Quote:
Originally Posted by cjreisen
I've never been to KC, but the Cerner campus grinds my fucking gears. Downtown KC looks like it neeeds some major investment and TLC, why the hell aren't they building down there, instead of the open prairie? Fucking dumb
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Well, to be fair, that "open prairie" was the former site of the Bannister Mall complex in southeast Kansas City. That site is a major shot in the arm for the depressed area around it.
While I'm not sure of the exact reason why, Cerner has several campuses around the area. There's one nearby the Bannister site that took over the former Marion Labs campus, one out in western KCK near the racetrack, and the original campus in North Kansas City just across the Missouri River not far from downtown. Understandably, people are frustrated that Cerner never made any kind of an interest in building downtown. I don't know if their style of building these campuses necessitates more room that can be found downtown. It's possible that Kansas City won't give them tax breaks or some kind of incentive to locate something there. Even some corporate office tower would be nice. But it is what it is. I'm glad they at least chose a spot in an economically depressed area with the shot of remaking that area, rather than jumping the state line into suburban Johnson County in Kansas, or building outside of Kansas City all together. I've accepted it and have moved on from it.