Village West Wyandotte County development boosts small business.
By Paula Peters
They call it “Village West,” and it’s located in Kansas City, Kan. Even if you haven’t been there yet, you’ll recognize the names of the major businesses that operate there: Kansas Speedway, Cabela’s, Nebraska Furniture Mart, the Great Wolf Lodge and the T-Bones minor league baseball team.
When it is completely built out, this 400-acre, entertainment and shopping destination is expected to ultimately draw 9 million visitors each year from all over the Midwest, earn $440 million in annual sales and generate at least 3,725 jobs during peak operations.
It has already generated $2.6 million per year in tax revenue, which could reach as high as $7 million when the project is finally finished — a grand increase over the original $15,000 annual tax revenue from the original property. By any measure, Village West has surely exceeded all expectations.
But what you may not know is that the initiative also has been one of the most successful and innovative three-way partnerships of municipal government, large business and small business in the Midwest. With its unique commitment to the growth of small businesses, Village West has driven a major boost to the bottom line of many Kansas City entrepreneurs.
“This has proven to be an even greater opportunity for small businesses than we ever imagined,” said Carol S. Marinovich, mayor and CEO of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kan.
A Successful Partnership Kansas Speedway kicked off the development in Village West with its opening in 2001. Prior to opening, it took several years of analysis and development to create the stadium that racing fans enjoy today.
“The Speedway was the catalyst for all of it,” said Cindy Cash, president and CEO of the Kansas City Kansas Area Chamber of Commerce. “If Kansas Speedway had not come, we would not have Village West.”
Kansas Speedway developers started out their development from day one with a commitment to utilize local small businesses. They even set goals to hire woman-owned and minority businesses enterprises (MBEs).
The issue was close to the heart of Kansas Speedway President Jeff Boerger, who has a long history of partnering with entrepreneurs in his past roles, working in economic development in Knoxville, Tenn., and then later for the Kansas City Area Development Council. When Boerger was assigned to scope out and buy a suitable property for the Speedway in 1998, that kind of partnership was uppermost in his mind.
“Coming into the area, it was very important for Kansas Speedway to work closely with small businesses,” he said. “The Kansas taxpayers had a lot invested in this development. We were especially interested in working closely with MBEs and women-owned businesses.”
The Speedway has stayed true to its word, utilizing a wide variety of local entrepreneurs to supply everything from hot dog buns, to printing, to office supplies, to its landmark Leaderboard tower. In fact, Boerger credits those small businesses with not only getting the Speedway up and running during the initial development phase, but also with keeping its many systems and services healthy and operational today.
“The result has been tremendous,” said Boerger, who is clearly pleased with the results at Kansas Speedway. “Look around and you can see it in our facility. We have ‘A’ quality everything. Great customer service, great quality products—from the signage, all the way to the food.” Other businesses have followed the lead of the Speedway in hiring small businesses. The Great Wolf Lodge, Cabela’s and the T-Bones all purchase services and supplies through local small businesses. Overall, the partnership has been a win-win situation for both the larger and the smaller businesses.
“What it has done is to give small businesses the opportunity to get in on some of the big development projects out there,” said Patrick McCartney, vice president of marketing for the KCK Chamber of Commerce. “This growth has created a lot of new accounts for our existing entrepreneurs.”
Race Car Signage Chris Lopez and Anette Wilson, Mid-America Sign Contractors Inc., own one of many local small businesses that have developed an ongoing relationship with Kansas Speedway. The 30-person business in Kansas City, Kan. was founded in 1998 and has manufactured, installed and provided ongoing maintenance for most of the signage at the Speedway, including the towering Leaderboard.
Lopez has been delighted to find that their relationship with the Speedway has become a true partnership, rather than just a vendor-client relationship. It is one that has continually benefited his business in a variety of ways, not just in the bottom line. He finds that the Speedway has become an excellent way to attract new clients, by showing them the breadth and scope of their ability to provide service. In fact, Kansas Speedway has even given recommendations to some of those new clients.
“Working with Jeff Boerger has been a great asset,” said Lopez. “They have been a great reference for us. Their business tells our other potential customers: ‘Wow! They’ve worked with a big corporation.’”
The KCK Chamber named Mid-America Sign Contractors 2003 Small Business of the Year in Kansas City, Kan They were also featured in the book Fields of Thunder, which documents the story of Kansas Speedway.
“All small businesses just want that one great opportunity; that small bit of hope,” said Lopez. “Kansas Speedway gave us that opportunity, and we took care of them. I just hope that some day, I can grow big enough to lend a hand and help someone else out the same way.”
Hamburger Buns Hit Big Ed Honesty, president and chief operating officer of Best Harvest Bakeries, agrees. Best Harvest Bakeries is a single line, soft roll commercial bakery located in Kansas City, Kan. The business supplies many of the hamburger and hot dog buns for the independent food vendors at Kansas Speedway.
