AMC will receive a tax rebate of more than $40 million to leave downtown and build a new headquarters in Leawood. The company is taking advantage of an economic development program that richly rewards employers who set up shop in Kansas. Dozens of Missouri companies have reached for the cash.
AMC chief executive Gerry Lopez signaled the move was coming in an interview with The New York Times earlier this year. Kansas was offering a package so lavish that Lopez sounded almost disturbed by it. “In all candor, it’s unusual and a little disconcerting,” he told the newspaper, adding, “I do wonder whether this is an appropriate role for government to be playing.”
Founded in 1920 as Durwood Theatres, AMC operates 24 of the 50 highest grossing movie theaters in the United States. The company has had only four chief executives. The most notable, Stanley Durwood, opened the first theater originally designed as a multiplex in 1963 at the Ward Parkway shopping center.
Though the multiplex became synonymous with suburbia, Durwood cared about the urban core. He made several attempts to build an entertainment district in downtown Kansas City. The Cordish Co. made the concept a reality several years after Durwood's death in 1999.
AMC opened a six-screen movie theater inside the Power & LIght District in 2009. In a press release, Lopez says the company intends to maintain its "commitment and contribution in downtown and beyond."
More than 450 workers will move to beyond in 2013, the planned opening date for AMC's new headquarters in a development adjacent to Leawood's Town Center Plaza.
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As much as I hated the Earnings Tax, it really didn't make that much difference to my take home. I just wish I was still at AMC. Just a contract employee, I wished every day to get hired. Of all the companies I worked for, AMC was the best at how they treated their employees. I also loved working downtown as there were so many places in walking distance for lunch. In JoCo, any lunch place requires driving.
JoCoSnob, I am with you. I was prepared to write a comment reminding everyone in KCMO that they should boycott AMC theaters. You have done it for me. I truly believe this is the right thing to do.
To leawoodblows crap.....you must be dumber than your alias. Everytime a car travels from JoCo to Arrowhead, Kauffman stadium, the Plaaaaazaaaaa or The P&L they are already paying by their patronage. If someone drives to Arrowhead, buys a ticket, pays for parking and has a sandwich and beer you think you want to charge them more. You probably voted for Funkhouser.
Looks like a construction "stimulus" project imo. Peggy Dunn is mayor of Leawood and wife of Terry Dunn, COO of J.E. Dunn. I'm certain JED will be the contractor on the HQ. Amazing!!!....and the "political machine" rolls on...
Why AMC is not to blame.
http://rockhillstrategic.blogspot.com/2011/09/amc-not-to-blame-in-kc-metro-state-line.html
Fans of KCMO. What we really need are toll booths stopping cars with JOCO tags. Heading into KC on I35...oh, stop Mr./Mrs. JOCO...pay $1.00 Oh, entering Arrowhead Stadium or the New Kaufmann Performing Arts Center..stop, pay 1.00. Those vampires from the subs just want to suck KC dry. Well, fk ,em.
dark lord, so now that we have decades of crime history since the original white flight....we still have the same issue......inner city crime is running people away including local businesses. when are you and your brothers going to address the crime issue?
Put another way: Culture in the suburbs is so unpleasant it took the state of Kansas nearly $50,000,000.00 to get them to move 20 miles.
Andrew, they have higher property tax rates. Just another way citizens of KCMO would get the shaft for being the epicenter of the region, and would probably result in yet more depopulation of the core.
"How do all the other cities without earnings tax provide city services? Same way the "suburbs" here do.....responsible government."
That isn't an argument so much an empty platitude. How do you propose that Kansas City pay for services without the earnings tax? Do we lay off city workers? If so, which ones? Do we cut down on the service provided to the city? If so, which ones? What current construction, maintenance, or cleaning projects do we put on hold? Do we raise sales taxes which might cause people to shop in surrounding areas for their goods? It isn't as simple as telling us to elect non-socialists or to demand responsible government (both of which we have done by the way). We have a larger population and more public works and parks to consider than does any city in Johnson County.
"How do all the other cities without earnings tax provide city services?"
I have literally no idea. I haven't heard any other way to take care of the city other than "be more responsible in government" which doesn't offer anything of substance.
