Metro Spotlight: Overland Park, Kansas

Companies Continued to Choose Overland Park in ‘07

Overland Park is gaining approximately 40 new information technology-related jobs thanks to Software Engineering Services (SES), which announced in August 2007 that it will open a regional office in Building 51 of the Corporate Woods business park. SES, a 15-year old technology solutions company based in Omaha, NE, specializes in public-sector clients including the Department of Defense, state agencies, and local governments across the country. The Overland Park office will focus on private-sector clients, which include numerous Fortune 200 companies.

In September 2007, Allied National, one of the nation’s oldest and most respected administrators of small employer benefit plans, announced plans to put its headquarters in Overland Park. The company is bringing a $4.9 million payroll to the city with 98 employees earning an average salary of $50,000. By 2010, Allied National plans to add 10 employees with an average salary of $56,666, bringing its payroll to almost $5.5 million.

BRAINPOWER Without Breaking the Bank

Overland Park, KS—part of the Kansas City, KS/MO metropolitan area—is a suburb of superlatives. The city has invented itself as a magnet for telecommunications, pharmaceutical/biotechnology, and financial services companies. Given that these industries are driven by employee brainpower, it’s hardly surprising that Overland Park also has the highest percentage of high school graduates in the United States (97% among those 25 and older) and three of the highest ranked school districts in the country.

Despite having such a desirable workforce composition, Overland Park is not expensive for companies. The average home price in the area is only $238,172, for example, and Overland Park’s property tax mill levy is 18% lower than any major community in the region.

Business Parks in the City

Much of Overland Park’s 22.4 million square feet of office space is located throughout its many business parks. Strategically located around the city, each business park is uniquely designed to cater to businesses of all sizes.

Major existing office parks in Overland Park include Corporate Woods (2.3 million square feet); Southcreek (1.2 million square feet); Executive Hills (1.7 million square feet); Lighton Development (893,555 square feet); Foxhill Office Park (629,580 square feet); and Bryan Office Park (854,337 square feet).

Overland Park has the potential to offer more than 24 million square feet of commercial office space.