Business View Magazine | July 2020

156 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE JULY 2020 amount of retail and restaurants and there are some other options, such as a hotel or gym. Or another commercial building that would make sense in that location, as well as their office headquarters building. It’s a situation where you have to be creative in how you use the incentives but it gives interesting ways to give the company what they want and also provide something for the community that would not otherwise have been feasible.” KCK is a majority minority city: 42 percent Caucasian, 27 percent Hispanic, 24 percent African American and large numbers of recent resettled refugees. “That’s been the DNA of Kansas City, Kansas for 100 years,” says Alvey. “It’s a diverse immigrant community but also, we’re dogged, determined…The fundamentals are strong and we continue to attract quality developers and developments. Kansas City, Kansas is really a satellite city of Kansas City, Missouri and we have a strong industrial/ commercial sector but we’re not the center of the Metropolitan Statistical Area. We don’t need to stretch that way, but we do have to provide and create beautiful quality neighborhoods that attract residents for generations. And that will sustain our community going forward.” “We are not afraid to be creative,” Carttar states. “We have our larger priorities and goals and we find ways to hit them even if it’s out of the realm of the normal. Like building and owning our own grocery store. Going above and beyond to prove that this is a great place to invest and live and work.” PREFERRED VENDORS n Community Housing of Wyandotte County (CHWC) www.chwckck.org For over 20 years, CHWC has worked to stabilize, revitalize, and reinvest in Kansas City, Kansas. We’ve built over 500 high-quality homes, empowered hundreds of families to achieve homeownership, and turned vacant lots into parks, gardens and art spaces, helping our neighbors build vibrant, diverse, and welcoming neighborhoods where we are proud to live. n Design Mechanical, Inc. www.dmi-kc.com