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Missouri
Blueprint for Posterity
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In late November, while almost everyone in Missouri was planning for Thanksgiving, Joe Driskill was wrapping up plans of quite a different kind. After months of preparation, Driskill, director of the Missouri Department of Economic Development, was putting the finishing touches on a new economic agenda for the "Show-Me" state.
The four-point plan was scheduled to be presented to Governor Bob Holden and the state legislature in early December.
Driskill refers to the plan as a blueprint for economic prosperity. He acknowledges that none of its four points -- targeting tech-based growth, selling Missouri globally, upgrading the workforce, and growing small business -- is an "earthshaking concept." Yet, in the aggregate, they say a great deal about Missouri's determination to shape tomorrow's economy today.
Coming as it does during soft economic times, the "blueprint" makes one thing perfectly clear: Missouri is not about to put its economic future on hold, even though states across the country are struggling with a sluggish economy and budget shortfalls.
Missouri hasn't gone unscathed. By Driskill's account, the state lost 39,000 manufacturing jobs this past year. It's his contention that they will have to be replaced by jobs in the high-tech areas of plant and life sciences, advanced manufacturing and information technology. Still, even in this lackluster period there are healthy vital signs. In southwest Missouri, Branson, a top tourist destination, hosts 7 million visitors annually. In the east, Lambert-St. Louis International Airport is undergoing a transformation thanks to a $1.1 billion expansion. To the west, the Kansas City International Airport is benefiting from a $258 million renovation.
In fact, Missouri has many inherent strengths, not the least of which is its diversified economy. "To our advantage, Missouri has the sixth most diversified economy in the nation," says Governor Holden. "That makes it easier for us to ensure that job opportunities of all kinds are available for our people. But as a state, we are not satisfied anymore with just any kind of job. We desire to create high-wage jobs that will boost the incomes of Missourians."
Throughout Missouri there are state and regional efforts to stoke economic engines, and many herald better days ahead. A prime example occurred in September when good news came out of Jefferson City, the state capital. Governor Holden, faced with budget deficits, nevertheless released $1.7 million in funds to the University of Missouri-Kansas City from the capital improvements budget. The money is to pay for the planning of a new $30 million life sciences incubator and educational facility. Meanwhile, earlier funding helped get a new $60 million life sciences building under way at the University of Missouri-Columbia.
The tandem of university science facilities is a small part of a much bigger picture, according to Dr. Thomas R. Sharpe, executive director of the office of technology and special projects, technology transfer and commercialization for all four University of Missouri campuses. "There's a lot of effort within Missouri to build solid life sciences research, development and commercialization enterprises," says Dr. Sharpe. And, while the campus centers will be key components in making that happen, he adds, "they won't be the only components, because no one can do it alone."
Indeed, there is an emerging Kansas City-Columbia-St Louis plant-and-life-sciences corridor, with Columbia serving as the central link between the two bigger cities.
Hitting for average
"We've not hit a grand slam this year, but lots of singles, doubles and triples," says Robert J. Marcusse, president and CEO of the Kansas City Area Development Council, speaking of job growth in the 16-county metropolitan area. As a result, says Marcusse, job growth is off for 2002, but added payroll is at $60 million, setting a record.
Included among the economic base hits on the Missouri side of Kansas City is the opening of an operations center in Kansas City by Los Angeles-based IndyMac Bank. Yet another newcomer is Orgo-Thermit, Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of German-based Elektro-Thermit GmbH., which is moving its North American headquarters from New Jersey to the Kansas City area. An additional relocation is that of McKesson Medical-Surgical, Inc., which has signed a long-term lease for a facility in Kansas City. These last two additions play right into Kansas City's plans to build on its substantial life sciences base.
Marcusse says the catalyst for Kansas City's life sciences was The Stowers Institute for Medical Research, established in 1994 by American Century Cos. Inc. founder Jim Stowers and his wife, Virginia, and funded by them to the tune of $1.5 billion. The Institute has since made a run at recruiting top tier biomedical talent, and has successfully attracted scientists and researchers from as far away as England and France.
One of the outgrowths of the Stowers Institute's presence in Kansas City, says Marcusse, was the formation of the Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute Inc., which serves as the coordinating body for the Kansas City region's life science research initiatives. There are eight stakeholder institutions, including the Stowers Institute. Within the next five to 10 years, KCALSI hopes to generate $500 million in annual research investment in Kansas City.
