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KC Star wrote:Kiewit Power Inc. will break ground today on its $18.7 million headquarters in Lenexa, adding more luster to Kansas City’s reputation as an engineering center.
The firm plans to consolidate its existing offices in Lenexa and Overland Park and relocate most of its 840 employees into the new building, which is expected to be completed in 2009. The five-story, 150,000-square-foot building is one of two planned for the Renner Corporate Centre at 95th Street and Renner Boulevard.
Kiewit Power is a subsidiary of Omaha-based Kiewit Corp. and was created by combining the former Kiewit Industrial, which is now Kiewit Power Constructors Co., and the former Bibb & Associates, which is now Kiewit Power Engineers Co. The firm describes itself as a “one-stop shop” for integrated engineering, procurement, construction and startup services. It is listed as the sixth-largest contractor in the power industry by Engineering News-Record, a trade publication.
“We see even more opportunity in the years ahead,” Kiewit Power president Doug Patterson said in a statement. “With this new headquarters building, we will have the space to increase our employment base in the Kansas City region by approximately 300 jobs, with even more opportunities at our various project locations across the continent.”
The Kansas City area is home to several of the nation’s largest engineering firms, including Black & Veatch, the nation’s largest when it comes to power projects, according to Engineering News-Record.
Kent Grisham, a spokesman for Kiewit, said his company was impressed with the talent in the area when it purchased Bibb & Associates in 1998.
“We saw a high-quality, capable engineering firm in a great marketplace,” Grisham said. “The power market in North America is increasingly fertile, and Kiewit has been in that market for decades.”
Attracting Kiewit Power to its office park was an accomplishment for Block & Co., which is developing the project.
“I think it was a combination of pricing, our past experience and a clearly dynamic site,” said Kenneth Block, Block & Co. principal.
Larry Glaze, executive vice president of The Staubach Co., represented Kiewit in its real estate search. Glaze said existing buildings and sites were explored in Missouri and Kansas before Lenexa was chosen.
The Renner Corporate Centre is in the Kansas 10 and Interstate 435 corridor in south Johnson County, one of the area’s more desirable office markets, with an overall vacancy rate of 10.4 percent.
The 22-acre development includes a large, two-tiered pond with two fountains and a waterfall between them. The two buildings planned for the development will be built of precast concrete and blue reflective glass. Block said his firm is marketing the second tower and will begin construction when enough tenants are found.
The Kiewit Power headquarters project was assisted by the Kansas Department of Commerce and the city of Lenexa through several economic development programs.
“Kiewit is one of North America’s largest and most respected construction and engineering companies for power generation plants, and when a company like that chooses to expand here, it speaks volumes about our business climate,” David Kerr, the Kansas secretary of commerce, said in a statement.
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