grow hays
grow hays
Tuesday Nov 01, 2022
Development continues at Hays housing project location
Tuesday Nov 01, 2022
Tuesday Nov 01, 2022
On this episode of the Post Podcast Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams shares updates from Grow Hays.
Friday Oct 14, 2022
Lt. Gov. Toland praises Ellis Co. Microfactory
Friday Oct 14, 2022
Friday Oct 14, 2022
On this episode of the Post Podcast Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams shares information about the Microfactory groundbreaking.
Friday Sep 30, 2022
Imagine Ellis County Committee continues strengthening area communities
Friday Sep 30, 2022
Friday Sep 30, 2022
The Imagine Ellis County Committee continues their work to strengthen area communities, from Grow Hays, Executive Director Doug Williams stops by to share with us the latest on this episode of the Post Podcast.
Transcript:
EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.
James Bell
The Imagine Ellis County Committee continues their work to strengthen area communities, from Grow Hays, Executive Director Doug Williams stops by to share with us the latest on this episode of the Post Podcast.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
You know, I look back, this group was started back in late 2019, if my memory is correct, and it's a group that was started out of a committee, from the strategic doing process that the Hansen foundation sponsors, and we started this group, not having a name at that point in time, but just trying to look at what we need to be doing as a community to make ourselves more attractive and what people want to have and that kind of thing. And so it started then. And it's grown to about 25 or 30 people on this committee. And we were we started and then that little pesky pandemic came along, and kind of stalled us. And if not, for the good work of Sarah Wah singer with the chamber, we probably wouldn't exist today. But she kept things go into the pandemic, and then post pandemic, we gained a lot of momentum, and have have made a lot of progress so far as I look back.
James Bell
Yeah. And we've, as we've talked about this before, one of the biggest things on this, I think, is that communication piece, it's sharing the haze the story with others, and especially I think in with his that first go around, it was kind of geared towards the front range out in Colorado, correct? Well, it
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
was, you know, we initially, one of the first things we did is we brought in virtually all of the business leaders in the community, the organization leaders, you know, the school district, the university, large, you know, business community, and we asked them to give five minute presentations on what their plans are and what their what they're hoping to do in the future, as well as what their challenges are. And then we had some townhall meetings and Hayes and Ellis and Victoria. And we have produced six videos, one minute videos, promoting our quality of life here and talking to people from Ellis people from Victoria, people from Hays, different demographics, a retired person, a young person, family that bought a business and moved here a family that chooses to live here with the type of jobs they have, they could live anywhere. So we're trying to cover the gambit. And then yes, we've we've engaged Eagle creative services to help us get this message out because you can have the best message in the world. But if nobody hears it, it doesn't do you any good. And so they are doing some marketing for us on the eastern slope of Colorado, we feel like that's fertile ground, to attract people to our community. And, and we've got a lot of good things going on in that area.
James Bell
Yeah, is are those efforts out in that particular area is still ongoing.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
They are okay, they're ongoing. And we'll be through I think next February or March, we were very fortunate to receive a sizable grant from the Schmidt Foundation, and then a partial match from the Hanson Foundation. And then the Heartland Community Foundation gave us some dollars. And so we were able to engage some of these marketing campaigns do some website development, we have a website, imagine Ellis county.com. and produce these videos that this is this has allowed us to try to get this word out and tell people about what we have to offer here.
James Bell
Very cool. I wonder if you want to talk about what's next. Like what's the organization planning? What do you guys got coming
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
up? Well, currently, and many people I hope have received this in the mail, the docking Institute is doing a community survey for us. And they've asked a lot of questions, kind of the things I talked about earlier, you know, what, what about the community? Have you thinks positive? What do you think we have problems with, and we're hoping to get those results back sometime in October. And that will guide us in terms of some of the things we're going to continue to do. But I do imagine Ellis County at this point as a as a recruiting tool for Ellis County, you know, we we have a unique opportunity. And you and I have talked about this before with remote workers and lots and lots of Americans on the move, have the ability to move to other places live where they want to live because of remote work. And we think that we can get our fair share of those if they know about us and if we let them know what kind of community we have. And so we are very actively trying to recruit people. And we plan those, you know, the efforts and eastern slope of Colorado is one area we may focus on some others in the future. But we're gonna let some of this data that we've gotten be our guide and Thus far, we've had some interesting input, most of which we already know, in terms of the challenges, we know that housing is a problem, we know that childcare is a problem. But when you start talking about some of the wants and desires of retail and other activities, it's, it's good to have some validation from the community as to what they'd like to see.
James Bell
I don't know why you have to do a survey, Doug, you just get on Facebook, and they'll tell you, we need an olive garden, we need to target and what's the other one that I hear Dick's will get those things, they're always gonna be happy.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
I think that we solve all our problems. And then, you know, I obviously, retail is always everybody's view of economic development. You know, traditionally, economic development is recruiting the smokestacks, you know, big businesses employ lots of people, that that world has changed. And we're into the world of recruiting people. And we have to go after those remote workers, we have to look at retirees. They're a huge demographic that we believe we have, we check all the boxes. And then I've, I've talked, you and I have also talked about this maintenance, we need to leverage the resources our community has much in the way that southwest Kansas has leveraged their resources, they have water, they've turned that into cattle, grain production, beef, packing, dairy, cheese, the Hilmar cheese going into Dodge City, I mean, all those things come, primarily because they have a natural resource, which is water. We don't have that luxury here. But we have other resources. We've got an interstate highway that 15,000 cars a day go up and down. How do we leverage that we've got a unit amazing university. And you know that how do we leverage that? We've got a tremendous health care facility here. How do we leverage that those are the things we need to be leveraging? Those are the things we're looking at as to how we recruit using those resources in this community.
James Bell
You know, I'm curious, like, how do those imagine Ellis County committee meetings? Go? Are you guys are you talking about those things? Like how do we specifically dialed in? Are you talking more specifics like to make this happen, we need to do this
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
little bit of both. Certainly, there's a fair amount of, you know, tactical things that we're talking about, hey, we need to get our website up to date, we need to do this with our website, we need to do this with our ads. But then also, I think we talk about the greater vision and what we're trying to accomplish. And so a little bit of both happened, we meet monthly. And, you know, we've we've had the it's been a while since we've had an actual event, the last town hall meeting we had, I believe, was in Ellis, back in the spring. And we have tabulated those results. And we've got, we've created the bubble charts, where the things it's mentioned, most is bigger, you've got all these words on a chart, and the things it's mentioned most is, is the bigger so you see the emphasis. And, you know, obviously housing, retail, those kinds of things are are on there. But we've compiled those from each meeting, as well as a county compilation. And then we're obviously going forward with this survey. And we're eager to see the results of that. And that'll give us some guidance. And, you know, I think now we're just in the in the mode where we're trying to execute on some of the ideas we've had and some of the projects we're working on.
James Bell
Yeah, you know, you mentioned that that was meeting and I was lucky enough I get to go to that meeting, and also the one in Victoria and the one inherence. And the last one in Hays. I've already seen so especially in Victoria, they have taken really taken some of those ideas that came out of that meeting and they're running with it, they're ready to go. And they've actually already accomplished one of my things
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
they have, they are very active over there. They've got a couple of local committees looking at the obviously the old rest home is a project over there. And they're they're trying to work on some retail recruitment over there. And the the nature path through town, they've talked about and things. So that's what it takes. It takes a collaboration of a lot of people getting together for a common cause.
James Bell
Yeah, and really, and really, they came out of that meeting. One of the things they talked about was a farmers market. And Betty Johnson from the hazard Foundation was there kind of facilitate that meeting, say, you can do that, guys, don't wait, just get it done. And I believe that they're making that happen. And I just I love that because it was that idea that collaboration that meeting. And it may be never would have been thought of or never really planned out and discussed how to do it without imagining Ellis County in that that particular event.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
You have to start the fire. And it's my co presenter today. Sandy Jacobs, her favorite word is collaboration. But you see a lot of really positive things come from that. And so Ellis is aware of Victoria is a great example of a group of people getting together and just saying we're going to do this and it's amazing what can happen.
James Bell
You know, I'm curious if you want to talk a little bit about for all this work. I was listening to thinking like, Oh, I'm maybe I've got some ideas, and maybe I could help out. Are there ways at this point for them to have their voice heard? And I was or imagine I was kind of committee?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Absolutely, we would welcome input from anybody. If somebody wants to be in the committee and be an active member of it, they give us a call, send us an email, text us whatever. We would, we would love to have more input and more feedback from people. We feel we've got a good diverse group that cover most of the bases in the community, but there's always room for additional energy and additional ideas. So if anybody wants to be involved and engaged, definitely let us know.
James Bell
Yeah, I like the idea of those diverse ideas, just because everybody's got such a different life experience. You know, we talk pretty frequently see each other at least once a week, but our life experiences are so different from what I do and what you do every day and your your background in history. We're not going to come up with the same things, I'm
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
sure No, that's what it takes. It takes, you know, a lot of different ideas. And some of them might be crazy. I mean, we at grow Hayes, we get people who come in with, with ideas that seem pretty crazy sometimes, but then, you know, you think it through and maybe this makes sense. Maybe this is possible, what would it take? So those are the things we need to be? We need that from people.
James Bell
Cool. So let's talk before we run out of time, the specifics on this luncheon later today. Is that to open to everyone, or was that is that reservation already past.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Its past, I'm sure it's an RSVP event. And so this one is not going to be available, just anyone. But it's today that the Chamber has a membership luncheon each month, and they choose a topic, and they have somebody come in and make a presentation each month. And today, Sandy and I it's our turn into barrel to, to go out and give a presentation on this Imagine Ellis County because I think people are are wondering, I haven't done the best job in terms of keeping it in the public eye. You know, we have a website, we have these videos, we have a Facebook page, we've done all this. But as you know better than anybody, you have to be consistent with your message, and you have to get it out there repeatedly. And so we recognize that and we're trying to get more of Top of Mind awareness of what we're doing.
James Bell
Sure, you know, and but there's so many things to be concerned about. You turn on the news. And there's always it seems like there's always new bad news, always something, something that's going to come up and wreck our lives. And you got to be concerned about that. But this one that this, this is a local effort that really could have an impact on lives. You know, it's easy, I think, to fall into that trap of watching the national news watching hurricane coverage right now. And the political news is always out there. But to getting involved an organization like this, or following an organization like this can really change things here in Ellis County.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
We can't do a lot about hurricanes. We can't do a thought about national politics, but we can make a difference locally. And so I agree with you completely. That's that's something we all need to focus on and recognize that let's let's focus our time and energy on something that we can have an impact on, and we can all have an impact on this community.
James Bell
Absolutely. Well, before we run out of time, anything else going on down to grow Hayes we want to hit on
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
before we just we just had week three of our think like an entrepreneur class this week. And that's going well. And gosh, we the housing, the housing project Tallgrass second out there off of 22nd. I saw the Earthmovers out there yesterday for the next phase supposed to be done by year end. So we're excited about that. That's a team or lots the first phase of 36 lots are all gone. And so some things going on out there some additional housing will be sometime in the spring or summer
James Bell
starting to look like a real housing development. Before it was in the houses looked great, right but it was like a house here house. They're kind of on that hill and now it's starting to really fill in
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Yes, in spite of all the challenges that contractors have right now with material issues, windows, getting basements done and that kind of thing. They're they're progressing nicely
Friday Sep 02, 2022
New childcare, housing developments proposed in Hays
Friday Sep 02, 2022
Friday Sep 02, 2022
On this episode of the Post Podcast Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams shares updates on proposed childcare and housing developments in Hays.
Transcript:
EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.
James Bell
A proposed daycare and housing project in Ellis County topped the area's economic news this week. From grow Hays, Executive Director Doug Williams stops by to talk about that and more on this episode of the Post Podcast.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Childcare is one of the big three that rural America faces, childcare, housing and workforce and workforce. It's kind of tied to childcare and housing and Hays med through the receipt of some grants and things, it's going to put an on campus childcare facility, and I think up to 75 kids, I believe is what the the deal is. So that's awesome news, we have a huge need in our community for child care. And this will go a long ways towards helping that still a lot of work to be done beyond that. But it's big news and great news for Hayes man.
