Urban Hess Business Park by Mid Star Lab, resulting in 35 new jobs. As the year was coming to a close, the Port Authority was negotiating the sale of three acres in Urban Hess to an area business and 30 acres in the Ton-ganoxie Business Park to an internationally-owned firm.

Terry Andrews stepped down from the board after more than 30 years of service. TERRY’S IMPACT ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN LEAVENWORTH COUNTY WAS IMMEASURABLE, and his leadership will be sorely missed.

C O M M U N I C A T I O N A N D N E T W O R K I N GEconomist Chris Kuehl, Managing Director of Armada Corporate Intelligence, was the featured speaker at the LCDC Annual Meeting on January 15th. Dr. Kuehl gave the 100 attendees his economic forecast for the new year. Throughout the year, volunteers and staff worked together on committees to do the work of LCDC. The LCDC Golf Tournament is becoming increasingly popular with 96 golfers participating. LCDC RAISED A RECORD $6,572 through tournament participants and sponsors.

LCDC thanked its members and partners at our annual VIP Event in November.

M A R K E T I N GIn 2016, LCDC staff held meetings with site location consultants in Phoenix, New York, New Jersey, Dallas and Chicago to spread the news about business opportunities in Leavenworth County. With representatives of the Kansas City Area Development Council and the Kansas Department of Commerce, consultants who advise companies on where to locate their businesses were exposed to the state, region and, specifically, Leavenworth County. LCDC also hosted or attended nine events in Kansas City to tell our story to national consultants and Kansas City commercial realtors. LCDC augmented our networking outreach with two print ads. Leavenworth County was featured again in the national publication, Business Xpansion Journal, with an ad and an article in May and in an ad in K.C. Options in November, our 11th straight year in the publication. We sent out 10 e-blasts to commercial realtors featuring available properties. While traffic to our quality of life website (www.mylvco.com) was down a bit, the number of unique visitors to our main LCDC website (www.lvcountyed.org) INCREASED MORE THAN 25% FROM LAST YEAR.

W O R K F O R C E D E V E L O P M E N TLCDC connected companies with labor and training needs to Workforce Partnership and the Pioneer Career Center. Companies utilizing the services of Workforce Partnership for job postings and recruiting events for employee placement included Lansing Lumber, Cameron Industries, St. Luke’s Cushing Hospital, Absolute Auto Care and McDonald Marketing. LCDC assisted five local companies in applications to obtain workforce training funds through the Kansas Industrial Training (KIT) and Kansas Industrial Retraining (KIR) programs. LCDC held two Classroom to Career events this year which exposed more than 50 HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS from throughout the county to careers in manufacturing and health occupations. The spring session was held at the Leavenworth V.A. Hospital. The fall session featured operations at two manufacturers, Henke and Heatron. Representatives from Kansas City Kansas Community College, the University of St. Mary, the University of Kansas, Kansas State University and Workforce Partnership participated in the events.

“Thank you for the time, attention, expertise, and dedication you provided Zephyr this past year. With your help, Zephyr has continued to benefit from the state programs. We couldn’t have done it without your help!”

– Randall R. Reinhardt, Zephyr Products

R E C R U I T M E N T , R E T E N T I O N A N D E X P A N S I O NLCDC had a positive impact on new business activity and expansions in 2016. Great Western Manufacturing announced an 8,600-square-foot office expansion with 15 new jobs and hosted a ribbon cutting and public tours of the new office space in September. The University of Kansas established a presence in Leavenworth and began offering classes in the fall. Mid Star Lab purchased a building in Tonganoxie and brought 35 new jobs to the county. City Electric moved out of its temporary space in the Gary Carlson Business Park to a new 6,000-square-foot permanent facility off Eisenhower Road. Daylight Donuts signed a lease to open a new store in Basehor and expanded its Lansing production facility. Perky’s Café in Basehor expanded, doubling its size to 3,000 square feet. Cereal Ingredients continued its growth and ended the year with an additional 49 new jobs, bringing its total employment to 185.

LCDC also launched its new microgrant program in 2016. The first two grant recipients were Life Family Chiropractic in Leavenworth and Platinum Automotive in Lansing with funds going to offset equipment purchases for the new companies. LCDC also helped Holy-Field Vineyard & Winery obtain a working capital grant for $81,460 from the USDA. LCDC promoted the expansion of the Network Kansas E-Community program which, until the fourth quarter of 2016, had only covered businesses in the City of Leavenworth. Now, through the rebranded “Grow Leavenworth County,” small businesses located anywhere in the county are eligible to apply for interest-free loans up to $45,000 for as long as eight years. LCDC staff continued to consult with business owners and assist with the application process for the Kansas Dept. of Commerce’s High Performance Incentive Program (HPIP). Ten companies throughout the county participated in the HPIP program, which saved them a total of $637,050 in cash and $1,900,070 in tax credits.

