KCK is getting an online sales fulfillment center expected to attract 1,500 jobs

A massive industrial building that’s expected to house 1,500 new jobs for an online sales fulfillment business is on its way to Kansas City, Kan.

The company, however, has not been publicly identified.

The Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kan., on Thursday approved a tax abatement request for an 856,000-square-foot industrial building to be constructed near Interstate 70 and Turner Diagonal.

RELP Turner LLC made the request for $310.5 million worth of industrial revenue bonds, which effectively becomes a 10-year, 100 percent tax abatement on the 130-acre site.

The developer, which was represented by Georgia-based industrial development firm Seefried Industrial Properties, appears to have a tenant in mind.

“It will be an online sales fulfillment business,” said Jonathan Stites, senior vice president for Seefried, during a presentation to Unified Government officials Thursday.

The building will occupy 856,000 square feet on the site but will expand to about 2.3 million square feet of space through the development of a mezzanine structure within the building, Stites said.

“This is a wonderful project in sheer size alone,” said Greg Kindle, president of the Wyandotte County Economic Development Council.

The fulfillment center is the second big announcement for this type of business in Kansas this year.

In March, officials announced that online retailer Amazon.com would open a 800,000-square-foot fulfillment center at Logistics Park Kansas City in Edgerton. That announcement came on the heels of Amazon’s decision to close a similar facility in Coffeyville, Kan.

RELP Turner is acquiring the land for its project from NorthPoint Development, a company based in Riverside. NorthPoint had planned to build three industrial facilities at the Turner Diagonal site.

So when NorthPoint was approached about a potential sale, “the first answer was absolutely no,” said Brent Miles, vice president of economic development for NorthPoint Development. “Wyandotte is where we live and breathe and do industrial development. When we heard about the project parameters, we changed our minds.”

This story was originally published June 10, 2016 at 9:30 AM with the headline "KCK is getting an online sales fulfillment center expected to attract 1,500 jobs."