James Bell
Absolutely. Do we know it? And I gotta be honest, I'm not all that familiar with everything that's going on there as well. Do we have they have a timeline or anything in place? Or is this just a commitment to build the facility?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
I think I don't know what their timeline is. But I know they're eager to get going. And they want to put it on the fast track, whatever that really means in today's construction environment. Because obviously, when you have to build something, workforce and materials, and all those things are a challenge. But I think they they want to get started as soon as they can.
James Bell
You know, and I know I don't want to ask you to speak for them. But I just believe with the conversations that we've had about the childcare piece here in Ellis County, that probably this is a move that was really just kind of self serving, they needed their own staff to have that availability of child care. And we've talked specifically about the difficulties in medical, the medical field with child care, because you've got that weird schedule and, and rotating and all that.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, they have unique needs when it comes to childcare, because they are 24 by seven 365 days a year organization. And they I think at the end of the day, I don't think Hays med really wants to be in the childcare business. But they recognize that they have to control their own destiny and when when their employees cannot find childcare or a provider is closed or whatever that might be, that has serious consequences to an organization that has to take care of people and has to perform surgeries and all of the things they have to do if if their employees can't come to work. That's that's a huge problem. And so they, like many other organizations across the country have just recognized that they have to control their own destiny with this. They're going to put facilities in manage them, and make sure that they've covered their bases in that area.
James Bell
You know, and I'm curious if you want to speak to if they can pull 70 Kids 70 plus into that daycare, what kind of impact is that going to have across all of Ellis County?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Well, it helps. But if you know, Sarah Washington is on your show off, and she's heading up this childcare Task Force, believe they've identified a shortage of between six and 700 spots in Ellis County. So 70, or however many is that helps. And it certainly helps Hays med take control of their situation, we still have a large shortage of spots available for child care. One of the big challenges, not only just physical availability of spots, but affordability is a huge issue for different types of workers. When you're talking about anywhere from, I don't know, six today to $900 a month per child for childcare. That's quite a strain on somebody who's not making a lot of money. I mean, and a lot of our entry level jobs are filled by people who are not making a lot of money, but they still have children. And so that's that's the big dilemma is how do we serve those people?
James Bell
Now? Yeah, I think you say, the lower income, I think even middle middle income can be impacted you tacking on $900. If you got three kids, you're paying that every month. That's a bill. Well, at
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
some point, one of the one of the family, the one of the spouses cannot go to work. I mean, it just doesn't make economic sense. So they leave the job market and thus we end up with 2.3% unemployment and and people really struggling to find employees,
James Bell
for sure. No, we've also talked a lot about you're going to your proposal down there on the Hays med campus with the grandparents or the senior housing and then that would have a daycare component as well. I wonder is this part of or is this part of that conversation or is this completely separate? And that progresses or process is still going?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Well that that process is still ongoing. We're still working on that project and actually have kind of put it on the front burner right now. We're trying to get some things going. And initially we had some conversations with Hays med because they were very Interested in the daycare component that we had proposed in the community center there on the property north of the hospital. But I think I think at the end of the day, they just felt that they had to move on this themselves. And they couldn't wait on anybody else. We still believe that this project were, as I say, we're moving it to the front burner. The combination of multifamily as well as patio home type construction for primarily targeted to retiree age people, not necessarily restricted to that audience. But then the community center would house the seniors Center, which is currently out by the airport right now. And then the childcare center would there would be a childcare facility there that would hopefully engage some of the retirees in a creating an intergenerational type facility that that could provide a unique experience for children with kind of grandparent type people helping out in there, hopefully some on a volunteer basis where we can figure out a way to maybe offer some lower cost childcare to those entry level workers, lots of details to kind of figure out in that model. But if if we can provide some incentives for a provider with a lot lower cost, rent, or whatever it might be to operate, maybe they can pass some of that along to some of the some of their clients, I guess I'd call them and, and provide some scholarships or something like that. That would be the ideal situation. The economics are difficult to deal with on that. But we have to do something to try and meet that need.
James Bell
For sure. Now, moving on into another big piece of news. This came out of the hay City Commission meeting last night, apparently, there's a developer that wants to put some housing into the Hadley center, correct?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
That's correct. David Van Doren, the owner of the Hadley center, was in front of the City Commission last night, he's applying for an NIH grant, which is a moderate income housing grant, that the state of Kansas offers, on projects that they that they approve, this requires the landlord to rent to people in the moderate income range of tenant, which means it's believe it's 60% to 150%, of the moderate income, family housing income for Kansas. So I believe it depends on how many are in the family and that kind of thing. This again, would probably be geared more to seniors, their one bedroom, a couple of some two bedroom units, and then some one bedroom units with a little study off of them, but a kind of unique offering and Hadley center, obviously, it's, it's built like a fortress. And they have a lot of amenities there, whether it's a beauty salon, restaurant, massage therapy, people, so all under one roof, you would have all of those things right there. And so he's he's trying to get that project going, it would be in the third floor, and it's about 31 Total Units that he is proposing to do. So that would be a nice project and and a nice addition to the community. And the first step for him was to get the city to approve the grant is actually given to the city. And then they pass it through to the to the developer. And so the city had has to approve a resolution, which they probably will they discussed it last night and at their regular meeting next Thursday, they will, I am sure approve that resolution and move it on so that he can submit his application.
James Bell
Yeah, I mean, without jumping too far ahead and talking about some of the benefits of this to the community. I mean, what's the chances or what's the process look like for him going forward? I mean, is this a sure thing? Or is this kind of what hope but hope it all goes through and works the way we want?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Well, it's certainly not a sure thing. The State of Kansas historically is allocated $2 million a year to the moderate income housing grant program. Because of some ARPA funds, and that kind of thing, this year, they've allocated $20 million. So they've got a lot more money allocated to it. They've raised the single award, they'll give I believe it's $30,000 per unit, or up to a maximum award of $650,000. This particular project would qualify for the maximum award of $650,000. But there is a lot of interest in this program statewide lots and lots of applications. There's also a backlog of previous applicants that did not get awarded in the past that are going to be based on my not understanding they're going to be looked at first on this first round. They're going to they're going to do this quarterly these awards this over the next year or so. So it's not a slam dunk by any means. But hopefully he'll he'll see that I know there are some other developers and In Ellis County that are looking at projects that are going to be applying for this, this grant. So we just hope we get our fair share. You know, we out in western Kansas, sometimes we don't always get our fair share, and we hope with this program we do. And actually, just one other item on that it is limited to counties under 60,000. And population. So the big counties are ruled out of this, this program. So that that does help us there as well.
James Bell
I like to hear that, yeah, let them do their own. Those giant those giant Johnson County and Sedgwick County, that's it's a different world, really, than what we deal with out here.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Pretty much pretty much.
James Bell
So you know, if this does come to pass, you know, 31 in apartments with that single bedroom kind of size, how much does that actually impact? And how much is that needed to fix the housing shortage we have here in Ellis County?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Well, it's kind of like the childcare deal to hospital every little bit helps. When I consistently say when we add inventory to the market, whether it be houses or whether it be spots in a childcare facility. It helps does it solve all our problems? No, it doesn't. But it helps you know, I, one of the things I'm going to talk about at our quarterly luncheon next Tuesday is the the shortage of housing that we have and what the housing study showed us that we just completed in June, the city did. And And essentially, it shows that we've got a shortfall, a hole of about three to 400 units in this community that we need to fill. And if we expect any kind of growth, say it, what I consider a relatively conservative 1% growth rate, we need to add 88 units a year, whether it be single family homes or apartments, we've been averaging 35 to 45 units a year. And that's what's gotten us in this hole. And so will 31 units. solve our housing issues? No. But it'll help. And, you know, obviously, within that whole housing structure, you've got the type of housing that's added to you're constantly having to evaluate what's really needed. Do we need one bedroom units for retirees? Do we need three bedroom apartments and duplexes and things for families? So what specifically do we need? And right now, I would say we need all of the above. But as we move forward, we're going to have to be more diligent and more studious and deciding what what niches Do we really need to fill?
James Bell
Yeah. And you know, there's so many of these projects going on right now. I don't know if you have like a total of how many apartments that are coming online here in the next few years. But we've talked about several of these, like the St. Joseph school and what's going on down there was near the old Washington School and this one. So yeah, there's hundreds of them coming up in the next couple years. Right.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
And maybe 100. Oh, I'm over estimate. Well, there are projects underway, certainly the Ellis estates project is 42 units, the vandoorne project would be 31 microgram project at fourth and four, it would be 33, or 36. So we do have a number coming on. But unfortunately, like child care in the same as housing, it is not quickly resolved, it takes time to build these things. And I know there's a project at the Presbyterian Church, that a new childcare facility is going to they're going to do some expansion, some work in there, that I believe is going to have 36 spots. And so we are adding to the to the inventory. It just takes time chipping away at the problem. Absolutely
James Bell
like that. Before we move on to this last bit of really cool news. You mentioned the quarterly luncheon down there that you guys are going to host to grow haze, I believe Thursday, Tuesday, Tuesday. At this point. Are you full on that? Are you still looking for some people to attend?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
We are full with physical attendees. Actually, we're we're over full. Always a few that don't make it for whatever reason. So we'll be okay there. But but it is going to be online as well. So look on our Facebook page, our website and you can see the link and you can watch it on a zoom, call or watch it online if you'd like to if you can't make it down or if if you didn't get your reservation in
James Bell
very cool. Yeah, you know, I regularly get to go to these in the course of my work and always interesting stuff. And this one I think's gonna be really cool because you get to delve into that housings. Stuff that we're talking about here.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Yes, column Belzer. assistant city manager is going to be talking about the housing study. And then I'm going to do a little bit of a talk about maybe some solutions and what we're trying to do about it.
James Bell
Very cool. Gonna be a good time. Now let's talk about this last thing. This is kind of a little bit of inside baseball here, but you guys got a grant. We've talked about this on the show for this upcoming microfactory project. Right.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
We did. We got great news last Friday, actually, that the Patterson Family Foundation, which is a foundation out of Kansas City, founded by Neil Patterson and I can't remember his wife's name. Neil was one of the founders of Cerner, which is the giant software vendor in Kansas. City. And he was from a small town somewhere in Kansas, and I can't remember where. But he, they created this foundation that is dedicated to improving healthcare, education and economic development in small Kansas and Missouri communities. And so we approached them, you know, that the microfactory, we got a $2.6 million base grant. But we know it's going to cost us three and a half to $4 million. And so we approached the Patterson Family Foundation with the idea, they really liked the concept of the microfactory, they're really interested to watch how this works, you know, they're really these don't exist, this is kind of breaking new ground. And there's a lot of people watching it, but they, they liked the idea. And they awarded us a $500,000 grant to be used towards the micro factory. And so that's going to go a long ways towards helping us get that done. And we are they are interested in watching it, because if if successful, they would like to replicate this and other communities across the state. As with the state of Kansas, there, the Department of Commerce is very interested in this as well. So the pressures on we've got to perform on this one, I was
James Bell
gonna say, I wouldn't want to be in your shoes on this.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
We'll get it done. I'm sure you will had you know, David Klingon, who's our Director of Recruitment retirement did a great job writing the grant for the base grant that we got from the state of Kansas, he replicated that with the Patterson foundation. So he's he's done a terrific job on these.
James Bell
Yeah. Now, we've talked a little bit in the past about the gap. You mentioned the funding a little bit, and there was some some money that you need to raise to put this project together. How much does this grant chip away at that? Well,
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
it covers more than half of the shortfall, we'll call it. We knew from the get go that we were going to have to borrow some money or acquire some additional funds above the base grant, we continue to look for those funds. We know that that, you know even though the tenants in that facility will be paying far less than market rent, probably less than half of what market rent would be it it will produce some income. And we would have some dollars to use towards paying back alone. But we're still we still got some grant applications out there and looking for other ways to finance the shortfall and finish it because like all these projects, where we're concerned that we may run a little over budget to just the way the world is right now. Yeah, how
James Bell
hard is that to even really judge these things? For anybody that's trying to build anything, I would think it's just kind of a roll of the dice
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
virtually impossible. You know, there's just so many factors that are into it. And and you find out that you can't get some particular material you are counting on the substitute is more expensive. And so what do you do? You just have to kind of roll with the punches and make it work?
