KSHB 41 reporter Charlie Keegan covers politics in Kansas, Missouri and at the local level. Share your story idea with Charlie.
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Lockton, one of the world's largest insurance brokerage firms, broke ground on its new global headquarters Thursday in Leawood, Kansas.
The ceremony marks a milestone in the company's decision to leave its Country Club Plaza headquarters in Missouri.
The city of Leawood is using a tool called a Tax Increment Financing district, or TIF, for the first time ever to support the project.
Alongside a community improvement district and other exemptions, Lockton will receive about $125 million in tax breaks for the $765 million project.
Leawood says the site near College Boulevard and State Line Road will go from generating essentially nothing in taxes to $25 million over the next 25 years. Some of that money will fund trails and parks around the development.
Kansas City, Missouri, resident Dan Ryan lives near Lockton's current headquarters. When asked whether he could think of a time he personally benefited from an incentive deal for a corporation, his answer was direct.
"Not at all," Ryan said. "There’s a lot more downside to the average person than there is upside."
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, expressed enthusiasm about the relocation.
"I couldn't be prouder for the state of Kansas," Kelly said.
Kelly said the deal does not violate the border war truce between Missouri and Kansas — a 2019 agreement designed to prevent the two states from poaching each other's existing businesses with taxpayer-funded incentives — because of one specific condition.
"We will not incentivize the move of current jobs. If a company is going to move and expand, we'll talk," Kelly explained.
Lockton is expected to add roughly 500 jobs when it moves to Kansas, totally about 2,000.
Patrick Tuohey, a public policy expert whose research at the Show-Me Institute examines economic development projects, said these deals don't always end up benefiting taxpayers.
"Governors and mayors love to go to ribbon cuttings. They love to be able to say, 'I'm a job creator,' when really their job should be, 'I'm a pothole patcher, or a snow plower,'" Tuohey said.
Lockton's project includes a 12-story headquarters, a hotel and apartments, with room to expand. It is set to open in 2030.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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