Business View Magazine | July 2020

155 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE JULY 2020 (913) 281-7200 www.dmi-kc.com Commercial & Industrial HVAC Contractor We deliver the very best. KANSAS C I TY , KANSAS offers traditional workforce housing circa early 1900s that has become very popular for first- time homebuyers. A whole new generation is coming in and buying those houses, fixing them up, and discovering Kansas City in the process. And businesses are interested in locating in the downtown as a place where their employees would want to live and work The city has also started a rehab program for delinquent houses in their landbank that previously would have been demolished. The program basically gives a property to a qualified rehabber with the stipulation that they have to put in a certain amount of money and complete the rehab in a certain amount of time. Since the program began two years ago, 53 houses have been rehabbed and that has increased the assessed value of those properties by over $3 million. In terms of incentives, KCK has six Opportunity Zones and active projects in at least three of those. Other areas offer Tax Increment Financing and bond programs that provide tax abatement. There is also a Small Business Grants program where a business can get up to $10,000 in matching funds for such things as hiring new employees, or marketing, or equipment purchases. “It’s clearly the case that developers are seeing there are very strong fundamentals to our location and our basic infrastructure,” says Alvey. “At the sight of a former shopping mall, Indian Springs, we have a new project called Scavuzzo’s Inc.– a local food distributor who caters to mom and pop restaurants and small chains. They are establishing a national headquarters here because they are expanding their market reach.” According to Carttar, “They’re building a state- of-the-art, $100 million distribution center. That, with a TIF, is providing enough increment just from that project that we are requiring them to build a couple of additional phases to hit the community goals. They have to do a certain