$22 MILLION

$2.9 MILLION

“We just got back from Topeka to get our land disturbance permit for our new expansion. Thanks to LCDC for running interference on that. It was a smooth process. What normally takes weeks, we got done in an hour.”

– TIM MO ORE, CEREAL INGREDIENT S

LCDC’S IMPACT ON THE LEAVENWORTH COUNTY ECONOMY IN 2016

IN GRANTS AND TAX SAVINGS

155 NEW JOBS

75 RETAINED JOBS

IN CAPITAL INVESTMENT

2016 MEMBERSPL ATINUM LEVELFirst State Bank & Trust

GOLD LEVELCereal IngredientsCitizens National BankCitizens Savings & LoanCommerce BankCountry Club BankExchange National Bank & TrustGeiger Ready MixGreat Western ManufacturingMather EnterprisesMutual SavingsSaint John Hospital

SILVER LEVELArmed Forces InsuranceCanaan StoneworksCommunity National BankFalcon Lakes Golf ClubGBA Architects and EngineersGreenamyre RentalsHallmark CardsKaaz ConstructionKansas City Kansas Community CollegeKansas Gas ServiceKramer & Associates CPAs, LLC Leavenworth County CooperativeLeavenworth Water DepartmentLexecoManaged Energy SystemsMarlow White Uniform CompanyMorrill & Janes BankNational Bank of Kansas City Reilly & Sons/Coldwell BankerRenaissance Infrastructure ConsultingS.I. Property InvestmentsSaint Luke’s Cushing HospitalTranSystemsUniversity of Saint MaryVI Marketing and Branding Westar EnergyZephyr Products, Inc.

BRONZE LEVELAdvantage PrintingBG ConsultantsCentral Bag CompanyCentury Van LinesChapman ServicesCorrections Corporation of AmericaCorporate Record SystemsCSE EmblemEvans Real EstateGrinders High NoonHeatronHMC Performance CoatingsJC Tibbetts Agency JF DenneyKC ConstructionLeavenworth-Jefferson Electrical CooperativeLeavenworth TimesLGL Leadership, LLCMary R. Scott CPA, LLCMcCaffree-Short Title CompanyMcDonald MarketingPeruvian ConnectionSchlagel & Associates, P.A.Storage Box, Inc.Time Warner Cable U.S. EngineeringUniversity of KansasWesley PropertiesYoung Sign Company

SUPPORTER LEVEL27 CommitteeBasehor-Linwood USD #458Cecilia HarryLeavenworth County Humane SocietyLeavenworth USD #453John MatthewsMarcia McCownTom MeierCarl ReedDavid Waters

Leavenworth County Development Corporation 1294 Eisenhower Road, Leavenworth, KS 66048

P 913-727-6111 | F 913-727-5515 | LVCountyED.orgfacebook.com/LVCountyED facebook.com/LVCountyTrails facebook.com/MyLVCo MyLVCo.com

TO VIEW THIS YEAR’S ANNUAL REPORT ONLINE, VISIT US AT LVCountyED.org

O F F I C E R S & E X E C U T I V E C O M M I T T E EPRESIDENT

Blaine Weeks

VICE PRESIDENT

David Schroeder

TREASURER

Josh Hoppes

PAST PRESIDENT

Mike Nixon

AT-LARGE

Harland Russell

B OARD OF DIRECTORSSteve ChristensenAdele DucharmeMarisa GrayJeremy GreenamyreBrian HabjanRobert HatchJosh HoppesTony KramerMike NixonPete PayneChuck PetersonMike ReillyGayle RunnelsHarland RussellRick SchneiderDavid SchroederBlaine WeeksLloyd Martley, City Administrator, BasehorTim Vandall, City Administrator, LansingPaul Kramer, City Manager, LeavenworthJamie Schockley, Interim City Manager, TonganoxieTeresa Commerford, Leavenworth County Port Authority

EX-OFFICIO B OARD MEMBERSAshley Razak, Basehor ChamberCol. Thomas Shoffner, Ft. LeavenworthBrandon Johannes, Leavenworth-Lansing ChamberWendy Scheidt, Leavenworth Main St.Steve Christensen, Tonganoxie Chamber

STAFF Steve Jack, Executive DirectorAshley Hardin, Economic Development CoordinatorMary Mack, Office Manager