Overland Park: Economy

Major Industries and Commercial Activity

Overland Park is famous for its high percentage of citizens with baccalaureate or advanced degrees, making education a growth industry for the area. Professional service professions, whether in Overland Park or nearby Kansas City, make up a significant portion of employment in the area. Retail trade accounts for another large chunk of the local workforce, and transportation services and products are also contributors to the Overland Park economy.

Overland Park is the site of Sprint World Headquarters; the Fortune 100 company is the largest local employer and is a major supporter of the Overland Park community. Sprint provides telecommunication services and technology globally to businesses and the public.

The cattle industry remains powerful and influential in Kansas City, which certainly has an impact on Overland Park and other surrounding communities.

Items and goods produced: telecommunication technology, transportation equipment, beef

Incentive Programs—New and Existing Companies

The Chamber of Commerce in Overland Park acts as a bridge for businesses negotiating the local and state systems in expanding or creating a new project. Business owners can tap into the resources of the KSBusinessCenter from the comfort of their own offices, in order to begin the business and tax registration process.

Local programs

The city of Overland Park encourages new building by allowing for abatement of up to 50 percent of property tax liability for as long as 10 years, dependent upon the size and use of construction projects.

State programs

Kansas offers a wide variety of programs designed to encourage location of new businesses and expansion of existing businesses in the state. The High Performance Incentive Program rewards employers who pay above-average wages by exempting them from sales taxes, and offers tax credits for investment and workforce development. The capital costs of a project's new jobs can be mitigated through Investments in Major Projects and Comprehensive Training (IMPACT), with the state picking up the financing for relocation expenses, recruitment and training costs, building expenditures and cost of equipment.

The State of Kansas additionally has created Enterprise Zones which make manufacturing and non-manufacturing companies eligible for tax credits and sales tax exemptions based on the number of net jobs created. The state can underwrite various business enterprises and expansions through loan programs developed to support the creation of new jobs in Kansas.

Job training programs

The Overland Park Chamber of Commerce schedules two professional development seminars per month and can additionally act as a referral agent for employers looking for advanced training for their employees. The State of Kansas oversees a network of regional and local workforce centers offering seminars and ongoing programs for military veterans, dislocated workers, youth, community members with disabilities, and older employees. Programs such as Trade Adjustment Assistance and the Kansas Industrial Retraining project address the changing face of economic development in the state. The Neighborhood Improvement and Youth Employment Act has provided funding for community enhancement projects for which high school students are hired.

Development Projects

Since opening in the 1970s, the Corporate Woods Business Park has undergone steady expansion and improvement every few years. In the 1990s, the facility added 800,000 square feet, bringing its total capacity to 3,200,000 square feet. New sections were added to the business park in the late 1990s, at the same time a number of older buildings were undergoing a renovation process. In 2004, a putting green was created on the already capacious grounds of Corporate Woods.

Corporate Woods Business Park is now the home of a regional service headquarters branch of QC Holdings, which operates more than 370 payday loan stores in 22 states. The company leased 38,000 square feet of space beginning in 2004 and will eventually employ 300 people in the facility. ProPharma International Partners, Inc., has also become a recent tenant in Corporate Woods; the company acts as a development consultant for biotechnology and pharmaceutical businesses.

Automatic Data Processing (ADP) brought a number of new jobs to the Overland Park area as it moved into the College Oaks Business Park. The company contracts to handle payroll and other human resource issues for companies around the world.

The City of Overland Park is in the process of designing a new community center as part of its 10-year capital improvement plan. Construction on the center is expected to commence in 2006 and end approximately a year later.

Commercial Shipping

Kansas City International Airport, located 24 miles from the heart of Overland Park, operates an Air Cargo Center complete with extensive cargo-handling capability, an onsite Foreign Trade Zone allowing for storage of imported goods without full U.S. Customs scrutiny, Enterprise Zone tax initiatives, and access to an adjacent interstate highway. The airport's central U.S. location means that most major metropolitan areas in the country are within a one-day shipping radius.

The headquarters for Yellow Roadway Corporation are in Overland Park, allowing easy access to a major cargo shipping and transportation resource. Yellow transports cargo to all 50 states, Canada, the Virgin Islands, and several other international destinations. Butler Transport, Inc. and Core Carrier Corporation are two of the more than 100 trucking companies located in nearby Kansas City, and the region is served by both FedEx and UPS cargo delivery companies. Five railroad companies cross paths in Kansas City as well, increasing shipping options.

Labor Force and Employment Outlook

Overland Park's adult population is one of the most highly educated in the United States, with more than 50 percent of adult residents having earned a baccalaureate degree at minimum. There appears to be a slight shift in philosophy regarding higher education, starting at the K-12 level, with more emphasis on real-world experiences through technical programs and vocational institutions prior to a four-year degree being earned.

It is expected that agricultural employment will continue to decrease in the area, while retail trade and professional services (education and government in particular) are likely to surge. In the past few years, manufacturing has recovered somewhat from a pattern of decreasing productivity and employment; that trend is expected to continue in coming years.

The following is a summary of data regarding the Kansas City, MO-KS, metropolitan statistical area labor force, 2004 annual averages.

Size of nonagricultural labor force: 965,900

Number of workers employed in . . .

construction and mining: 50,800

manufacturing: 83,700

trade, transportation and utilities: 202,200

information: 45,300

financial activities: 70,900

professional and business services: 127,700

educational and health services: 108,900

leisure and hospitality: 92,300

other services: 40,.400

government: 143,900

Average hourly earnings of production workers employed in manufacturing: $16.92

Unemployment rate: 4.4% (February 2005)

Largest employers	Number of employees (2005)
Sprint Corporation	17,000
Shawnee Mission School District	2,900
Black & Veatch Engineers	2,600
Blue Valley School District	2,525
Internal Revenue Service	1,800
Yellow Roadway Corporation	1,100
City of Overland Park	1,000

Cost of Living

2004 (3rd Quarter) ACCRA Average House Price: $228,375 (MSA)

2004 (3rd Quarter) ACCRA Cost of Living Index: 95.5 (MSA) (U.S. average = 100.0)

State income tax rate: 3.5% to 6.45%

State sales tax rate: 5.3%

Local income tax rate: None

Local sales tax rate: 7.525%

Property tax rate: Annual tax on a $150,000 house is $1,782

(Blue Valley District) or $1,342 (Shawnee Mission District)

Economic information: Overland Park Economic Development Center, 9001 W. 110th Street, Suite 150, Overland Park, KS 66210; telephone (913)491-3600