As long as Kansas Citians continue to elect Neo-Marxist politicians and vote to keep the earnings tax, businesses will continue to leave their socialist enclave like rats off a sinking ship. Kansas City is one of only a handfull of cities in the U.S. that have an earnings tax. How do all the other cities without earnings tax provide city services? Same way the "suburbs" here do.....responsible government. "City Services" isn't a burden that KCMO bears uniquely. All cities, big and small, provide services. It's just that some do it more efficiently than others. Please keep it up KCMO.......your stupidity is every one elses gain. Thanks!
Dark Lord - Ingratitude? The PAC wouldn't exist without JoCo money. KC would probably look like Detroit without JoCo money. KC sucks of the JoCo teet just as much as JoCo receives from KC, so get off the high horse. AMC is making a good business decision.
White Flight? Most of the people I've met in KS are transplants from rural areas of KS and MO looking for opportunity. Your racial tone doesn't register with me bro. Try it on one of your hipster friends.
Also, when we considered moving our offices from KC to OP, we uncovered that 90% of our top earners were from JoCo, yet we chose to stay in downtown, costing us in excess of millions more to stay there and deal with ancillary costs of working in downtown. Had we have had an incentive like AMC, we would've moved to OP in a heartbeat and saved the millions in tax breaks and lower ancillary costs. Instead, we though that the P&L and other development might be promising. Just 9 more years on the lease and we'll be able to reconsider that decision.
The cross-border sniping is so dumb and does not create a net increase in jobs for the region, which should be what matters. Kansas gets to pad its numbers without attracting businesses from elsewhere or god forbid, helping people start new businesses. How about paying $40M for that? It's counterproductive for the metro area as a whole just to tag team this shit.
"Or maybe you should do something PRODUCTIVE like vote into office a city council and mayor that understand what it takes to attract businesses and jobs to your city."
I just don't understand how we are supposed to get rid of the earnings tax and still be able to pay for all the services in the city. I think what we who live in Kansas City find so annoying is that there is this attitude among many who live in the suburbs that they should be able to work in and enjoy our city without having to contribute anything. Then for Johnson County cities to come in and poach businesses from our city that have been located there for years (in this case around 90 years). Then they preach to us about removing "burdensome" taxes to attract business and workers. If you guys have a plan to pay for all of our services that don't involve taxes then I am all ears.
@DisplayName007 It is absurd to imagine places like Leawood as supposed independent bastions of civility when it's very existence is predicated on white flight from urban centralization. If it weren't for the city's existence in the first place, Leawood would have remained prairie grass with the occasional corn field. You still profit from city development such as the new PAC by virtue of being able to be associated with culture...as Leawood has not a drop of its own. While I do not consider this move to be as serious a loss as others I find the ingratitude and urban hysteria of folks such as yourself to be laughable and ridiculous.
missMrFunk - Everything you mentioned (roads, lights, police, fire, etc..) is better in KS, but isn't free. Oh, and Leawood really isn't a hot spot for gangbangers and the crime that ensues. Care to compare crime rates? Aside from the tens of millions that this company is saving, their employees are now safer.
JoCoSnob:
So glad to read you LEFT kcmo. You guys just think eveything is free. The roads, the lights, police, fire, etc...
Oh, and don't foget the air pollution from your car or the shit grin on your face as you park in a public garage and walk to work. Keep you little one percent in your pocket and hide in your dying suburb.
Smart business. Looks like I'll offset Scientits by only going to AMC for such a brilliant move.
Going to movies has always been a scam. $10 for a ticket, $5 minimum for any snacks. And that's for non-3d/imax/fork and screen.
But JoCoSnob is right, downtown KCMO is causing it's own downfall
Scientits-
What an elitist - what, is KCMO "entitled" to have a headquarters just because "it is" downtown?? Maybe if they had a business environment that encouraged businesses (the earnings tax comes to mind- the reason I LEFT working in KCMO) they'd keep more business. You'll whine about Kansas government providing an incentive to attract a business but I guess the KCMO government isn't at fault at all for discouraging business through it's policies? I expect you'll stand on principle and boycott ALL businesses that don't have a headquarters in downdown KCMO, RIGHT?- so, no filling your car up with gas (no oil companies with headquarters in KCMO), no visits to Walgreens, Walmart or Target, ok? Or maybe you should do something PRODUCTIVE like vote into office a city council and mayor that understand what it takes to attract businesses and jobs to your city.
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