The art of reinvention
Conceding nothing to tough economic times, St. Louis has made a priority of competing vigorously to keep and attract business. A little more than a year ago it put one such effort in the win column when MasterCard International opened its new Global Technology & Operations headquarters in O'Fallon, a suburb of St. Louis.
The new building is the nerve center for MasterCard's transaction processing. MasterCard processes as many as 26 million authorizations in this facility on a single day, and settles as much as $4 billion on a single day between financial institutions worldwide.
The 550,000-square-foot complex, says Jerry McElhatton, senior executive vice president of MasterCard, meets the needs of the company and the community. "For MasterCard, we have a new building with the most sophisticated data center in the industry, a new processing platform that is the most technologically advanced in the industry, and a specially designed environment that combines a physical facility characterized by unique workspaces designed for efficiency, light and comfort. For St. Louis, we're keeping a $170 million payroll in the area, and more than 2,200 jobs."
When it comes to economic development, St. Louis is nothing if not proactive. "The focus," says Richard C.D. Fleming, president and CEO of the St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association, "is on how we are reinventing ourselves."
Within the past two years, reinvention has revolved around the re-branding of St. Louis as the BioBelt, a world-class center for plant and life sciences. The key to its success is a cluster of more than 390 firms with 22,000 employees that are at the core of the region's plant and life sciences industry.
Since the launch of the re-branding program two years ago, $2.3 million has been spent on marketing. But the BioBelt is still a work-in-progress. "We recognize," says Fleming, "that we're in a marathon, not a sprint."
Yet even in the short run there is ample evidence of progress. Despite the faltering economy, the BioBelt in two years saw the advent of four venture capital funds, with $282 million raised for investment in biotech and medical companies. Meanwhile, two other funds are expected to bring another $250 million into play.
Another recent development was the opening last fall of the $75 million, not-for-profit Donald Danforth Plant Science Center. Led by founding president and world-renowned plant scientist Dr. Roger N. Beachy, the Danforth Center is home to a world-class team of researchers that ultimately will include more than 200 scientists.
Cooperative efforts are under way among the Danforth Center and other research and educational institutions. These include Washington University in St. Louis, whose medical school ranked fourth in dollars received from the National Institutes of Health in 2001, as well as the University of Missouri-St. Louis, one of the three leading university centers in the U.S. for tropical ecology.
To nurture ventures in plant and life sciences, two business incubators have taken up the challenge. The Nidus Center for Scientific Enterprise houses 15-20 firms, and is dedicated exclusively to the development and growth of plant and life sciences companies. The facility boasts 24 laboratories with wet/dry capabilities and 22 private offices. The Center for Emerging Technologies, which houses a number of life science and medical sector companies, has undergone an $8 million expansion, doubling in size.
Not to be overlooked is the 79-acre Missouri Botanical Garden, which operates a leading edge research program in tropical botany. Its prestige and importance led California-based Sequoia Sciences to announce its intention of relocating to the Missouri Botanical Garden. And just recently the Botanical Society of America, formerly based in Ohio, moved to the Botanical Garden campus.
From St. Louis to Kansas City, the stage is set for the implementation of the state's blueprint for prosperity. If it works as planned, Missouri will be showing what needs to be done today to get ahead tomorrow. n
MasterCard
A Commitment to Missouri
MasterCard International, which is an integral part of the Missouri landscape, re-affirmed its commitment to the "Show-Me State" in 2001 when it moved into a $130-million, 52-acre campus outside St. Louis. The facility, which is MasterCard's largest office in the world, is home to some 2,200 IT professionals.
The St. Louis facility houses the industry's most advanced payments platform, handling processing for nearly all MasterCard transactions worldwide. The platform uses a virtual private network -- Banknet -- to link 210 countries, 25,000 customer financial institutions, and 29 million merchants worldwide. Banknet enables MasterCard to authorize transactions at unparalleled speeds and easily processes tens of millions of authorizations a day.
"We're extremely proud to call Missouri the home of MasterCard's Global Technology and Operations headquarters," said Jerry McElhatton, MasterCard International's senior executive vice president, Global Technology and Operations. "Our commitment to Missouri remains strong, and we look forward to continuing this relationship for years to come."
For more information on MasterCard, visit http://www.mastercardinternational.com.
This special section was written by Edward J. Walsh and designed by BrownInkDesign.biz for Richard Osborne Publishing. Produced by James O. Armstrong, president of James Armstrong & Associates, Inc., jim@jamesarmstrongassoc.com.