City purchases tract of land
The City recently purchased 380 acres of land, which is located east of the Cameron Regional Medical Center. This purchase accomplishes two purposes. One purpose is to move the Electric Dept. from two locations into one site that is large enough to allow materials and equipment storage. The Orange St. location is next to a neighborhood, and is not large enough to accommodate expansion. In the past, residents there have expressed to the City preference for area to be residential and not commercial. The other purpose for the land is to provide a site with excellent highway access to help Cameron compete for research, manufacturing, distribution or other businesses that create well-paying jobs. The sellers of the land would not sell a smaller parcel, and the City negotiated a price that was about $310,000 lower than the appraised value of the land. History has shown land to always be a good long-term investment, and it will be an excellent asset for the City to own. The particular location of the land is ideally suited for highway access, since it is very close to Interstate 35 and Highway 36. It also has direct access to a paved road and is very close to municipal utilities. This will reduce costs significantly, since a road will not need to be extended or paved, and the cost to extend utilities will be low.
Large businesses looking at expansion, often send out requests to cities for available buildings, and/or land that they can build upon. This process is highly competitive. Land sites need to be under City control, so the companies can quickly negotiate favorable lease or purchase arrangements. In return, the City gets better paying jobs. This in return, helps the City’s overall tax base, especially the General Fund, which provides police, fire and public works services. This is why many cities have created industrial parks to attract large employers; a process which is very involved and can take a considerable amount of time.
The City will want to consider annexing the newly purchased land into the corporate city limits, but is NOT considering annexing any other homes or land in the area. So, people living nearby don’t have to worry about being annexed. There is no reason for the City to annex any land other that what was recently purchased. The new land is currently contiguous to the SE city limit.
Highway accessibility is one of Cameron’s strongest assets to help it attract a large employer that needs transportation efficiency. This is one reason that Case New Holland located its distribution center in Cameron. It is also the second most important factor when companies consider prospection sites for relocation. Of the top ten factors used by companies in their location decisions, Cameron is in pretty good shape, regarding most of them. Being close to St. Joseph and Kansas City also provides an expanded pool of skilled labor, once the local labor supply obtains jobs. If Cameron wants to compete with the many other cities looking for business expansion, it must provide what companies are looking for. It is not possible to be set up for any industry that comes along, but in a competitive environment, we must have as many favorable attributes as possible. Even then, the process can take some time. During this period, the land can generate income to the City in the in the form of crop leases, which would be competitively bid. The land purchase is a positive step forward for Cameron to continue its path toward becoming a more vibrant and attractive community.
The Missouri Partnership is an organization dedicated to economic development in Missouri, and helping cities to attract employers. One of their representatives, Steven Johnson, writes:
Area Development, an established economic development journal conducts annual surveys of both company executives and site selection consultants concerning the most important site location factors. The most recent round of surveys saw Availability of Land as a top concern for both groups.
There’s an old adage in this business that states “prepared communities win.” Without an attractive existing building or some type of market-ready site to offer, it will be hard to convince a client to take a look at any community. Another economic development truism asserts “dirt doesn’t make a site,” implying that securing the ground is merely the first step in a process to make any site truly market-ready. But it’s an unmistakable first step.