James Bell
Yeah, no big transformers is a problem right now. Right? A huge one and transformers and water taps I think are both
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
just impossible. Supply chain still continues to be very restricted in certain areas, Transformers for residential construction, take a year to get the transformer for the microfactory they said was 60 to 70 weeks. Ouch. And so fortunately, we've got it ordered. And we do believe that that we may be able to Midwest energy may help us with a temporary if we get to that point and the permanent one still hasn't come in because they they do keep some on hand for emergencies, obviously, but they're for emergencies. So they they don't like to go out and use those but we we are. It's on order and we believe our construction period is probably a good year trying to get it done. So I think we'll be okay there. But you're right. There's just a challenge. Every time you turn a corner you hit another one. Yeah.
James Bell
Well, Doug, we got to get over the news and weather but any other last thoughts where we go?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Gosh, I can't think of anything else. You know, I It's been a big week. All good news. Join us next Tuesday. If you want to via zoom, check us out. I think it'll be interesting information for people. And we're going to just keep plugging
away
Friday Aug 26, 2022
Grow Hays’ latest RHID presented to USD 489 Board of Education
Friday Aug 26, 2022
Friday Aug 26, 2022
On this episode of the Post Podcast Grow Hays, Executive Director Doug Williams shares information about an RHID planned for downtown Hays.
Transcript:
EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.
James Bell
Grow Hays, Executive Director Doug Williams recently presented before the Hays Board of Education about and RHID planned for downtown Hays, he stops by to share some of the details on that and more on this episode of the Post Podcast.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Michael Graham rentals, proposing or is going to put in a apartment complex that fourth and fourth right behind the old Washington School location 33 or 36 units and he had applied to the city for a row housing incentive district incentive. And on July 28, the City Commission approved that and then it goes to a veto period for 30 days for the school district or the county can veto that act and stop that from happening. And so we're on the homestretch of that veto period and should be finalized like next week, and then he'll be free to start construction down there to get some much needed housing going in. Hayes. Very good.
James Bell
I like to hear that. Do you expect any of these? Well, first, maybe we want to talk about this? Why do you have to go to the school board and the county for that? Why can't he just take care. But well, the way
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
incentives work and the myths, I think a lot of people don't understand exactly how it works, a lot of a lot of people have the impression that it takes away the part of their tax dollars go to pay for these quote unquote, incentives. And that's really not the case, what it what it does, it allows the developer to recover some of his development costs, through the property taxes, he pays going into the future. So each year, the owner of these properties will pay property tax just like everybody else, but a portion of that will be routed back to them to pay for some of the street improvements, the underground, you know, sewer, water, electric, some of those kinds of things, that they can recover some of their costs on that through a portion of those tax dollars. The reason the city, the county and the school district participate in this process is because they're all affected by it. If if this incentive was not granted, they would get a portion of those property taxes that he would pay on an ongoing basis. So they have to say, Okay, we believe that the benefit of the additional housing is better for the community, then the property taxes we might receive on this project, not to mention the fact that without those type of incentives, the project probably wouldn't be done. So there's the trade off and kind of the bet that most governments make is that we are betting that we're going to this is going to happen, and in the long run, we're going to get our property taxes from it. And it's going to add much needed housing. And we're willing to give up a little bit along the way to make that happen.
James Bell
Yeah. Do you expect any of those boards to take issue? I know you I'd say you've been in front of the school board already? Do you? Do you see any? Anybody saying no, I
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
think I think they understand the need, I think they understand that the impact of them is really doesn't exist, it's not going to hurt their current budget. In the long run, they're going to get additional tax dollars from this asset that is developed in the community. So I don't anticipate any issue from from either of those organizations.
James Bell
Yet, really, I don't know. You know, as you talk about these, it sounds like it's a win win win. Everybody takes out of this deal. It's just delaying a little bit of tax revenue. I don't know why. Because it is sometimes contentious, when you set up an Rh ID or a program like this, people have that misconception that somehow they're paying extra taxes for it. Right?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
They do. And I think it is a win win. But you know, there are rules and regulations that have to be met their statutory UL requirements to get one of these, one of them being a housing study, in the case of an Rh ID, you have to have a housing study that shows you have a need for housing. Because not only is the you know, the local taxing entities are not receiving some dollars, but some of the state dollars are not generated. Some of your property tax that goes to the state is not generated in some cases. And so they have some requirements where you have to show a need, the Secretary of Department of Commerce has to sign off on these things. And then they you know, the local taxing organizations have to look it has to meet some criteria for them to so it's not like they're given willy nilly to just anybody that applies. They do have to meet some requirements. And in the long run, it is good. But there obviously are are those who don't feel any incentives or an order that nobody should ever get any incentives because maybe well, I didn't get any. But the case may be there's you didn't ask for any now they're available to anybody that wants to apply for him. Anybody that's willing to go out and do and invest, I believe the projected number that was put on the application for this apartment complex was three and a half to $4 million. Anybody that wants to go out and do that is more than welcome to apply for these incentives. And, and I'm sure that they would be looked upon favorably by the governing bodies.
James Bell
Yeah, it's really all about just developing what we need. Because we've talked time and time again, there is a massive need for housing here in Ellis County, and, and far beyond. But definitely here, notice County,
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
we certainly have a large need in Ellis County. Sometimes these are the things you know, development costs are extremely high. And in order to make it work financially, for somebody willing to put up that amount of money, and they've got to get some incentives anywhere they can.
James Bell
You know, on the flip side of this something else we've talked about, it's been in the news pretty recently, the microfactory project, I hear you have some, some updates there as well,
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
we are moving along, although you don't see it on the surface. But plans have been finalized. Architects are working with all the various entities that they have to work with mechanical engineers, structural engineers, civil engineers, all of the things that are going on to get that going. We're anticipating a groundbreaking sometime in October. And so we're excited about that with completion sometime by end of year 2023. And so we're eager to get going on the construction we're talking with, we've talked to half a dozen potential tenants in the building that may have an interest. And that's great, because we definitely want to use it as the incubator, it's supposed to be for manufacturers. And so we're making headway, it just never happens as fast as you would like. And we also are going to be in front of the City Commission asking for some industrial revenue bonds to help with that project that allows the developer which in this case, is gro Hayes to avoid the sales tax on the materials that are purchased to construct the facility, and then potentially a property tax abatement for a period of time to try and help us get on our feet with that project, get some tenants in place, and get it operating at a financial break even point, which is what our goal is also, the project, as you may recall, it's about a three and a half to $4 million project, the base grant from the state of Kansas was 2.6 million. So we're 900,000 to a million dollars short, we did get a nice donation of the land from Heart of America, but we still got a deficit that we're going to have to either raise some funds, or we're going to have to borrow that money. And obviously, it's important that we have some means to pay that back over the life of the building. And so we can get it going. So you'll anybody who watches the activities of the City Commission and and that kind of thing will see that application coming forward pretty quickly.
James Bell
For a building like that is there a lot of extra considerations you have to take to get that facility up and running, I'm just imagining all of the industrial efforts that are going to be going on in there probably require a little bit different layout and structure than a traditional commercial building
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
about a zillion when you're talking about a structure like that, that's going to be focused on manufacturers, all kinds of other considerations come into play things like getting product in and out of the building, you know, raw materials in and then finished goods out? Where are you going to store them on site? How thick does a concrete floor need to be? Because how heavy is the equipment that's going to be in there? How tall do the ceilings need to be? What type of electrical capacity do you need? Are there any specific heating and cooling and air handling situations that go on, it just goes on and on. And it's been I've been around the residential construction, pretty much all my adult life, but not a whole lot of commercial, but particularly industrial construction. And it has been an eye opener for me just a lot of things that I never would have thought that you had to consider and people that you would have to involve. And that's one of the reasons why it's expensive. You have to do things a lot differently. You have a lot more engineering expertise that you have to bring into the into the mix. And so it's complicated.
James Bell
You know, you mentioned you were talking to some organizations that might be interested in moving in there. I wonder, you know, is that is out quickly, is it going to be ready once the the facility is up and running? Are you going to be able to move those guys in immediately or is it going to be a little bit of a waiting period as you set up for those individuals?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Not really sure but our goal is To have these people pounding on the door wanting to get in and operating, when by the time it's finished, that's one of the luxuries we have, you know, we've got basically a year to year and a half here to find tenants find tenants that have similar type operations, one of the ongoing challenges will be one manufacturer is a kind of a dirty process generates a lot of hazardous smoke or whatever in their process next door to and I'll use an extreme example here, I don't anticipate this, but somebody who's doing microchips, you know, you you can't cohabitate with somebody having a dirty process with somebody doing a very clean process. So we think that, that our challenge is not going to be to find tenants, because I think we're going to have lots of people interested, it's going to be matching up those tenants in a compatible way that don't cause each other problems.
James Bell
Yeah, I'm curious, you know, can you kind of alleviate those concerns with construction, or is that something that's just gonna have to be like, oh, you know, what, you have to pass on some organizations, maybe,
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
depending on the organization and the kind of the opportunity that they pose, we may be able to deal with some of it through construction, you know, separation walls, or something like that. I think you and I have talked before, my original thought was, there would be these individual spaces with walls all the way and this would be your space, and this would be your space. But in talking with the experts in manufacturing, there are no walls planned to be inside that building, it will be open, you will have your space, you will do your thing here. But the guy next to you, you know, I don't know if it's a Wk RP in Cincinnati piece of yellow tape on the floor that you don't cross this space. And but there will be designated space for each operation. And they will, they will operate that space. And so things like air handling and the type of processes they're going through become critical to make sure those are compatible.
James Bell
Okay. You know, we've got just a couple minutes left, you've got some events coming up at gro Hayes I think we want to talk about right,
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
we do we have our think like an entrepreneur class, which starts on September 14, that's an eight week course it will be taught by Chris Munch. And always a good course, always a lot of fun, and always very worthwhile to anybody. You've been a past participant and and anybody who has an interest in owning and operate their own business, I would highly recommend it, I think we've got an early bird special for 100 bucks prior to September 1, to sign up. And after that, it's like 150 bucks, we feed you eight meals, you know, we feed you every time. So for the price of entry is just really cheaper than what you could eat for for that. And all the content is basically free if you look at it that way. And it's really good. And then we have our quarterly luncheon coming up on September 7, at Breece base where we're going to be calling Belzer, the assistant city manager and myself, we're going to be talking about the housing study that was conducted by the city of Hayes and came out in June. So a couple things going on in the near future.
James Bell
Very cool, very exciting stuff. And if you want to find out more about those events, we'll get signed up for that class and information available on your website,
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
website, Facebook page, call us, whatever you want to do, because we're we got a lot of ways to get that information. And we'd love to see a lot of people in the class and obviously a lot of people in the in the quarterly lunch and I think we've got 40 signed up already for that we got a capacity of about 45 So if you if you have an interest in coming call us to reserve a spot
James Bell
very good. You will also have the Zoom meeting link available right
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
put the zoom out there on our website and on Facebook. So if if somebody can't make it down, you can certainly join us on Zoom and and ask questions on Zoom. So join us that way if you can't be there in person
Friday Aug 12, 2022
Grow Hays plans third Think Like an Entrepreneur series
Friday Aug 12, 2022
Friday Aug 12, 2022
On this episode of the Post Podcast, Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams shares details about the upcoming Think Like an Entrepreneur series.
Friday Jul 29, 2022
Ellis County’s largest employers continue to help drive local economy
Friday Jul 29, 2022
Friday Jul 29, 2022
On this episode of the Post Podcast, Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams shares insights from recent tours of Ellis County's largest employers.
Transcript:
EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.
