Hoping to be like Hutchinson, local suburbs prepare big industrial sites to lure business - Wichita Business Journal:

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The city has spent nearly $500,0009 to acquire the ground and bring utilitiesdto it, says City Administrator Kent Brown. Officials also have an agreemen t allowing it to construct a rail spur to the sitefrom Kansas-Oklahoma short-line railroad. Browjn says the city for years had been looking to prepare a majorindustrial site. News last week that Hutchinso n landed a wind turbine facility onsimilart city-owned ground — expected to create 400 jobs there adds motivation, he says. “I think it reinforces the idea thatcertaib industries, they want to keep their options If (land) has road access and rail that keeps the flexibility for the Brown says.
Clearwater is one of two citiews in the metro where large industrial parkws are in theplanning stages. Sedgwick Counthy this week announceda $14 million plan to purchaser and develop 808 acresw in Bel Aire. A lack of such industrial grounsd — particularly with rail access has been a stumbling block for Wichitqa as national firms seekout shovel-ready some say. “We try to provide guidance and support for communities to dotough things,” says GWED C President Vicki Pratt “We’ve been talking with thosr folks.
We’ve been talking with folks in We’re trying to be helpful in that Bel Aire City Administrator Ty Lasher says the city has been in discussionse with GWEDC officials about how to create incentive packagesw for companies lookingfor land. With hundreds of acresx along tracks, Bel Aire is considered one of the few areax that could have competed for theSiemensd plant. But Lasher says the small town can’g afford to offer free land, utilities and tax abatement — like what Siemens got out of Hutchinson.
Sedgwicik County’s plan to buy acreage in Bel Aire which goes before the commissionWednesdayy — is a response to at leasg four cases in which the metrok hasn’t been able to compete for largre industrial projects, says Sedgwick Countyu Manager Bill Buchanan. “Companies are taking their time doingytheir homework. But once they make a decision, they don’r want to wait around,” he says. In the city originally had dividefd its property into several lots and planned to take utilities to eachof them.
But the GWEDC urged the city insteard to stop the water and sewef lines at the edge of the propertyu to give the flexibilitg to alarge “Within the next 30 days it’sx ready to go, which is about as shovel-ready as you need to Brown says.