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Missouri:
Fast
Track to the Future 
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In This Report: Missouri
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Does history — or at least economic history — repeat itself? In Missouri, that very well may be the case. For the better part of the nation’s history, the way west for Americans lay in Missouri. First it was through St. Louis, which began as a French trading post. It was from here that Lewis and Clark launched their historic expedition in 1804. In time the focus of westward migration moved to Kansas City, a jumping-off point for the Santa Fe and Oregon trails. Perhaps it was the influx of a no-nonsense, westward-looking population that earned Missouri its reputation as the “Show-Me” state. They were a practical, value-driven people, with here and there an adventurer thrown into the mix. Consider just a few of the progeny given to us by Missouri: Harry S Truman, Jesse James, Mark Twain, General John “Blackjack” Pershing, T.S. Eliot and, more recently, Calvin Trillin.
Admitted to the Union in 1821 as the 24th state, Missouri prospered. Its cities became hubs for river travel, for railroads and then for highways. Stockyards and packing plants flourished for a time. Land in every direction was turned over to the production of wheat, and Missouri stood in the heart of America’s breadbasket. Today the world’s wheat prices are set each morning in the Kansas City Board of Trade.
The successive layers of enterprise laid down economic bedrock that is evident in Missouri to this day. “We have many basic companies,” says Michael Zuk, vice president, financial services in the Kansas City office of Fahnestock & Co., Inc., members of the New York Stock Exchange. “Many of our companies are ‘blocking and tackling’ companies, providing either components or services that are often integrated into other peoples’ products. The virtue in it is that there is generally a constant market for what they manufacture or what they deliver.”
Sticking to the basics has paid off. Today, with the 11th most diversified economy in the nation, Missouri has a gross state product of $166.5 billion. Missouri’s exports in 2000 exceeded $8.4 billion in products and services to more than 180 countries. The state has 1,180 miles of interstate highway miles, two international airports, and two major rivers with 1,040 navigable water miles. It has the sixth-largest highway system in the nation, and the second- and third-largest railroad terminals in the nation. And, with a population of 5,600,000, Missouri in the second quarter of 2001 had the third-lowest cost of living in the nation.
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Missouri's Governor
Bill Holden
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Missouri’s history of building upon its economic past can be seen as a prologue to its economic future. “We have,” says Governor Bob Holden, “a highly skilled and productive workforce, a great quality of life and a pro-business climate that will foster the growth of the life sciences and other key industries in the 21st century.”
In life sciences, one important area targeted by the state for future economic development is plant science. It is a field that has a place of special prominence and promise in St. Louis. Last November, teams of researchers began moving into the newly completed $146 million Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in the St. Louis suburb of Creve Coeur. Built with the help of nonprofit, academic and government contributions, the center is bringing together under one roof an array of researchers focused on plant research that can, by enhancing our understanding of agriculture, improve the human condition.
The center is named for the late Donald Danforth, former chairman of St. Louis-based Ralston-Purina Co. Danforth was the father of former U.S. Sen. John C. Danforth, R-Mo., and Dr. William H. Danforth, former chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis. The nonprofit, independent center adds to the growing reputation of the metropolitan region as a focal point for plant and life sciences. St. Louis, in fact, is now mentioned as a major center of plant and life sciences, along with Raleigh-Durham, Seattle, Boston, and Washington, D.C. In fact, the 12-county metropolitan area, which sits astride the Mississippi River, is being touted as the “BioBelt,” home to a cluster of 1,200 firms that are in the business of plant and life sciences.
The emergence of St. Louis as Missouri’s BioBelt is mirrored on the western end of the state by Kansas City. Like its St. Louis counterpart, Kansas City is a riverfront community that is gaining attention for its leading-edge research facilities. Foremost among them is the $200 million Stowers Institute for Medical Research, opened a little more than a year ago. It and other research facilities have led to talk of Kansas City as being a “Biomed Valley.”
In point of fact, the two metropolitan areas anchor the eastern and western extremes of I-70 as it passes 250 miles through Missouri, leading to yet another sobriquet: “The Biotech Corridor.” That’s the term favored in the city of Columbia, home to the University of Missouri, where ground recently was broken for construction of a $60 million Life Sciences Center.
The corridor represents a border-to-border economic silver lining for Missouri. Governor Bob Holden has made it clear that life sciences is one of the three clusters — along with advanced manufacturing and information technology — to be given special emphasis in the state. Missouri last summer set aside $22 million of its $374 million tobacco settlement for life sciences funding, and plans for its use are now in the works.
| In Columbia, home of the University of Missouri, ground was recently broken for construction of a $60 million Life Sciiences Center. |
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With a sound economic
foundation in place, Missouri is laying new economic groundwork from
end-to-end. Itties are renovating and rebuilding. Its corporate citizens are
reinvesting in their communities. Its people are learning the new skills
needed by tomorrow’s workers. And there is, says Joe Driskill, director of
Missouri’s Department of Economic Development, a sense of purpose shared by
the private and public sectors. “I do not know of a time when there has been
a stronger sense of partnership about the opportunities for our future
economic growth,” says Driskill. “I think we have unanimity in that
regard.”
And everywhere one looks in Missouri, the partnerships and shared sense of
purpose are paying dividends.
This special section was written by Edward J. Walsh and designed by John Browning for ROP, Ltd. Produced by James O. Armstrong, president of James Armstrong & Associates, Inc., jim@jamesarmstrongassoc.com.