James Bell
Few of the largest enterprises in Ellis County have a significant impact on the area economy. Grow Hays, Executive Director Doug Williams stops by to share some of those insights on this episode of the Post Podcast.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Fort Hays State is the crown jewel of western Kansas, we got to tour the three new buildings to three, three newest buildings on campus. I was just blown away by what all they have down there, and how nice and just effective and what a wonderful resource those buildings are. To the art department, the technology department and the Center for Student Success and just amazing buildings. You just go in and you don't feel like you're in hate, you know, you feel like gosh, I shouldn't be in a metropolitan area, or huge university someplace, but it's right here and it's impressive. Yeah,
James Bell
yeah, I really like about all of the construction they've done because I was I was on campus there when they started with the with Hammond Hall, and kind of that whole process. I love that the new buildings the the the consensus, the goal is to make them look like they're part of the old campus. You know, there's an aesthetic there that I just I can't think of another college and I've ever been on to that really does that.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Well they've done a terrific job of maintaining the limestone construction, you know, the same building materials and and the look and feel with with some modernization. And of course, the art area, they use the old power plant and being a lifer here in Hayes. I remember that powerplant, my granddad used to work there. And I used to go down there when I was a kid, and walk through there with him. And that was longer ago than I'd like to think. But they, they were able to restore that building, at least the exterior structure and things keep the bill brick and that kind of thing is really cool how they did that. So it they have done an amazing job. And we can be very proud of, of what we have there. And what a wonderful asset it is to western Kansas and to Ellis County in particular, to have that type of an institution there. It's it's just tremendous.
James Bell
Absolutely. You know, I love then it's and I know, it's not a haze, exclusive thing, but there seems to be just such an undercurrent here of people wanting to reutilize those historic structures, those old buildings and I love that we do that in Fort Hays is done that I think is in modern history, at least has absolutely much as they can.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
They have, you know, as I said, the old power plant they use for that the library's the next project with the grant that they recently received a $17 million grant, I believe it was, and they're going to be renovating the library, but I don't think they're going to be changing a whole lot on the exterior. I say that they probably aren't going to do a fair amount to it, but but they're going to maintain the spot they're going to maintain some of the the structure and things and so they'll continue that look and feel and and you know, really the only other a couple buildings on campus that aren't of the limestone, I think domanick Hall is, is maybe non limestone and things but I tell people this all the time I would I would compare our campus to any other anywhere really, in terms of the look and quality of a campus is is just really second to none. And I mean even big schools and, and division one schools and it's just an amazing place.
James Bell
Absolutely. And I love talking for hates, everybody knows I went for Hayes and big champion of everything they do down there. Well, I
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
went there to just not the whole ride. I got sidetracked along the way college algebra. As I told the group the other day, college algebra ended my college career. And however I told them in the Center for Student Success, they have an area for tutoring, and they bring in tutors. And it's a great spot where kids can come in and get the help they need. I'm sure something like that was probably available when I was there, but I didn't find it. And if I were to go back, I might have gotten through college algebra and continued my college career path. But that didn't happen. So kids have a much better opportunity today to utilize those resources.
James Bell
Absolutely. Hey, and I'll share this with you Doug. If you keep it between you and me. College Algebra. I took it six times six before I finally got
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
through sixth time's the charm.
James Bell
Everybody knows to I was in college forever. I was there for dang decade. It was amazing. Probably why I love it so much. Why
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
ever leave? Yeah, exactly.
James Bell
But, you know, four days, you know, and that's it. That's a showcase piece. And it's easy to point to that but you had some opportunity here in the last week to go through some of the large employers here in Hays and, and really kind of see what they do as well, right? We did
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
yesterday, Scott, the plant manager at EnerSys was good enough to give us a tour of intercepts and I had never been in there. That's one of the really cool things about this job I have is that I get to go in some places that I've never been. You know, I mentioned I've lived here all my life. I remember very well when it was traveling all and you know it was our Our largest employer at that point in time, but I was never in the physical plant. I've been in the front offices. So yesterday, we got to take a tour of the entire place. And wow, it's it's an impressive place as well in a different kind of way. Because it's hardcore manufacturing going on in there, you know, plant floor and Fire, fire deals, melting lead, and pouring lead into forms and then turning it into batteries, ultimately, big batteries and things. But what an impressive place and just shows we've got a lot going on here. I've had tours of brands, I've had tours of Glassman, we have some really impressive has. We had some really impressive businesses here that are doing some amazing things right under our noses. And I don't think we realize it sometimes just how impressive these things are.
James Bell
Yeah, absolutely. I was even I had a conversation with my wife not too long ago. And matter of fact, we were talking to nurses, we knew they make batteries, but like what they actually do, we don't know. And it is it's so easy to overlook those those major employers Hays med is another one here in Ellis County that really helped drive our economy, but they're kind of you know, you don't think about a lot of them frequently, maybe his med is a bad example. Because you do. Most people out there though
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
maybe higher profile in the community. But you know, in our system, we talked about this yesterday, they're kind of on the edge of town. And so you drive by that building all the time, but you don't really think about what goes on in there unless you have some reason to either know, somebody that works there or having worked there before. But it's an impressive operation. And they, they produce some amazing products to get used all over the world. I mean, these batteries, these are not your car batteries. These are industrial type batteries that are used for backups of telecom systems and computer data centers and that type of thing. Even utility companies use them nuclear power plants use them for their backup, because they want to have backup power if they have to shut down the plant for some reason or another. So these products are used everywhere. And they're made some I mean, they have multiple plants but least these are made right here in Hays America.
James Bell
I love that are we're literally, you know, building the things that are driving the world.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Well, at some level we are, you know, I know tronics makes parts for the the auto industry and for General Motors and the big car manufacturers and cross Of course, I'm not sure exactly what all they make products for, but their products are used all over I know. And RANS my gosh, he's, he's got airplanes all over the world. And he's been at it a long time out there, Randy and his crew and they do a terrific job as well. So pretty special stuff goes on here.
James Bell
Yeah. You know, from a truly economic standpoint, I wonder, you know, how much of our economy is driven by those large employers? And I don't know where you draw the line on large. But, you know, those are the ones who are most talking about
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
the end. You're right. The definition of large is always interesting. When I was back into computer business and working with IBM, they called small businesses, anything under 1000 employees. Those were small businesses. Well, they're not small to us. But those employers are critically important to our local economy, and they contribute a lot. You know, Fort Hays, state Hays med EnerSys has Glassman RANS, all of those cross, they all contribute a lot of dollars in employment to our community. Unfortunately, they're all facing the same problem right now is finding people. That's that's the real challenge. The biggest challenge that they face, you know, I'm talking with the Scott at an intercessor. He also talked about supply chain issues, you know, they have been challenged with supply chain issues and trying to get products and, and it's a process. So when you lose one piece of the chain of manufacturing something, it gums up the whole work. So it is some challenges, some challenges, but I think employer employees are their biggest challenge to find good qualified employees.
James Bell
You know, and that's something we talk about quite a bit. And one of the driving factors on that is housing here in the area. And from what I understand there was a reason how recent housing study done by the city of Hayes, I wonder if you want to share some of the insights from that? Well,
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
there was the city page recently completed a housing study. The document Institute did a housing study forum and in a company called rd G did a supplemental study. And it showed us basically kind of what we already know that we have a shortage that we have under built for quite some time. And it's put us in the hole in terms of available housing and thus our ability to recruit the workforce is challenging, because we don't have any place for him to live, whether it be a very white collar person that's looking at our community health care provider or a college professor, school team. Teacher, or somebody that's got a skilled laborer that's looking to go to work for one of these manufacturers that we're talking about, they have to live someplace. And we have not built enough homes over the last 10 years to meet the need. And then if we want to take advantage of this urban migration that's taking place over the next five to 10 years, we're gonna have to really ramp it up. So we have some real challenges ahead of us if we expect to continue to have any growth and do better than we have done.
James Bell
On that same note, though, there are some positive actions going on here in Ellis County that are designed to alleviate some of those shortages, right?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Well, we're obviously the heart of America development out and Tallgrass is 36 homes that will be added to the market. The Ellis Estates is adding 42 units to the market out there. And there's other projects that are in at least a conceptual stage. So absolutely, we're looking at solutions and trying to get new housing going. We couldn't have picked a worse time to try and build things. Because the construction industry has labor shortages as well, costs are higher than they've ever been escalating interest rates mean, we could talk all day about the challenges really doesn't matter. We've got to figure out solutions, because we've got to provide housing for people that might want to move into this area. So we're just going to have to do
James Bell
You know, as we heard earlier from again, from the city leaders here on our City Commission recap on the show. There's another IRH ID that they approved to hear. But I guess yesterday
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
last night, yes, I didn't mention that in terms of stuff under construction. But Mike Graham is going to build 33 or 36 units at the corner of fourth and fort. That will add obviously 36 units, by my estimation, we're probably four to 500 units short, in our current housing supply. I say that because our vacancy rate is virtually non existent right now. And, you know, we've got about 9000 units in our community, a healthy vacancy rate would be five or more. So if you do the math, you come up with, you know, anywhere from three to 500 units that we could use. And it also would help other landlords be a little bit more motivated to upgrade what they have. Because there's no motivation to fix things, or to upgrade properties, or even to possibly knock down properties and put something new up, so long as you have a rental market where everything rents. And so if we can add properties to the market, we'll see some of that kind of thing take place. And that's a good thing that's healthy for a community to to go through that process. It's not healthy, to not have places for people to live when people want to move here. That's not a good situation. We need to resolve that.
James Bell
You know, we've talked about this so much. But I wonder if you want to put kind of a timeline on it. And I know that we we both frequently say this, it never moves as fast as you want. But I'm wondering at what point do you see that here in Ellis County, we might get past that kind of crisis point in the housing and move into that place where we're in a, at least a stable and positive looking outcome.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
I think even if all the projects we have on the board would occur, we're still two or three years away from getting to the point where we have adequate inventory maybe longer simply because it takes to a couple of years to take a project from concept to reality or longer to get things built. So we're still two or three years away from having any hope of resolving some housing issues. So it's going to be an ongoing thing for quite some time. Oh, we're gonna get there. We absolutely are.
Monday Jul 25, 2022
Low area unemployment continues to impact economies
Monday Jul 25, 2022
Monday Jul 25, 2022
On this episode of the Post Podcast, Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams shares information about the impact of continued low unemployment rates across northwest Kansas.
Transcript:
EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.
James Bell
Low unemployment rates across Northwestern Kansas continue to be a significant factor in area economies from Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams stops by to talk about that and more on this episode of the Post Podcast.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
workforce, it's probably our primary challenge that we face, because of the low numbers. Any business that wants to come here or wants to grow, or even continuing to operate struggling, finding employees?
James Bell
Yeah, and this has been, since I think, you know, we came back from the pandemic, we've seen these low numbers continue. But even before that, that the situation the unemployment numbers here, the rates were still under what we'd really like to see Weren't they
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
they were with or any number of years, and well, before the pandemic, all right, levels were below 3%, which is kind of when you have 3%, unemployment, the experts, that's that's low. You don't ever want anything less than that. Our number in May was 1.7. The month before that was 1.3%. And so very, very low numbers. And they were a little lower now than they were pre pandemic, but not appreciably.
James Bell
So I guess my first question is, what's causing it the follow up? How do we fix it? Well,
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
two great questions. And I wish I had the answers. It reminds me of a quote I heard the other day. Guy says, For every complex problem, there is a solution that is clear, simple and wrong. And that's what we see so much of today, I guess. I call it political speak. Everybody's got this easy answer. They say that, Oh, well, it's it's because the government gave out all this money. And people are sitting home and drawing all this money from the government. But that that's simply not what we see locally at all. It's a combination of things. So I think it's the pandemic did cause lots of people to say, Well, now's maybe a good time to retire. So we lost a lot of people out of the workforce to retirement more than normal. In our local situation, you know, we have 40, students have always provided a percentage of our workforce, the on campus students. And since the pandemic and even a little bit before, we've had a steady decline in on campus enrollment, so fewer kids on campus, and so fewer kids to work, because in spite of what many people think most students do work in one job or another. Childcare is a is a significant issue. We don't have enough childcare in our community. We've talked about that before. And I know you and Sarah watching her talk about that. And, and they they did a survey and they identified I believe 180 or something like that people who indicated if they had affordable and readily available childcare, they would reenter the workforce, or they would enter the workforce. So that's a challenge that we have. Our our lack of housing has caused us to not be able to have people move here, which could potentially enter the workforce. And, you know, when you take all that, and take the fact that now, the many workers who were doing maybe a primary level job or something like that have had opportunities to move up, it leaves a lot of openings in entry level jobs. And so as as the quote I gave said, this is complex, and there are no easy and simple solutions to it. It's multifaceted, and we have to kind of address all of them as best we can.
