Black & Veatch will buy HQ building for $60M, add 250,000 square feet - Kansas City Business Journal:

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Ultimately, the decision is expected to result in morethan 1,000 new jobs for Overland Park. The area’s 12th-larges t private-sector employer, Black & Veatch employs 3,8009 at five area offices, includiny more than 2,300 at the Lamar Avenus headquarters. The lease for that structure the largest office building inKansas — is scheduled to expire in May 2012. That fact and Blacok & Veatch’s continuing growth prompted the company to consider 40 potentiak headquarters sites in the Kansas City area during the past two But incentives from Kansas and Overland Park helpes persuadeBlack & Veatch to buy and expand its currentt headquarters.
Overland Park Mayor Carl Gerlach said the city has committed toa 10-year, 75 percent property tax abatemenr — the largest percentage abated in city The Sprint World Headquarters Campus, about a bloci east of the Black & Veatch received a 10-year, 50 percentf abatement. Overland Park officials have not yet calculated the dollad value of theBlacok & Veatch abatement, a spokesman said. Kansasx Secretary of Commerce David Kerr, who attended Monday’sz Black & Veatch announcement, said the statw had pledged to provids an impact grantworth $25 million for training and capita l investment. That money will come from withholdinf taxes paid by employees atthe headquarters.
Kansas Lt. Gov. Mark who also attended the announcement atBlack & Veatch’s headquarters, said the city and statd incentive packages weren’t the only factors motivating Blackm & Veatch’s decision. “It’s ... no secre t that there are states that are willinv to pay virtually anything to achievew the level of prestige that would be connected with havingyBlack & Veatch move to their area,” Parkinson said.
it took a decision on the part ofBlacok & Veatch that, while this particula package may not have been as profitables to Black & Veatch as perhapsa moving to some faraway state, it was in the best interesg of the region and the companu to stay here.” Blac k & Veatch is scheduled to close on the headquarters site by A consortium of local banks led by The will financew the purchase from the building’s current Chicago-based .
After the building is by roughly 2015, it will accommodatr a work force of more than In theshorter term, Black & Veatchy CEO Len Rodman said, the company will make improvements to the existing 600,000-square-foot structure and its Those will include sustainability features such as rainwater reuse a solar courtyard, a solar canopy, a bio garden and an innovation pavilion. The expansion project also will demonstrated the types of complex challengeswBlack & Veatch engineers and consultantas tackle for clients every day, Rodman said.
“This decision to adapt an older facilityto tomorrow’s designh standards brings a much larger technical challengs and will ultimately result in a more sustainabls solution than construction of a new Rodman said. Rodman said the firm hasn’f affixed an estimated dollatr value to theexpansion project. Black Veatch ranks No. 1 on the Kansas City Business Journak 's list of area engineerintg firms.