“Everybody’s excited about this,” he said, talking about the business opportunities in Village West.
Honesty and his partner, Bob Beavers, purchased the company in June 1999, with the goal of expanding it. Today, the company supplies the buns for about 675 McDonald’s in Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska, as well as serving the U.S. Military and the Speedway. In 2004, the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce named the bakery company to its list of Top 10 Small Businesses.
Honesty sees Village West as a major entertainment destination for Kansas City residents.
“The growth in Wyandotte County is wonderful,” he said. “If you’re looking for entertainment, restaurants or housing, you have a variety of options out here. Large and small companies have both benefited from that growth.”
The work with Kansas Speedway has allowed Best Harvest Bakeries to give back to the community. Honesty now hires a lot of other smaller businesses to provide goods and services that his company uses every day. Not only that, but he has been able to recruit a number of people who live in Wyandotte County to join his staff of 51 employees.
“Both large and small companies have benefited from the growth,” said Honesty. “We are beneficiaries, but then we do business with other local small businesses. Our computers and all of our ingredients come from other small businesses in the area.”
Honesty and Beavers are now looking to leverage the lessons they’ve learned from working with the Speedway. They hope to grow their business nationally in the next five years, and they consider the growth at Village West to be a key factor to their success.
“We have taken the bakery to the point where we can expand the customer base,” said Honesty. “Now we want to take that customer service to a greater, more national level.”
Flowers and Wolves Great Wolf Lodge also has been a big sponsor of small businesses in the area. One of its vendors, Burns Floral & Home Décor Too, provides all of the flowers for the lobby, banquets and dinners. The Lodge also refers guests to the business when they request flowers for special occasions, such as private anniversary celebrations for two.
Owner Linda Burns said that working with Great Wolf Lodge has been a dream come true.
“It’s been great,” she said. “They are so easy to work with. They know what they want, and they have a lot of really nice people there.” Burns employs about three part-time staff. She has been in business on her own as Burns Floral & Home Décor Too for two years, but has been designing floral arrangements in different capacities for almost 22 years. She also does work for the Courtyard Café in the Nebraska Furniture Mart, another Village West landmark. In 2003, Burns Floral was named the Kansas City Kansas Chamber of Commerce’s New Small Business of the Year.
Not All Easy Working with the larger businesses at Village West has not been so easy for all local entrepreneurs. At times, it has been downright difficult. Many businesses have lost bids for providing service to the Great Wolf Lodge or Kansas Speedway. Still other businesses that had hoped to benefit from an increase in tourist visibility and revenues have not seen the high level of pedestrian traffic they hoped for.
“Not everyone has succeeded in growing their small business here,” said Cash. “The Speedway and the other merchants try to use what they can locally. But not everyone will be chosen, for whatever reason. Sometimes it’s just a bottom-line decision.”
In some cases, the problem is simply a lack of knowledge about how to promote the business effectively.
“Sometimes we think, ‘If we build it, they will come,’ but that’s not always the case,” said McCartney. “Not everyone knows how to take advantage of this opportunity. Many people have small budgets, and this is a whole new process.”
To help small businesses capitalize on the tourism opportunities at Village West, the KCK Chamber has offered a series of informal lunches to educate entrepreneurs on such topics as how to promote retail more effectively.
In the end, however, persistence may be the key to bidding on projects for the larger organizations. Cash encourages the members of the KCK Chamber to be persistent, and to keep going after the business that they want.
“There’s nothing to stop a business that didn’t succeed the first time from going back in and trying again,” she said.
A National Model The success of the three-way partnership between the Unified Government, large businesses and smaller businesses at Village West has generated national attention. Several cities across the country have contacted Mayor Marinovich to learn more about how the Unified Government implemented its successful program.
“We do get calls from other communities,” said Marinovich. “They want to know: ‘How did you get the Speedway? How did you do your development?’”
Marinovich credits their successful partnership to a wealth of support from former Kansas Governor Bill Graves and his staff, and a Unified Government that has learned its lessons from the past. Years ago, the council had attempted to spark similar development around the Woodlands. It didn’t work as well as hoped.
“We knew that if it was going to work this time, we had to control the land,” said Marinovich. “Our goal was to create a complete entertainment destination to get people off I-435 and I-70, and into this destination.”
This time, the whole development was funded by a unique program using STAR bonds. With these special bonds, 100 percent of the future sales tax revenue, including state, county and city, was pledged to repay the bonds. These bonds funded the entire infrastructure for Village West, right down to the roads and utilities.
Overall, the three-way partnership has been a success. The Unified Government, the major corporations and the small businesses in Kansas City have all benefited from the development of Village West.
“As a small business, we live on hope,” said Chris Lopez. “Hope gets us through the hard times. Village West gave us hope, and an opportunity to do business. That’s all we really want.”
Paula Peters is a freelance writer and the owner of Peters Writing Services Inc., which specializes in writing technical and marketing materials. She can be reached at (913) 485-4537 or .