James Bell
Yeah, and it sounds like to me, you know, all these things you mentioned, the Sarah and the childcare Task Force. You know, we've talked about the housing quite a bit here, you know, all of these problems, I think, are on the radar and kind of everybody's working on the individual aspects of it to move that forward and kind of fix up the road
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
that we are there's there's a lot of people working in a lot of these areas. The challenge is none of these have quick and easy fixes. You know, it takes time to build housing. You don't do that overnight. It's a process of, at a minimum months and most likely years to deal with housing shortages. Same with childcare, you know, to find providers, and that's, that's a business that, you know, the business model is really broken, particularly with the wage increases that were that are occurring, and what people can charge for childcare. And at the end of the day, what people can pay for childcare, they don't match up. You know, somebody who's trying to operate a daycare center, if they've had to take their employees from whatever it is $10 $11 An hour or 214 15 $16 an hour. It was barely working before and it doesn't work at that. So that's a challenge. So lots of lots of challenges. Are all of them taking a fair amount of time to resolve? You know, we'd love to get more students on campus. But that isn't quickly resolved either. So it's just going to take some time to work through some of this.
James Bell
You know, I wonder if you want to speak to you in not so much maybe in Hays, but in kind of the greater Northwest Kansas region, the average age seems to be going up as well. And I think that's you mentioned, you know, pandemic, a lot of folks, they took that opportunity to go ahead and move out of the workforce retire, and, and they're not going to come back. But I wonder how much that plays into it and, and what we can do to help bring in that younger workforce that can, you know, contribute 20 3040 years still into the economic pool? Well, we
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
certainly have an aging population in Northwest Kansas, not quite as much in Ellis County, but in Northwest Kansas, we absolutely do. And yes, those people are leaving the workforce there, in some cases, leaving the area. And so we have to address that part of how we hope to address that is provide some retiree friendly type housing, that would cause them to move here and have Hayes as a potential destination. But that doesn't help the rural areas out in Northwest Kansas. And you know that one of the things I was going to mention on the unemployment rates, I've had people tell me, well, we you know, we just need people to, to drive into Hayes to work, lots of people do. But the unemployment rates in other areas in Northwest Kansas are just as low as they are here. And so it's not like there's a workforce out there someplace close, that's just waiting to go to work and wants to drive in. And then if you look at the cost of transportation today, you're not going to drive from 60 miles away, to take a nine or $10 an hour job, that doesn't make any sense, economically. And that's the same situation with childcare, you can't go to work for $10 An hour and pay $210 A week or $200 a week or whatever it is to have your child looked after, it just makes more sense to stay home. So more and more families, I think, have made that choice that one of us will stay home. And we'll just have to sacrifice some things. But we can't afford any other way. So it's not an easy situation.
James Bell
You know, one of the other things that you've talked about with us here on the show is the number of the opportunity, I guess I should say that we have here in Hays and Ellis County with remote work, people can now choose in a lot of ways wherever they want to live and still do their job. How much do you think impact is that having on the local economy, people that have found, you know, I don't want to say better. But maybe the higher paying jobs are something that works better with their schedule online, and are just not in the local workforce, because of
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
that absolutely has made a difference. And we benefit from that some to from the standpoint that some people are relocating here that work remotely. But it doesn't really help our job force, you know, our workforce. They're here, they're spending money, they're buying houses, they're buying cars, groceries, but they're not a part of our actual workforce locally. So yes, there are people who have, in addition to who have left the workforce because of retirement, they have left the workforce because of opportunities that exist to work remotely for companies that that they don't have to go into the office every day. So again, another another contributing factor to this hugely complex problem.
James Bell
You know, and the other thing that I wonder about this is, is is there a way that we can spend our way out of this, you know, can I've spoken to a number of especially restaurant owners and managers in the area that have had the by default had to raise those rates to do and get staff in there? Can we continue to raise that and work out of this problem? Or is that just going to in the long run make it worse?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Well, I think the the power, if you will, that has always been in the hands of the employer has shifted a great deal to the employee. And I don't know that that's going to change anytime soon. If somebody says they can't find a job right now, they're not trying very hard. There's plenty of jobs available and good jobs. Yes, some of them take some skills, if you're going to be a nurse, you don't just walk in and you're not a nurse or a health care provider, day one, but there's good jobs available. And it is going to it is going to be an ongoing challenge, particularly at the entry level. There just got to pay more. And, you know, when, when somebody can, I've seen all kinds of signs around, you know, like Walmart to somebody who wants to stock shelves and that kind of thing. $16 an hour. That makes it difficult for that restaurant owner or somebody who's traditionally hired people that if not minimum wage, someplace close to it. That's just that opportunity doesn't exist anymore. So their business model does change quite a bit.
James Bell
You know, and I think about those folks, too, that are you Maybe not, you know, a highly lucrative career. You know, I can think of several examples where money isn't the factor that people would go into the job for other reasons. But when you see numbers like that, I wonder if if people are actively disengaging, and they're saying, Well, I don't want to do my job, because I could go flip burgers for the same pay rate. Do you see any of that going on?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
I think there's some of that going on. Sure. I think, today more than ever, you know, and money as you say, money isn't always the only factor. It's never the only factor in a job, but it's a big factor. But employers are going to have to have a, a workplace where people enjoy been, and, and treat them well. And you know, the, as I say, the the power of the, the whole situation has shifted to the worker. And so they're gonna have to be treated better. And I think people who treat their employees well and give them a good work environment and a situation where people enjoy going to work are going to have a whole lot easier time attracting personnel than then people who don't. And so that has to be part of any business strategy is that we've got to figure out how we make this a good work environment and take care of these people, because they really are the greatest asset these businesses have.
James Bell
Absolutely. You know, and I wonder, too, do you see that? It's the same kind of impact, or the same thinking from the hometown, the local owned businesses and the big box retailers and restaurant chains? Or are they tackling the problems separately, or differently, I
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
think it's the same problem, I just think the larger organizations may have some advantages, because they have more resources, and can make these changes, and not have the impact, the dramatic impact that it has on a small business person. By the same token, I think most people would prefer to work for a local organization and have a little bit more flexibility, maybe a little bit better workforce, not all the the rules and those type of things that maybe sometimes come with a large organization.
James Bell
You know, in my experience, it's been about half and half as Yeah, some people really enjoy the structure of like a large chain, anything that comes from my background, everybody knows, I think I spent a good chunk of my adult years in restaurant management. And that's, that was interesting to me, because that's how I always felt, you know, like I'd much rather work for, you know, a guy, right in some major Fortune 500 company, and I've done both,
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
right, just to kind of depends on the individual, but certainly, larger organizations have more resources and can, in many cases offer better benefits and more money, in some cases, at least if they need to. Whereas the small business owner, many times, every two weeks, when they make payroll, they're they're sweating, whether they've got the cash flow this month to make payroll, and that's so if you increase your, your largest expense, which is always your people cost, when you increase that 1015 20 30% It creates some strain on the small business person.
James Bell
For sure. Uh, you know, we've got just about a minute or so Doug left, I wonder if you want to talk about before we go is there is are we getting close to a breaking point where things are gonna get worse? Or does it look like you know, in the next, man, again, I know and recognize it's not a quick solution, but things are gonna get better over the next year or two.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
You know, that's, that's a hard question to answer. They say the first step to solving a problem is admitting that there is a problem. And we definitely have done that we definitely have a lot of good people that are working on solutions. So I'm going to say it's going to get better. I'm an optimist by nature. So I believe we are going to see an easing of some of this. I think we do have a new normal, you know, the new normal is going to be that business owners have to treat employees much differently or in some cases they expect to keep up. But I think I think at the end of the day, we're gonna some of this is going to ease a little bit and find new ways to do things innovate. Overcome
Monday Jul 18, 2022
Area economic updates from Grow Hays
Monday Jul 18, 2022
Monday Jul 18, 2022
On this episode of the Post Podcast, Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams shares area economic updates.
Transcript:
EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.
doug071522
Fri, 7/15 4:54PM • 13:54
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
businesses, community, recruitment, situation, haze, ellis county, people, building, housing, recruit, downtown, square foot, couple, challenges, find, dealt, pretty, cost, workforce, area
SPEAKERS
James Bell, Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
James Bell
Business Development and recruitment is an ongoing process in Ellis County. From Grow Hays, Executive Director Doug Williams shares with us some of the latest developments here in the area, on this episode of the Post Podcast.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
We're at kind of in the dog days of summer here where everybody's just trying to figure out how to stay cool. We continue to work on different things and have different projects going whether it be our, our microfactory, or housing development, or our you know, our retail recruitment efforts.
James Bell
Yet, I want to talk about that. Because one of the big things that's happened I think down to your organization this year, as you've brought extra staff in, you've got a couple of people now working for you that that's kind of their whole thing is is bringing in or analyzing and trying to recruit some of these businesses that hazing the the greater Ellis County region neat.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
It is we brought on two people this year, David Klingon came on in January. And his his focus is business recruitment, as well as retaining the businesses we have. And in James Robin joined us in June. And he's focused on business development, which is primarily entrepreneurship, starting up new businesses, as well as special projects, because we've got a couple of, you know, the microfactory, and housing developments and things that we're, we're working on, and we were stretched pretty thin. So we've got more resource now. And it's been really, it's been really good, we've, we've got a lot of things going. I wish I could point my finger at a couple of things say they're all done. But there are a lot of things in the works. So now we've got adequate resource to dedicate towards getting some things like that done.
James Bell
Love it. And as I say we've we've seen some businesses come into a haze in Ellis County into the last or in the last six months or so. And you know, that development seems to continue. One of the things we were chit chatting about before we got on was the need for space, though, which I thought was really interesting, because you brought up a good point, when you really come down to it, there's not a lot of available properties for a large big box retailer to come in.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Well, there really isn't, you know, and one of the things that large big box retailers look for particularly in small markets as they look for a second or third generation facility. Because the cost of constructing a new facility is just way too much in a community like ours. land prices on North vine are are quite high. And construction cost. Obviously we all know how high those are. And so the ability to come in build a new location and start up from scratch is a much different financial equation than it is to find a 20 3040 year old building and occupy it considerably different. My daughter in law who was from Pittsburgh, Kansas, she sent me a text last night and she said that Pittsburgh, Kansas is getting the marshals and then we'd love to have marshals in Hays. But they're going in at old goodies store, which is 2030 years old.
James Bell
And for those maybe younger folks goodies sold music, I think right? I think that's right. Yeah, I barely remember they kind
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
of like Hastings was here. Yeah. You know, an entertainment type store selling, renting out DVDs and selling what used to be the music the way we used to buy CDs or veers oldest may vinyl, or eight tracks, but they when they're going in that location and and just to give an example of the difference in what the rental situation might be those those buildings rent by the square foot, typically on an annual basis. So if you've got, let's just say 10,000 square feet, and it rents for $4 a square foot that's 40 $40,000 a year. Well, a new a new build would cost $20 A square foot or $200,000 a year. So it's considerably different. And so in some ways, we're we're victims of our own success and the fact that we don't have many empty buildings. And as a consequence it it's a different game we have to play to recruit people into the community.
James Bell
Yeah, absolutely. I know. This was one of the things that we talked about with the downtown Howie's Development Corporation. As they were working to kind of rebuild downtown and get more businesses that they had the same problem, they're virtually full.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
They are it's it's almost impossible to find a spot downtown. I know. We had a lady in the office here a few weeks ago that's going to be open in another business downtown. And it was not easy for her to find a spot. I mean, she had to look and and there's only one or two spots and one of them I think has some major structural issues that have to be dealt with. So that kind of takes that
James Bell
out of you.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
That's that's no fun when you hover the mouse and dealing with that. So until those are dealt with that that location is not going to work. So space is a big issue and building it does not Not an easy thing to do, it's not a lot unlike housing, you know, the cost to build housing right now is so high that it becomes a challenge to construct homes that are affordable. And that can fall into the right price range to meet a workforces needs.
James Bell
And it's not like somebody can just put up a building and have a business come in, because that cost of that piece is going to get in the way, even if someone else is trying to do that as a commercial venture. Right?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Pretty, you rarely see speculative construction of retail space, from the standpoint of a large building. Now we do have some space in front of the Hilton Garden Inn that is yet to be occupied, I know there's at least two or three different things going on there. And I think we'll see some activity in that spot pretty quick, with a couple of those slots being filled. But 2030 40,000 square feet, that's a that's a pretty risky venture to go out there and just put up a building, when you're going to pay anywhere from seven to $20 a square foot for the land. So if you equate that into the cost per acre, that's 300,000 to 800,000 per acre for commercial land, and then you put up a building that's going to cost 100 $250 A square foot, it just nobody's going to do that. On a if you build it, they will come situation in today's environment.
