KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The new terminal at Kansas City International Airport is celebrating its halfway point, with an expected opening date in early March 2023.
When Bethesda-based Edgemoor Infrastructure & Real Estate was chosen as the developer in 2017, the company was virtually unknown to most Kansas Citians.
Edgemoor Managing Director Geoffrey Stricker promised that would change.
"We're not here to just show up and move out when the project is done. We want to be here and be a good citizen in Kansas City for generations to come," Stricker said at a September 2017 news conference.
Now, nearly four years later, the 41 Action News I-Team is taking a look at the Edgemoor-led team's progress on promises made to Kansas City.
One of the early initiatives on which the developer delivered was a small business training program.
The Strategic Partnership Program was first developed 15 years ago by Clark Construction Group, one of Edgemoor's partners on the new terminal.
To date the SPP has trainedmore than 80 small business owners on the skills needed to work on large projects like the new KCI. A dozen graduates went on to successfully compete for contracts at the airport.
The Edgemoor team also delivered on its Workforce Training Program, another aspect of its community benefits agreement with the city.
Graduates of the three-week program have been hired by a subcontractor working on the new KCI and get to enter into a union pre-apprenticeship program.
When it comes to the workforce itself, Edgemoor committed to 20% minority and 2.5% female participation. For the work done so far, the developer is ahead of those goals with 20.9% minority and 7.9% female participation.
Similarly, Edgemoor made commitments for contracts with minority and women-owned businesses.
The Build KCI team has contracted with 117 minority or women-owned firms.
Here's where they stand on goals for Kansas City-certified minority/women-owned enterprise (M/WBE) involvement:
Professional Services:
- 19.3% MBE (Goal 20%)
- 15.9% WBE (Goal 15%)
Construction Services
- 25.4% MBE (Goal 20%)
- 19.1% WBE (Goal 15%)
Only 13.4% of the workers up to this point have been KCMO residents, but 81.6% live in the KC metro.
Those numbers are just a snapshot in time, reflecting the work done so far on the new terminal.
However, a spokeswoman for Build KCI said the team does not anticipate having any problems meeting its final goals.
The 41 Action News I-Team will continue to follow Edgemoor's progress as we inch closer to opening day.
