KC SmartPort Blog

Congratulations to our partners in Blue Springs on today’s announcement that Faurecia’s Interiors division will open a new approximately 250,000-sq.-ft. production facility, creating more than 300 new jobs.

The Chinese New Year is one of the biggest first quarter seasonality factors every year, and CNY 2018 will also have huge impacts on West Coast freight

In 2018, technological and business innovation will be seen with manufacturing in five key areas: Blended Business Mashup, the Internet of People, Data-Driven Intelligence With Analytics, Omnichain and Future-Proof Flexibility.

KC SmartPort officially elected Erik Hansen, vice president of sales and marketing, intermodal for The Kansas City Southern Railway Company, as chairman of the KC SmartPort Board of Directors. Hansen is joined by 26 additional members of the 2018 board of directors.

The Kansas City region had another incredible, record-setting year for industrial real estate deals. Nationally, industrial real estate led the market for investments, leases and development.

Excelligence Learning Corp broke ground on its new 646,000-sq.-ft. Gardner facility in December.

Industrial firms hired 31,000 people in November, which is the second biggest increase in four years. Only a 44,000 person gain in August was bigger.

With two intermodal facilities, two major automotive plants, and many more assets, Kansas City has seen a boom of industrial real estate development. From 2011 to 2014 nearly 8.9 million square feet of space was built because of tax abatements, a decrease in construction costs, and Kansas City's optimal location. Today, landlords are doing more to make their space the most attractive while communities on both sides of the state line continue to offer incentives in order to attract business.

After three months of slow performance, the North American freight market showed an increase in June. Shipment volumes in June 2016 increased 1.7 percent from May and expenditures rose 3.9 percent according to the latest Cass Freight Index Report.

KC SmartPort hosted more than 550 attendees at its fifth annual industry briefing on April 6, 2016. Leading up to and throughout the event, the audience was encouraged to use #KCDisrupt to join in the social media conversation.