James Bell
So I'm curious, you know, what do you guys do down there grow haze to help alleviate the situation?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Well, we we try and work with existing property owners as well as the local government entities to find incentives that can bridge that gap. You know, the CID, which is a community investment incentive district allows a retailer to add sales tax to the current rate, and that that extra one to 2% that they charge can go back towards their costs associated with building a building or doing that kind of thing. So there's one at the mall, a 1%. Cid, so everything that you buy at the mall, has 1% added to it, which goes, you know, they've agreed to put towards the facility parking lot, interior improvements and that kind of thing. Same thing can be done with a new construction project. And that helps bridge that gap. But it's difficult, you know that those it's a challenging situation, there's only so many tools in the tools in the toolkit and, and it's a challenge to kind of make that all work. And that's, that's why retail development is pretty slow. Not to mention, the challenges that retail has overall. With online being so prevalent, and bricks and mortar being so expensive. The business models for retailers is changing considerably. And so that presents challenges to there just aren't that many that are looking to expand.
James Bell
You know, from a buyer perspective, if you want to support local, and you're in that situation where you can't find what you need. There isn't a retail shop locally that does that. What's the best option? How do people, you know, make the best decision for the local community? Well, or is there a good solution?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
It's a difficult solution. I mean, they if you can't find what you need or want locally, your choices are to go someplace else and get it or open up Amazon and order
James Bell
We all know Amazon is you know, in terms of community support, not it's not a community partner there. They don't do they rarely pay taxes, they're just starting to get to where they're forced to do that. So that's kind of the bigger pieces like how do those how do we find businesses that support what we're trying to do here in Hays, Kansas or anybody ever in our listening area?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Well, we certainly feel that there are certain businesses where there is a sufficient market here that they could do well here. You know, I mentioned Marshalls in Pittsburgh, I think Marshalls or TJ Maxx, something like that would do would do well here. So we have to, and we're talking to these people all the time. And I think a lot of people think well, you just call them up and they just come here, that's that's really not the case. They know a great deal about our community already. And they have certain communities on their radar for expansion. And if you mitt meet these criteria, which are population numbers, the moderate income numbers, you know, all of those pull factor, which we have a very good pull factor, we have a wide trade area. They know all that. So they can plug that in and they can they can pretty much nail it on what their sales are going to be in a market like ours. So then it comes to what are our operating expenses going to be can we get our operating expenses to a level that make it work for us in that market. And then the last piece of the puzzle, which is a serious problem is workforce. Somebody comes down they need 100 workers. That's, that's a tough nut to crack because they aren't available. And so where are they going to come from? You're going to steal them from those existing businesses. And that's a difficult situation as well. So lots of challenges out there right now. But you just got to keep plugging.
James Bell
Yeah, and I know we you mentioned, we do talk about this quite a bit that the housing piece of this, there is some activity there that is looking to help that situation, at least in the immediate future, right, we've got some apartment buildings that are kind of plans are coming together? Well, there are,
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
we've got an apartment complex, it's been approved at the corner of fourth and Fort 36 units over the next couple of years. We've had, we had a couple of developers in town this week, that are considering apartment complexes in the community, and we and we need them. We've got single family homes, obviously, in the Tallgrass addition, that are going up. And that's, that helps. So the more inventory we can build, the better. We really believe that, you know, it is the old saying, If you build it, they will come. We believe that our community has so much going for it. And if we can resolve the housing situation, a lot of people will choose to locate here. And that will obviously bolster the workforce and help us recruit some other businesses.
James Bell
You know, I know there's no magic lever on any of this. And it's not like you're down there like, oh, we need a little bit more housing a little bit more retail, a little bit more restaurants. There's no way to do that. But you know, I'm curious, like, how do you how do you come to the conclusions? Or the numbers, I guess, is the real question to kind of keep it all in check. Because you know, you don't want too many workers to move into haze, you don't want to too few, you need to right spot for the business recruitment and all that. And it all kind of seems like it works together quite a bit.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Where it is all a balancing act, you know, I think we don't have the issues that some communities have associated with growth. We have had growth, but it's been slow, it's been steady, some of that is limited by our water capacity. You know, there are certain types of industry that we can't recruit because of the water capacity. That's a blessing in some ways and a curse in others. It just depends. But it is a fine balance. And it's never, ever going to be in sync, you know, there's always going to be parts that are that are doing well at a given time and in parts that aren't doing well. But a lot of a lot of what we are involved with now, I believe is not necessarily the recruitment of business. Yes, we do that. But the recruitment of people is just as important. There are literally millions of Americans that are looking to migrate away from metropolitan areas. They're expensive. We think housing is expensive here, we have no clue, no clue whatsoever. And there are millions of people that are looking to get out of the rat race, the traffic, the costs, the crime and that kind of thing. And we think we've got a great story. But we have to tell them, you know, they have to know about us. And that's part of what our imagined Ellis County group is, is to get this word out. We've got a initiative going on where we are getting our message out to the eastern slope of Colorado, we think that's a great area to prospect in and we've got the videos that we're showing them about people testimonials, basically talking about the quality of life here and that kind of thing. So recruiting people is just as important to us as pretty business at this point.
James Bell
Absolutely. And I'm sure you're gonna continue to help out with that.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
We'll do everything we can
Friday Jul 08, 2022
Water usage rights play big role in area economies
Friday Jul 08, 2022
Friday Jul 08, 2022
On this episode of the Post Podcast, Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams discusses water and its impact on the economy.
Friday Jun 24, 2022
Phase one sold out in Hays housing development
Friday Jun 24, 2022
Friday Jun 24, 2022
On this episode of the Post Podcast Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams shares updates from the housing development at 22nd and Wheatland.
Saturday Jun 18, 2022
Microfactory project development continues
Saturday Jun 18, 2022
Saturday Jun 18, 2022
On this episode of the Post Podcast Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams shares updates on their Microfactory project.
Transcript:
EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.
James Bell
The microfactory project continues to develop in Hays Grow Hays, Executive Director Doug Williams that stops by to share the latest on this episode of the Post Podcast.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
This all started a few years ago with a group out of Manhattan called the technology development institute, Division of Kansas State University that focuses on manufacturing. And they put together a grant request for 10 locations across Kansas, that would be micro factories. And what those are basically incubators for manufacturers to start in, grow in and then move out that grant application was not successful. And so when the base grant became available in Kansas to build a stronger economy, I believe is what base stands for. We applied with that same concept for a 30,000 square foot structure, that would be an incubator for manufacturing companies. And we were successful in acquiring a $2.63 million grant for the construction of that facility. Since that time, we have received a donation of land from Heart of America Development Corporation at the corner of ninth and commerce Parkway, which is the lat directly between Glassman Corporation and the Army Reserve center on commerce Parkway. And that's where this facility is going to be constructed. We've also engaged a local contractor, commercial builders to assist us in building the structure. And we're working with an architect out of Manhattan on the preliminary plans and trying to get all the specifications and that kind of thing together. Essentially, it'll be a 30,000 square foot building built to it'll be manufacturer friendly, you know, high ceilings and accessible areas, capable electrical loads, and all the things that manufacturers might need to start their business and grow their business.
James Bell
Very cool. Very cool. So, you know, I was wondering if that launch day, I know this can sometimes generate some conversations and some questions. Did you have any good input or questions about the project there?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Well, I think that the first question everybody asks, well, who's going to go in there, and we don't have anybody specifically that we have committed to go in there, you know, we have a couple of prospects. Interestingly enough, the last Friday, when I wasn't here for our session, I was actually in Manhattan with at a meeting with the architectural firm, as well as the technology development institute. And they indicated to us that this is a relatively new concept and kind of the eyes of Kansas are upon us on this, a lot of people are watching this process and are going to be very interested on how this works. Because if it does, they want to replicate this in a number of other places across Kansas. The other thing they said, which was very encouraging to me, was that a lot of manufacturers, this is a big struggle for them finding a facility that's friendly to what they need, and a lot of may be willing to relocate to a community like Hayes, if we had the right facility for them. So that was encouraging. And a, they don't think we're going to have any trouble at all filling the space, their concern is that we're going to have to be fairly selective as to who we let go in there. Because the whole concept is, you want a company that's going to start in there and grow. But in a three, maybe four year period of time, they're going to outgrow it and need their own facility. And, you know, their concern is don't put people in there that are going to put down roots and want to be there for 20 years, because that's not the intent of this facility. So that's going to be a challenge for us. But one of the one of the benefits is that they're going to be in there at about half or less of what it would cost them to be in their own facility. Not to mention, a lot of the value adds that we're going to bring to them, which is some support from people like the technology development institute, the technology department at Fort Hays State, the SBDC and helping them develop business plans and, and all the things that go along with owning and operating a business aside from just space space is part of it, but there's a lot more to it than that.
James Bell
Yeah, absolutely. Do you know, you know, off the top of your head, like how much you might be able to cut down a business's, you know, startup funds with a project like this?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Well, if you just take a 30,000 square foot building and you divide it by five tenants, that's 6000 square feet per tenant. If a if a business was going to go out and build a 6000 square foot facility, they could spend upwards of a million dollars doing so. So that's one thing they don't have to do in terms and to build it. Manufacturer friendly. You know, cost more money than that. We're going to try and have some common areas like loading dock and some things like that that will help if Five businesses can use it instead of one. You know, that's we're spread out over five people. So it, it's a large reduction in what they would have to spend normally to get into business for sure.
James Bell
Excellent. You know, yeah, no, it's a manufacturing industrial. And that's a little different, a little new, as you say. But it, you know, it strikes me as the same kind of model as what we've seen in co working spaces, just like you did your very own brief space.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
It is similar to I mean, it is an incubator for businesses, just different types of businesses. And one of the things I talked about at the quarterly luncheon is that, that our community has traditionally been a white collar community, you know, we have the university, we have the hospital, we have USD 489, those are the three largest employers in the county. And those are primarily white collar jobs. We don't have a lot of manufacturing in our community, we have some certainly, but we don't have a lot. Part of that is because of the long standing challenges we have with water. In our community. Today, it would be there are certain manufacturers of certain types of businesses that we can't handle because of water. But we also have workforce problems. And one of the things the the microfactory allows with small manufacturers, as these people can grow incrementally. And it's not like somebody's coming to town and they need 200 employees, day one, they may need three or four or five, day one, they grow over time. And we can we can help them with the workforce grow incrementally instead of all at once. And that that I think is going to be very positive for our community because we just, we just aren't in a position right now to recruit a large employer, we just don't have the the employees to do it. And we're not alone with that lots of places are in that same situation. But certainly this is a better way to approach it.
James Bell
Yeah, and I gotta believe that doing it this way, you maybe doesn't save a lot of money. But it eliminates some of that risk. I think about a few years ago, Brian, Brian, after a right before the pandemic kind of kicked off, there was a business trying to move into Russell. And I don't remember the exact figures, but I think they got about a million dollars in economic stimulus money to help start that up. But because it was an expensive proposition they moved in. But they found that really, it didn't work. But that wasn't until after they had spent all that money and they tried to get there when they're like, this isn't going to be feasible. And if they had a facility like this, they could have maybe saved a lot of them funds,
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
I would think so yes, that was an unfortunate startup that didn't work out and a lot of money was invested in lost by the community. This, this is a different approach, this does start much smaller. And we don't know how the building might be sliced and diced, there might be one needs 10,000 square feet, there might be three others that need 5000, and then one that needs to that 2500. You know, we we don't know for sure. But we're going to have that flexibility. And it absolutely decreases the risk of all the people involved not only the business, but also us. At the end of the day, if all else fails, we're gonna have a 30,000 square foot facility that somebody can use and has value. So this is significant, the construction process will be good for the community in terms of employing people for the construction process materials purchased, all of those things will will be very positive locally. Very cool.
James Bell
So I'm curious that, you know, it's been a while since we've had any updates on this. You know, I think the last time we talked you were still trying to find a little bit more money to get this thing finished off or getting it off the ground. I guess maybe it was a better way to say it. I wonder if you want to share any updates there.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
As far as how we're going to pay for it?
