Missouri

Missouri perhaps has suffered more than most in the current recession, but the specific nature of those losses may point to potential gains by site searchers. During the year ended in June 2002, Missouri lost 55,000 nonfarm jobs, the highest relative job loss in the nation. Of those lost jobs, 20,300 were in manufacturing, 5,500 each in state government and construction. Meanwhile, other projects continue to unfold unabated.
        In Kansas City, The Kansas City Star's ownership, Knight Ridder, put its money where its paper's editorials are by bypassing the opportunity to locate a new printing plant in a cheaper greenfield site and picking a three-acre site in the heart of the city for its $199-million, 433,000-sq.-ft. (40,226-sq.m.) printing facility. Part of the attraction will be $19 million in sought-after redevelopment incentives from the city, as well as Missouri state property tax abatements. The price tag tops other recent major facility investments in the business, including The Detroit Newspapers' announced $170-million expansion and the opening of a $100-million facility by the Chicago Sun-Times last year. The first papers are expected to roll off the new presses by 2006, across from what many hope will be a $300-million performing arts center currently in the planning stages.
        Building on last year's success in attracting Bayer CropScience, the greater K.C. metro has recently attracted national or divisional headquarters from the likes of Baader Corp., IndyMac Bank, German firm Orgo-Thermit, Liberty Mutual and Fidelity National Information Solutions.
        Of course, everyone knows that jobs are going to Mexico ... Missouri, that is. A $1-million interim financing loan is helping the city of Mexico to assist in the $3.5-million second phase of expansion at Spartan Light Metal Products, an automotive supplier that will use the new facilities to make engine valve covers for use by Ford and other OEMs.
        Across the state in St. Louis, the $36-million, 238,000-sq.-ft. (22,110-sq.-m.) national service center for Magellan Behavioral Health is under way at TriStar's Riverport Commons office park in suburban Maryland Heights. Magellan will ultimately employ up to 2,000 people at the site. Magellan is joining EDS and First Data at the 38-acre (15.4-hectare), $65-million park, opened in late 2001.
        The $75-million, 515,000-sq.-ft. (47,844-sq.-m.) headquarters for Citigroup in nearby O'Fallon, one of Site Selection's Top Deals of 2001, was topped out in August after construction started in January. Because of excessive rain in the spring, the project was 47 days behind schedule by early summer, but all that time was made up thanks to the speed of the design/build process implemented by Clayco Contruction Co. The new headquarters will allow CitiMortgage to centralize St. Louis operations when it occupies the space in the fall of 2003, filling it with up to 5,000 workers.