If it weren’t for the Missouri Quality Jobs Act, Westar Corp. may not have built its headquarters at the Missouri Research Park, said Rick Finholt, the park’s executive director.
Westar Corp. hadn’t planned on building its headquarters here initially; it was receiving a lot of pressure from its executives to build the company’s headquarters in Alabama, Finholt said during the ground-breaking ceremony for Westar’s new 81,000-square-foot headquarters on Friday.
The Missouri Quality Jobs Act, which offers tax credits to companies that provide or retain jobs in the state, was part of the package deal that was offered to keep Westar’s headquarters here, Finholt said.
“Of all the places that we could have built this building, we’re very, very happy to be at the Missouri Research Park and very happy to be in Missouri, which we have decided is the best place to build the company,” said Robert Topping, Westar’s president and CEO.
He added that the Missouri Quality Jobs Act “really clinched the deal” with Westar.
In the next four years, the company plans on bringing in 400 engineering and executive positions with an average salary of $80,000 per year.
Finholt, who was involved in negotiations to keep Westar here, said he doubted Missouri’s economic incentives were better than Alabama’s, but that there were other factors that secured Westar’s decision to expand here.
Topping mentioned that Missouri is centrally located, which is important to the defense and security technology firm. Westar operates 30 locations and employs 1,100 people worldwide.
Topping also said the relationship Westar shares with the University of Missouri school system and its access to research and development programs through the universities was “very important” to the company’s decision to stay.
About 50 executives at Westar, including Topping, are graduates from the University of Missouri school system, Topping said.
McEagle Properties L.L.C. is the developer of the $13 million headquarters, which targets completion in early 2007. Paric Corp. is the general contractor, Cole & Associates Inc. is the civil engineer, and Holleran Duitsman Architects Inc. is the architect for the project.
The new, Class “A” office building will be located just southeast of Westar’s current 64,000-square-foot building at 4 Research Park Drive. The site, which fronts highway 40, includes room for a third building and future expansion.
After the new headquarters is built, Westar will occupy 140,000 square feet at the Research Park.
When Westar first moved to the Research Park in 2000, It was making $20 million in revenues and employed about 170 people, Topping said. Westar most recently reported revenues of $200 million.
McEagle and Paric built the company’s first 44,000-square-foot facility. It later added on 22,000 square feet to house Westar’s affiliate Aerospace Filtration Systems, which is now a separate company.
David Sampson, deputy secretary of the U.S. Commerce Department, spoke at the ceremony and gave credit for the nation’s economic successes to people like Topping who “keep jobs here” in the United States. He sad the Labor Department recently announced that 138,000 new jobs were created in the month of April and that for the past year, an average of 173,000 jobs have been created per month.
Also in attendance was U.S. Sen. Jim Talent, R-Missouri, who said the aerospace filtration systems manufactured by Westar have saved the U.S. Army $1.2 billion and that the role Westar plays in keeping the military equipped with technology is important to the nation’s future.
Westar provides clients – such as the Army, the U.S. Department of Defense and NASA – with systems engineering, software and logistics, said Mike Ruggeri, Westar’s vice president of communications.
Westar was founded in 1986 in Albuquerque, N.M. It opened its first engineering center in St. Louis in 1989. Westar purchased logistics form Cobro Corp. of Earth City in 2000 and missile systems expert ELMCO Inc. in 2003.
Other affiliates include three technology engineering, development and support firms: Foster-Miller Inc., Planning Systems Inc. and Apogen Technologies.
Westar was acquired by QinetiQ, a global leader in defense and security technology, in 2004.
