KSHB 41 reporter Ryan Gamboa covers Miami County in Kansas and Cass County in Missouri. He also covers agricultural topics. Share your story idea with Ryan.
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In an emergency bill reading at Monday night's Raymore City Council meeting, members passed the issuance of $90 million in Industrial Development Revenue Bonds.
"1,800, it’s a big number, it’s a number that this area can handle," said Raymore Chamber of Commerce Executive Director, Melisa Ferrari. "These are jobs that didn’t exist just two or three years ago. It’s bringing more opportunities for the people that live around here and bringing people into our area."
NUULY opened its warehouse doors in 2023 following its purchase of millions of Chapter 100 bonds from the City of Raymore.
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Monday night's passage of the Chapter 100 bonds maxes out the $205 million bond agreement capacity between the city and NUULY.
The online clothing retailer's parent company operates brands like Urban Outfitters.
NUULY is seeing exponential growth in clothing subscriptions. The demand from its current 400,000 subscribers is expected to grow to upwards of 200,000 new customers.
The company currently operates in 600,00 square feet of a one million square foot facility in Raymore.
The issuance of the new development bonds will allow NUULY to utilize the full warehouse and add 1,800 new jobs over the next three years.
NUULY is currently the largest employer in Raymore with approximately 1,000 employees.
"NUULY is a great community partner," said Jordan Lea, economic development director for the City of Raymore. "It's important that we are growing and keeping up with the metro and making sure our residents do have options on where they want to work."
The City of Raymore owns the land the Raymore Commerce Center sits on and leases the development to NUULY.
Nuuly is allowed to purchase new equipment with the $90 million in bond money.
It pays minimal PILOT, Payment in Lieu of Taxes, fees throughout its agreement period.
Raymore's PILOT agreement with NUULY is small, and the money is disbursed through the Raymore-Peculiar School District and first-responding taxing jurisdictions.
Lea told KSHB 41 the city is looking to the future and growth is where it sees opportunity in the decade-long agreement with NUULY's parent company, URBN LLC.
"While we are excited about the partnership with NUULY as a national brand, we think this opens up the commercial space for other corporate partner opportunities," she said.
Lea went on to add that development is underway for a Raymore Commerce Center for additional warehouse spaces.
"We are continuing to attract more commercial development, industrial, and we are always increasing our housing stock," added Lea. "We're growing on every area."
The Raymore City Council congratulated NUULY's success since it opened in Raymore.
Members of the council stated the company's success will ultimately be the success of the city.
NUULY/URBN's legal team was in attendance for the City Council meeting, but was unable to comment on the expansion.
