This story is part of an ongoing series, Powering Change: Panasonic and De Soto. If you'd like to share your excitement or concerns about the electric vehicle battery plant, you can do so here.
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De Soto, Kansas, has just a few thousand residents, and the Panasonic electric vehicle battery plant is expected to bring around 4,000 employees.
The pop-up of several new businesses in De Soto is the latest example of the city embracing change.
More people means more businesses and more spending. It's too early to get a full handle on the impact, but city leaders are tracking housing demand and the cost of living.
According to De Soto City Administrator Mike Brungardt, the plant is expected to bring in workers from a 50-mile radius. He said this means De Soto won’t be the new home for all these employees; therefore, more people will be commuting to and visiting De Soto from the Kansas City area.
Brungardt said the city has already seen an impact with the plant’s current construction workers shopping, eating and spending money at various local businesses. City officials are also eyeing how the jobs Panasonic is in the middle of filling will increase overall spending in the community.
But what’s to come is all part of what excited several new businesses opening their doors in De Soto, like Leo's Kitchen & Patio.
"We still have patrons every single day come in and tell us, 'I haven't seen you guys before,'” said Leo's Kitchen & Patio co-owner Manny Garnuñ. “It made it a lot easier for us to make that transition over to finally say, 'Yes, let's do it,' once we found out that Panasonic was down the street."
Other new business owners are hopeful, too.
"I wanted to know that there's going to be not only steady growth but even a possibility for exponential growth,” said Skylight Pilates owner Kali Gray.
Gray opened the city’s only Pilates studio.
"Knowing that there's plenty of workers coming to the area to help build the Panasonic plant, and also once the plant is open, that them and their families will be there ... it gave me a lot of confidence,” she said.
Both businesses were welcomed by De Soto’s charm. So, with the plant opening soon, it’s time for them to plant roots of their own.
"We're a small-town community, but we definitely embrace change, we definitely embrace growth,” Garnuñ said.
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KSHB 41 reporter Elyse Schoenig covers the cities of Shawnee and Mission. She also focuses on issues surrounding the cost of health care, saving for retirement and personal debt. Share your story idea with Elyse.