Development council shines positive light on Kansas City

The Kansas City Area Development Council celebrated its best job-recruitment year in history Friday at its annual luncheon at the Kansas City Convention Center.

The organization said 3,286 jobs, representing an annual payroll of $150 million, set a record for the agency’s recruitment of new employers to the metro area.

John Murphy, co-chairman of the economic development agency and a partner at the law firm of Shook, Hardy & Bacon, said, “2014 was the most successful year in KCADC history.”

The council, which works to stimulate economic growth in its 18-county region, also announced that it was ranked “best in class” by Development Counsellors International in a national survey of 356 site location consultants and corporate executives.

“This year, KCADC took the top spot, surpassing all other organizations by a decent margin,” said Bob Marcusse, the council’s chief executive. He also noted that the state economic development organizations for Missouri and Kansas were ranked among the top five of state groups by the same survey.

More than 1,400 people at the event also heard Sprint Corp. CEO Marcelo Claure compliment the welcoming nature, work ethic and talent he said he had encountered since moving to the Midwest. Those factors, he said, are making it easier for him to recruit top management from the West Coast and from Europe to move here.

The annual luncheon was staged under the theme of “Beyond KC” and fired up the crowd with a video production of Kansas City landmarks and neighborhoods by Hint and Harvest Productions Inc.

Marcusse said KCADC’s successes are tied to cooperation with the KC SmartPort, KCnext, Kansas City Animal Health Corridor, ThinkKC and Team KC marketing efforts. The metro area will present a united marketing portal with those efforts through a website redesign undertaken by Arsalon Technologies, Triple-I and VML, he said.

He also emphasized that the area benefits from a “coalition of the willing” of private-sector partners who help talk up the area and recruit in their own industries. Combined efforts attracted 24 new companies to the Kansas City area in the past year.

“That’s more new companies, more new jobs, more payroll than ever before,” Marcusse said.

He cited national economic resurgence, an improved auto industry and a “purpose-built” focus on regional recruitment as reasons for KCADC’s recent successes. He also won a laugh from the crowd by saying the agency’s achievements were rooted in a quote from Yoda of “Star Wars” — “Do. Or do not. There is no try.”

The positivity of the KCADC leaders meshed with the theme of keynote speaker Marci Rossell, former chief economist for CNBC. Rossell said the nation had moved beyond the financial crisis of 2008 and was heading into 2015, a year of “normalization.”

“The worst of it didn’t hit this area,” she told the Kansas City crowd, noting the area’s escape from the major housing market bust and its benefit from agribusiness. “And you’ve built beyond that.”

Rossell said 2013 was the year that stock portfolios returned to normal despite record cuts in public-sector spending. And although 2014 has been a year of “geopolitical fear,” she said the nation was moving toward a near-normal labor market.

She warned employers that they will find it harder to hire in 2015 as the unemployment rate continues to shrink, and she made it clear that she believes immigration is needed to shore up flagging labor market participation rates among Americans.

A positive indicator for 2015, she said, is the continued decline in oil and gas prices and the fact the United States is becoming a net exporter of those products. Fuel price declines, she said, are putting disposable income into the pockets of workers who will spend it and further shore up the economy.

This story was originally published November 14, 2014 at 2:41 PM with the headline "Development council shines positive light on Kansas City."