James Bell
Yeah, there was a little there's a little bit of money left, right, because you got the big grant and the land grant. But now
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
we we anticipate a $3.5 million cost. And the base grant provided $2.6 million. The land donation was $275,000. So there's still a shortfall there. We have applied for some other grants, we haven't gotten a couple of them, but we're still applying for others. At the end of the day, we're either going to have to borrow the money and pay it back over time is probably what we would do. We will have revenue from the building from rents, they're going to pay as I said, they're going to be paying about half what they would normally pay but there is going to be rent coming in from that. And we're going to continue to look for other grants and other sources of financing to help pay for it. But worst case scenario we've we've got to it's a good thing. We have a lot of local banks that are willing to lend money on good projects and and we'll we'll borrow the balance if we have to.
James Bell
Absolutely and long term planning you do foresee this as being an not to money maker, but at least revenue neutral, right?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Absolutely. We it needs to pay for itself. And we need to pay for the operation of it and that type of thing. And the goal here and one of the reasons why Heart of America was willing to donate the $275,000 lot is because they own the 72 acres To the east of this current development, and they are in the business to promote commercial development in our community. And that's exactly where we would like the people that graduate from our microfactory to need facilities and wool will put in a facility for them where they can build their own, to the east there and some of that hard American land and, and this process just continues itself over and over again. That's the goal. That's what we hope happens.
James Bell
Very cool. I'm wondering, is there any updates on like, the timeline, the construction efforts? The is the building going up? I don't think anything started yet is it not started
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
yet. Still Still working on the actual specific blueprints and plans. I am optimistic for a lates, I'd say a false start. And we got two years from the date this grant is, from the day we signed the grant agreement, which should be in the next two weeks, we got two years to get this project done. That would seem like more than enough time, but things come up, you know, in this day and age of supply chain issues and that kind of thing. There's lots of challenges there. But we hope to start probably in the fall and hope to complete it. Nine months or so later. So some time about this time next year, I'd love to be talking about our grand opening and that type of thing. So very cool. That's our plan.
James Bell
Now the city infrastructure is in that lot already. Right? The water, sewer, all that.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
It is, that's one of the fortunate things is at Heart of America a number of years ago, put in the street, they put in the water, the sewer, electrical, gas, all of those kinds of things are there. That lot is in the economic development business, we call that shovel ready, which means it's ready for somebody to come in and and start doing some things. So that's another very positive aspect of it.
James Bell
Okay, you know, I'm curious, what other feedback did you receive about this facility at
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
the launch? And, you know, there's, there's lots of questions as to what's it going to look like? And how's it going to be? What's going to be inside? And how are you going to handle things, and some of that's still up in the air. And one of the things they that surprised me was the group of TDI said they don't anticipate there being necessarily any walls in there to separate one group from another. And that kind of, I'm having a little trouble wrapping my head around that. But they said, you just do the Les Nessman tape on the floor. And this is your space. And it does allow for if you've got larger material pieces or that type of thing, you aren't confined by wall spaces by getting it moved around and whatnot. So I don't know how that's going to work. That's that's that that was, like I said, I'm having trouble getting my head around exactly how that would work. In my mind, I had, you know, six different individual spaces with walls between them, each having an overhead door and that kind of thing. And that's not necessarily how this will be. So we're, we're working through some of that kind of thing. That's why we want to get it right on the front end, spend a little time on the planning side of things. So that we don't have to make a lot alterations later.
James Bell
Yeah, I mean, I can see that I can see like an error of kind of collaboration to you know, when you guys get to tinker into things and try to figure out problems where hey, maybe come over here and look at this. And then the next week he's helping with the other project
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
sure could be an end, a lot of this equipment that they put in there are very expensive and different types of manufacturing processes, CNC machines that are computer operated and they they do cutting and plasma cutters and that kind of thing. In the end. I just, I just hadn't quite visualized it that way. So it's going to be interesting to see how it develops. But the one thing they said down there, they said manufacturers are creative and they're resourceful. They're resilient. And they can he said to you wouldn't believe some of the facilities we have customers and operating out of he said this will be so much better than what they're trying to do. Because a lot of time it's it's in the guy's garage or a shop out back or just some space he can find someplace but certainly not conducive, and as efficient as it might be. If it was designed up front for that specific purpose. Sure.
James Bell
Well, Doug, we've got just about a minute left. Anything else you want to hit on about this microfactory project before we
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
go, I think just keep keep your eyes open. We're I was gonna go out and put a sign up on the on the lot, but it's a ways away from the street. I'm not sure anybody could see it if I put it up. But it's, it's between Glassman and the Army Reserve center on Ninth Street. And just keep watching. We'll keep everybody posted either on our website or on our weekly show with you as to what's going on or a Facebook page. And it's going to be exciting.
Friday Jun 03, 2022
Ellis Co. housing development construction continues
Friday Jun 03, 2022
Friday Jun 03, 2022
On this episode of the Post Podcast Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams shares updates on housing and other developments in Ellis County.
Friday May 27, 2022
Friday May 27, 2022
On this episode of the Post Podcast Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams shares information about the need to fund quality of life projects in Ellis County.
Friday May 20, 2022
Grow Hays hires director of business development
Friday May 20, 2022
Friday May 20, 2022
On this episode of the Post Podcast, Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams shares information about the hiring of a director of business development.
Transcript:
EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.
James Bell
Grow Hays has recently expanded by one more team member in order to help continue on in their mission. Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams stops by to talk to us about that and more on this episode of the Post Podcast.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
An interesting year with adding people.
James Bell
Yeah, maybe we should talk about that first before we talk about the new new hire because you do have a new hire from a wider No, it was it about six months ago or so you brought on David King and
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Queen joined us January 3, this year, director of business recruitment and retention and spend a great job has jumped right in. And he wrote the grant for the microfactory that we got. He's got all kinds of I say all kinds, but he's got a lot of prospects he's working on in terms of organizations, companies that may be looking to expand and Hayes and so we're in Ellis County. And so he's doing great, but we still had some additional needs. And that leads us to where we are today.
James Bell
Very cool. Very cool. Yeah, I gotta say this about David, before we move on to the new guy. Immediately, they have seen him around, I see him everywhere. He says like, it's like, I think he may be sometimes he's following me because it seems like every event I'm at, he's also there, and participating, communicating and, and just being I think it really good representative of the organization.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Well, actually is following you, James. So you bear watching. But now, he has been very active, he's getting out into community. And he's, he's he's doing what needs to be done. And as I say, we've got we've got more prospects in the pipeline now than we've ever had. And, you know, recruitment of businesses, it's a numbers game, the more you have in the pipeline, some will fall through, you know, most will fall through. It's it's a, it's a rejection game, but you'll get your fair share of them. And that's what we're working hard to do is get our fair share of them.
James Bell
Very cool. All right. So let's talk about this, this a new position. First off, I'm coming into this with absolutely no information. So what is the position
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
where the position is director of business development, and special projects, we like long, complicated titles that grow haze. But essentially it will be his focus will be primarily in the areas of entrepreneurship, business creation, which is the first item in our mission of business creation, business, retention, and expansion and retainment. And then business recruitment, and James Robin, will be joining us in June, the first or whatever day that is, that's the first Monday of June. And he will be in that position of business development and special projects, in part because of this microfactory. That's a big project. And we need somebody looking after that and making sure that the construction phase goes well, but then we also, you know, we have to fill that building when we get to that point. Once it's complete, we want it full of serving its purpose as an incubator for manufacturers. And so he will be involved in that as well as some of our housing initiatives and, and have a lot of areas that he'll be focused on.
James Bell
Very cool. Very cool. And you know, if that name sounds familiar, it sounded familiar to me too. But I had to look it up. It didn't immediately strike a strike my memory, but he was a long term, longtime office staffer with Senator Moran, right. He has
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
been he's he's been a district representative for Senator Moran covering I believe it's the Northwest 18 counties in Northwest Kansas. And that has given him I believe, a really good feel for small communities, rural communities like we are and like, our county is in terms of the struggles that they have, and some of the programs that might be available that federal programs as well as even state programs for small communities like ours, that we can take advantage of. So I think he I think his background number one is as the district representative for Senator Moran will serve him well. Number two, he born and raised in western Kansas in the Sharon Springs area. So he has a good understanding of, of what's going on and has that western Kansas work ethic that we like to see and it's so good to have. And so a lot of positives with James I'm very confident he'll he'll hit the ground running and do a lot of good for us.
James Bell
Yeah, that's awesome. You know, you talk about those the extreme western Kansas of communities and they think about the struggles they have and how they compare to some of the things we're dealing with. And oh, my goodness, like, if you can come up with some helpful ideas out there. That's going to be just a easy implement implementation here. I would say
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Well, that's one of the other areas that I hope to focus on in the future is that even though we are, you know, our, our coverage is Ellis County, we can't be insensitive to what goes on around us and other counties and the struggles that they have. Because those people come to hate they shop and Hayes, they buy cars and Hayes, they go to Fort Hays State, they go to events, and they do have a lot of struggles, you know, depopulation is a real struggle for them. aging populations is a struggle, you know, they have, they have all the same challenges that we have with workforce with housing with childcare. So, if we can help in those areas, I think in the long run, it benefits our community as well. So more and more we look at the region versus just Ellis County, you know, obviously, our focus is Ellis County, we want to do as much as we can here. But we we can't be insensitive to what goes on around us either. Yeah, and
James Bell
you know, in in recent months, years, maybe even I've been hearing a lot more about that collaborative nature. You know, it's, it's, it seems like even professionals, businessmen that have been doing their industry or in their industry for a long time, are kind of coming to that realization that it's no longer that competitive nature out here in western Kansas got to be collaborative one. And I wonder if you want to talk a little bit about how a position like this helps build that. And especially with the entrepreneurship piece, because, you know, again, a lot of conversations I'm hearing is the things that we want out here in western Kansas, they're not going to come to us, we have to build them.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Well, that's right, you know, creation is a big part of what we are focused on and what we need to be doing. And that's going to be a big part of what James is going to be responsible for. And, yeah, I mean, we we have to help are, we do have to look at it regionally. And we do. And that's, that's one of the reasons why James was such a good fit is because he has such a good familiarity with these 18 counties out here, as to what goes on and what their challenges are. So and, and he knows, and, you know, hopefully he understands the federal programs that might be available, as well as how the system works, you know, government in general, if you if you get into the middle of it, it can be overwhelming, as to okay, we've got this program and this program, and this program will What's that mean to me, and you need that person that understands that that can kind of guide you through that. And that's, that's what we're for. That's why when a prospective business is coming to town, we're kind of their first stop, because as they look for, okay, what programs might be available to us what, what infrastructure needs are we going to have, we're the ones that can guide them through that and, and as we expand and look at Western Kansas as a whole same kind of thing could be the case, a lot of these small communities. They can't afford full time economic development people. I mean, they just can't. So if we can help in some areas with some of the smaller communities, that that's great. And, you know, we can't be so proprietary and so focused on Oh, it's only what's good for hazer it's only what's good for Ellis County. You know, I always I say all the time. What's good for Hays is good for Ellis, Victoria Manjaro Chinchin. By the same token, what's good for Alice or Victoria or Manjaro? is good for AES. Because we need people. And so if attracting them any way we can, it's what we need to be doing.
James Bell
You mentioned, many of these smaller counties out here in western Kansas don't have that elk economic development staff. And I wonder if you want to talk a little bit about that as well how important organizations like grow Hayes in especially with the recent growth that you guys have accomplished down there, how important it is for groups like yours to continue to stimulate economic development?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Well, it is important and and we fortunately, in Ellis County, we have the resources to engage full time professional economic development people, a lot of counties don't. I've been watching here recently and it's it's there's just a procession of people in different positions out in western Kansas communities that they have an economic development director for a while, but then they move on to something else or they retire, or they're just part time or you know, they're they're part time they work for maybe a a local utility, but they also do economic development on the side, you know, the organization allows them to do that. But the problem with that is they just don't have the opportunity to focus enough time and energy towards what the whole process is. And I particularly see that with housing in some of these rural areas. I mean, they have real challenges, and we do too, but we're able to make some strides and and solve some of these problems, but they they really have an uphill battle. And so I think long term, that's something we want to explore is how we can help Additionally, in some of these smaller communities where they can maybe have some sort of a consulting arrangement with the Ellis, our organization, and we could maybe provide some of those kinds of services, we do have the creda organization, the western Kansas, Rural Economic Development Alliance. And that's a group of Eiken of counties and cities and economic development professionals, all through the western half of the state, that participate in this organization. And they're a resource for each other. And it's a great organization. But sometimes it takes a little bit more than that takes actually boots on the ground to do some of that. And over time, I think we'll we'll be doing some of those kinds of things just out of necessity.
