Kansas City has a great business environment, and many national companies have recognizing it. It is the home of the new World Headquarters of H & R Block and other Fortune 500 companies including: Hallmark Cards, Inc., SPRINT, Garmin, Russell Stover Candies, Andrews McMeel Universal Newspaper Syndicate, Black & Veatch. Every day more and more companies our acknowledging that the strong pool of high skilled workers, low cost of living, central location, and large number of educational opportunities make Kansas City the ideal home for the company and employees. According to Mark Sweeney, Senior Principal of McCallum Sweeney Consulting of Greenville, South Carolina.  “There has been an increase in headquarters location activity over the past 18 months,”

• Reinventing Kansas City (Midwest Airlines Magazine): Kansas City is in the midst of a renaissance that will see more than $1 billion in new projects open this year. And those are just the ones downtown. “The city has seen building booms before, but this may be unprecedented,” says Rick Hughes, president of the Kansas City Convention & Visitors Association. “A revitalized downtown can reshape the way the rest of the country views a city. You need a strong downtown.” ...more
  
• KC Named top Ten Metro for Economic Strength: The Kansas City metropolitan area ranks No. 10 for economic strength.  According to POLICOM, a company which specializes in studying the dynamics of local economies, POLICOM ranks 361 Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the United States on the “long term tendency for an area to consistently grow in both size and quality.”  March 2006
  

• Entrepreneurialism Hot in KC: In Entrepreneur magazine’s 12th annual Hottest Cities report, Kansas City was named the No. 1 place to start and grow a business in the Midwest. Kansas City ranked No. 11 nationally. Kansas City was ranked in the large city category which included a total of 50 cities. The report was based on the National Policy Research Council’s Entrepreneurial Activity Index, which evaluates cities on business formation and business growth. August 2006

• KC, a 5-Star Metro for Business Opportunity: Kansas City was named a 5-Star Business Opportunity Metro in Expansion Management magazine’s 4th annual Mayor’s Challenge rankings. Designated as the best cities for future business locations, the metros were chosen for their overall business climate and attractiveness to growing companies around the world. Kansas City also ranked No. 9 in Logistics. July-August 2006

• Missouri Advances in Biotechnology: Missouri has been recognized for its overall strength and growth in biotechnology by Business Facilities magazine. In the Business Facilities Rankings Report, Missouri moved up to No. 14 from No. 20 in 2005. The study evaluated states based on their number of bioscience establishments, average percentage change in number of establishments; availability of state-supported bioscience R&D programs; number of biotechnology research parks and biotechnology incubators; bioscience facilities financing availability; university life sciences R&D expenditures; and bioscience occupations in the workforce. July 2006

• Kansas City among 20 Hottest Markets for Selling: In Sales & Marketing Management’s list of the best markets in which to sell in 2006, Kansas City, Mo. ranked No. 19.  Sales & Marketing Management examined overall business buying power of markets with at least 200,000 residents and looked at factors such as disposable after-tax income, the market’s ability to buy, and geographic sales potential for generalized products or services targeted to businesses.  January/February 2006
• Kansas City Metro Ranks Second in Retail Space Development: The Wall Street Journal/Real Estate Journal writes that while it is only the country's 27th-largest metropolitan area, with a population of about two million, the region -- including both Kansas City, Kan., and Kansas City, Mo. -- has the country's second-highest amount of total retail space in the planning, bidding or postbidding phases, according to a third-quarter ranking of 54 large metro areas surveyed by Property & Portfolio Research Inc.