New Century Business Park is expanding with the development of more than 845 acres on the north and east sides of the Johnson County Executive Airport.
The Johnson County Airport Commission (JCAC) recently recommended approval of a master development agreement naming VanTrust Real Estate as the master developer, with the Johnson County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) subsequently approving that recommendation on October 8, 2020.
The proposed conceptual master plan contemplates having up to 6.5M SF of new vertical construction with a variety of building sizes up to 1.5M SF, along with approximately 150 acres of rail laydown yards.
Most unique about the development plan is that many of the sites have the ability to be rail-served. These proposed new facilities and improvements represent a private investment at the New Century AirCenter Business Park of $278,415,690 over the span of approximately ten years.
“Creating new economic development opportunities at the New Century AirCenter have been a long time coming,” said BOCC Chairman Ed Eilert.
“This is going to bring jobs and added revenue to Johnson County, which will help the county’s airports continue to be as self-sufficient as possible and not rely on tax dollars,” Ellert said.
As a statutory requirement, a cost benefit analysis of the proposed project was performed by the county which illustrated a positive return on investment for all taxing jurisdictions ranging from 33.3% to 387.5%. Property taxes on the new construction are projected to generate approximately $135,000,000 over the next 33 years, as compared to an estimated of up to $178,000 over the same time period under current conditions, according to a release.
According to Aaron Otto, executive director of JCAC, the benefits of this development include railyard improvements, approximately 2,675 new/permanent jobs, more than $672,813,505 in estimated payroll and an estimated 1,875 construction jobs with payroll earnings of $96,750,000 over the next ten years.
In addition to its prime location within the Southwestern Johnson County submarket, the development is the only site in the metro area that offers available land allowing laydown yards, outdoor storage, access to a major railroad via short line railroad services and access to domestic air transport via New Century AirCenter.
“We knew when we first received the RFP for this project that it represented an opportunity to partner with the Johnson County Airport Commission and the county in the execution of a long term vision that would bring lasting benefits to the residents of Johnson County,” stated Rich Muller, executive vice president of VanTrust.
“We are excited to have been selected to lead this effort and look forward to kicking off what will be a significant expansion of the Southwest Johnson County industrial submarket.”
Olsson and GBA have also been selected to assist in the development plans. Olsson will be working on the rail, infrastructure and other improvements in addition to investigative studies and helping to manage the county submittal and review process. GBA’s architectural team has been hired to provide the preliminary architectural renderings and elevations.