The Kansas City Port Authority has snapped up six buildings at Richards-Gebaur Commerce Park and is leasing a portion to Metropolitan Community College.
Marissa Cleaver Wamble of the Authority puts the purchase price of six buildings at $615 thousand for 39 thousand square feet.
The Community College, at its new Southland Training Center, will chiefly train for jobs at the nearby National Nuclear Security Administration “Honeywell”Plant.
Mary Birkel, who speaks for MCC, says students are learning micro-soldering and similar skills and training in electronic packaging, “and that space will actually be the only place in the region that offers a lab and instructors for this certification.”
Birkel says studies have shown a shortage of skills in those training areas in the Kansas City region and a business appetite for them.
The Port Authority property will remain off the tax rolls as it has for the last 60 years, according to Wamble. She said the tradeoff is that growth will spur development in South Kansas City, Grandview and Cass County.