KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) At the start of each day, the city of Edgertons population nearly triples.
Around 4,500 employees travel to the community at the southwest corner of Johnson County each day jumping off of Interstate 35 or driving along green farm fields and waiting for trains to pass on their way to one of the fastest growing business parks in the country. Along with a new workforce, in the past six years Logistics Park Kansas City has attracted $1.1 billion in private investment, from industry giants such as Amazon, UPS and Hostess.
But community leaders say theres not much keeping those thousands of employees around after they clock out.
No one expected Logistics Park to grow this quickly, said James Oltman, president of ElevateEdgerton!, a public-private partnership. But now that it has, he said the town desperately needs restaurants, shops, hotels and housing, The Kansas City Star reported.
Everything has blown up so fast, that now were really scrambling to get these things, Oltman said. When we talk to employers out here, restaurants are still the No. 1 requested thing. Basically within a four-mile radius of Logistics Park, theres like one quick-service restaurant. And when youre talking about a large number of employees out here with 30-minute lunch breaks, that gets difficult.
To attract commercial development, last week the City Council approved two tax-increment financing redevelopment districts the first ever created in Edgerton, said Beth Linn, city administrator.
This is really about bringing commercial retail services to those employees or truck drivers who want to eat, grab a drink and do all of the things that normal folks do on their way to and from work, she said.
What was once sprawling farmland here is now a burgeoning mecca for some of the top global distributors.
Logistics Park dates back to 2009, when the city of Edgerton agreed to annex BNSF Railways land. That allowed BNSF to construct a $250 million, 400-acre cargo facility for trains and trucks, which opened in 2013 and became the anchor of the distribution hub.
Unknown to city officials at the time, that vote would be a catalyst leading to the sleepy town of Edgerton attracting some of the most well-known and hard-to-get businesses in the world.
With the BNSF land, Edgerton quickly doubled in size, and Logsitics Park grew from 1,000 acres to 1,700 within a few years. Plans took off with the help of Riverside-based NorthPoint, a nationwide industrial developer. And soon after, Jet.com, Amazon, Spectrum Brands and UPS found homes in the park, bringing with them thousands of jobs.
As of last year, Edgerton, Johnson County and the state of Kansas had invested nearly $100 million in infrastructure for the park.
The areas growth isnt welcomed by everyone. Farmers and longtime residents long to maintain their traditional way of life.
But Linn said the region is benefiting, raking in millions of dollars each year for schools, parks and infrastructure. And Edgerton Mayor Don Roberts has personally profited, as the council last year raised his salary from $1,000 to $90,000 for leading the more than $1 billion project, which continues to expand.
Last week, stakeholders celebrated the grand opening of Kubota Tractor Corp.s 2-million-square-foot distribution warehouse. Hostess Brands is constructing 765,000 square feet of warehouse space to replace a Chicago facility that should open by the end of the year. Cold Point Logistics is wrapping up the final phase of its expansion on a soon-to-be 600,000-square-foot facility, Oltman said.