James Bell
You know, on the flip side of this, I wonder if you want to speak to folks out here, I know there's there's there's I think everyone would agree a pretty independent streak and the folks that live in western Kansas, and I think some of them feel that maybe organizations like this that grow it's it's it's I know, it's not a government organization, but it's quasi governmental, you do get government funds. I wonder if you want to speak to that, you know, why? Or how the growth of organizations like this aren't necessarily government more a local effort?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Well, certainly, one could argue that as organizations like ours grow, and we do get some government funding that, you know, we're, we're one more thing that is on that list of things, it get funded by governments. And, and as I like to think, you know, it needs to be a good investment by the local governments in what they're spending and what their return is, you know, that's why every year we go before them and tell them what we've done, and tell them what our ask is for the coming year, and what our plans are. And, you know, it's up to them to decide if it's been a good investment or not, I certainly think it has locally for all the communities in our in our county, but that's what the elected officials are there to do and make that assessment. But if, if, if we're not there to do it, it simply doesn't get done. You know, that, that company that wants to locate here that wants to go through the process of asking for some economic incentives, or knowing what programs that might be available for him. The reality is that if there's no if we're not there, either the city or the county, somebody's gonna have to hire it done. And they still won't be looking at things as broadly as what we are and the number of services and things that we offer. So but yeah, I hear you on the growth thing. And, you know, part of this, the adding of these two people is, anybody that knows me knows I'm not a spring chicken. And there will come a day where I'm not going to be doing this anymore. And norburn Our organization needs succession planning. Well, when this when James is in place, and David's in place, you know, we'll have a much more secure succession plan, whatever that is, I don't know that it even be either one of them. But whatever that plan is, will be much more solid than it would have been if it was just me doing everything. And if I go out and get hit by a bus or something like that, that would have been problematic. Absolutely.
James Bell
We've got just about a minute or so left. I wonder if we want to share details. When is Jim Seaton started down there,
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
He started June 1, or whatever day that is the first Monday in June. He's, he's I'm, I'm confident that had a little bit of a conversation with Senator Moran. And he's, while he hates to lose James, he feels like it's a positive move for James. You know, I think James James is failing is what he's indicated to me as he'd like to make a difference on a local level versus what he was doing on a federal level. I think you can see the results a little easier on a local level and, and I think he's excited about that. So he starts on June the first and we'll get him going and we'll get some getting acclimated to some projects and some he'll have some definite things he's on his to do list and relate star to partnership, whether it be our youth entrepreneurship challenge, pitch it events, try spec, the Speaker Series, whatever.
Friday May 13, 2022
Area economy likely to benefit from USD 489 bond
Friday May 13, 2022
Friday May 13, 2022
On this episode of the Post Podcast Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams shares thoughts on the economic impact of the USD 489 bond issue.
Transcript:
EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.
James Bell
The Hays USD 489 bond issue that passed this week will have significant impact on the area economy. Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams stops by to talk about that and more on this episode of the Post Podcast. We had a bond pass this week, we're going to talk about some of the economic impacts on that good and bad. But first, from what I understand you just got back from a pretty big trip, right?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Well, I did, there was a western Kansas delegation that went to Washington, DC to visit our elected officials and talk about what's going on in our communities, what challenges we have and potentially what they might be able to do to help those issues. And so we had, I believe they're about 42. And all from Hays, Dodge City, Garden City, Great Bend, liberal. So had a good group. And it was a good trip. Awesome.
James Bell
Although I think for my understanding you you left behind the mayor, he's still sitting up there and try to figure out how to get back to
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
I guess I'm not 100% sure that he was supposed to go to San Diego, and I don't know where he ended up. But he bears constant watching, that's for sure. Because you just never know where he's gonna be.
James Bell
For sure. Yeah. Just they were they were scheduled to be on this morning. And we got that word for last minute. They're still traveling. So okay,
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
yeah, I think we had to go to San Diego for business reasons. So I don't think he's still in DC, unless he wasn't able to get on his flights or whatever. But who knows. But it was a good trip, we were able to meet with some of the representative Mann's staff. And then we also got to meet with Senator Marshall and Senator Moran, and talked about Essential Air Service and things like that, those kinds of issues that that impact our community that they may have some bearing on. And then we talked about a lot of issues that they they don't have any direct impact on our housing situation on our childcare situation, workforce. But we did talk about those things and make them aware of kind of what's going on in our communities.
James Bell
Very good. Oh, and what kind of reception when we were they were they pretty taken aback? Or were they did they already know this? So this was just kind of filling in the details. While
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
they know most of it, you know, they spent some time out here, they know what's going on. Sometimes it's just good, good to get on their turf and talk with them in their environment. And so, but we did share some things with him some concerns that that exist in our communities. And, you know, Hayes is not unique when we talk about childcare when we talk about housing, when we talk about workforce, all of those things are all communities are facing those, not only in Kansas, but pretty much across the United States. Absolutely.
James Bell
And we owe as we talked about here, on the on the segment to the collaboration, the working together figuring out these problems, you know, so we're not it's not the competitive us versus them. It's we all got to get through this. We do.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
And it takes a lot of people involved. And it takes some time, unfortunately, never happens as fast as you would like.
James Bell
Absolutely. So moving on to this bond issue. Speaking of things that are going to take a while. It's past, we got the we got the go ahead from the voters to go ahead and revamp some of the schools build a new haste High School. I wonder what your initial and first thoughts are on the economic impact of this thing as it's moving forward?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Well, as I said before the bond issue, it's my belief, it's our belief that schools are critical infrastructure to a community. And as we work with companies, as well, as individuals who are looking to relocate to our community schools play an important role in that. And I can tell you that we have any number of retailers, you know, 610 12 that we talk to on a consistent basis. And all of them have been keenly interested in what's going to happen with that bond. I'm not saying that now that we've passed a bond, all these people say, this is where we're going to go, and this is what we're going to do. But they have been concerned about it. And they have had the attitude that if we're not willing to invest in our own community, why should they? And so, and the reason they're concerned about it is they have to have a workforce, they have to attract and retain a workforce and schools are important when it comes to a workforce as his housing as his childcare. You know, all of those things are critical aspects of attracting a workforce. But schools are an important part. And I know consistently Hayes Medical Center has struggled to attract physicians, when they look at the conditions of our schools, other health care providers. And the retailers we talk about that we would like to get into Hayes, we'd love to have more retail than we do. Schools are of concern to them. So you know, I said prior to the to the bond vote that there is a cost of not passing the ball On that I believe over time is greater than the cost of the bond. And the cost of the bond is high, no doubt about that. But not passing, it would have put us in a difficult position when we start talking about recruitment of people and businesses. And it's a good thing. That's fast now, now, it's up to USD 49. To execute. I know, not everybody supported it, not everybody thinks it's a good idea. But from an economic standpoint, I will be very positive for our community.
James Bell
You know, you mentioned people move in here and the workforce piece, which I think is on a lot of the business owner minds here in Ellis County. But one of the things that was pointed out to me was the online rankings. And when you go to online rankings, so if you're looking at maybe job boards, job postings, and you see something and he's like, Oh, hey, that looks interesting. The first thing you're going to do is look at Hayes. And if you have children, schools are going to be important. And what was pointed out to me it was if you go to several these ranking websites, where should you live kind of websites, the high schools were D's and F's. And it wasn't based on the education because I think everyone understands, we have a great education system here in the district. But the facilities drag that score down. And I think that'll automatically cut off a lot of people, when they were looking at thinking about hate.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Well, I agree with you, we do a great job of teaching kids, we just haven't provided a very good learning environment. And when you when you read the data, and it suggests that in the next 10 years, five to 10 years, there's going to be 20 million Americans who choose to relocate away from urban areas. And they're going to look at the choices that they have, because many in almost all those cases, their remote workers or their retirees, and they can decide where they want to go. And so and these are a desirable demographic that we want to recruit to our community. And so we're competing with lots and lots of other communities for these people. And we have so much good going on, and really very little, that's negative, but the schools were one of them, and it's a big one. And so now that we can say we check that box for people, I think we've got a much better story to tell them we did before. And the one before was good. It's just we didn't have all the boxes checked, but I think we do now. So I think that'll make a difference as well over the next five to 10 years in our ability to attract people to our community, whether tase Ellis Victoria, wherever it might be, we've got a better story to tell now.
James Bell
Very good. I'm also curious about your thoughts on the impact, you know, the short term impact because they're going to be spending a lot of money building the schools and doing the construction work. And of course, there's everything that goes along with it. There's the administrative work and the architectural drawings and the all of that that's got to have some sort of impact on the local economy, right?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
It absolutely does. I mean, obviously, local contractors will be involved in the construction of the schools and the improvements. They hire people, they pay wages, materials, a certain percentage of them, I don't know what and I don't know what we can supply locally, but a lot of those materials will be supplied to the projects from local vendors. And so it will have a positive economic impact for our community, you know, that the $143.5 million is doesn't go out out of town and never come back. I mean, a lot of that is spent locally, to create those jobs to build those buildings. It creates jobs, heating and cooling people, plumbers, electricians, all of those people will be participating in some of that spending. And it will have a positive economic impact from that standpoint, as well.
James Bell
There's another piece on this that I've heard people talk about, and that's the the the folks that will be running this whole thing is a Kansas City based company. And I think some folks were kind of I mean, maybe annoyed is the right word, but they had concerns that it wasn't a local group that took on the project on in whole. And I wonder if you want to speak about that because there are some really good reasons why someone say like Glassman here, maybe couldn't do that right?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Well, the size of the bond eliminates local contractors from being the general contractor, you know, there are no local contractors that can bond $143.5 million job. That doesn't mean the local contractors won't participate just means that a larger contractor has to be the general contractor, I believe the manager at risk or whatever the term is. And so that is one aspect of it. The other aspect is you know, DLR Group, which is the architectural firm. And I've had people say, you know, do you they questioned them in a lot of different ways, their motivation and their, their capabilities. And you know, they built hundreds, if not 1000s of schools across the country in the world. I mean, they're a large organization. They do this all the time. There's nobody locally that that has that level of expertise. So you have to bring in those type of resources to make this thing happen and manage these projects. And you know that they'll do a good job, I have no doubt. I mean, this is this is what they do. And I have a lot of trust and faith in that organization. And NAB Holtz, who is the general contractor, and then our administration locally, you know, some people have questioned their ability to handle this type of stuff, and I just don't see it, I see a very engaged, capable group of administrators at USD 489. I think it's gonna go well, yeah, there'll be some hiccups. There always are
James Bell
always gonna Yeah. I mean, it's dealt with construction understands that. Yeah, exactly.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
I mean, nothing ever goes quite as planned. But you just you just roll with the punches, when that happens, and make it make it happen. So I have a lot of confidence that this will come off and three years from now, or whatever that timeframe is, we're going to look a whole lot different than we do now.
James Bell
You know, I wonder maybe two there's, there's a piece that I've been hearing a lot of rumblings about on this thing, and it's the even supporters of the bond friends of mine people are speaking to were very supportive. And they they voted yes. They weren't happy to share that they had voted yes. But they did have concerns about the way that the planning was going. So I wonder if you want to talk a little bit about that, why these why some of the fine details are now being considered after the vote after the fact after the election, because that was their thing was like, why are we voting on we don't know exactly what we're doing until after? Why is that?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Well, it's because you, you can't nail down all those fine details without doing a tremendous amount of work. And spending a significant amount of money with architectural drawings and actual, the actual nuts and bolts of a project, you know, no school bond anywhere that has ever passed, particularly this magnitude. You ever knew everything about what exactly was going into each aspect of it prior to the bond passing. I mean, that's part of the planning and the design phase, you have some broad ideas, you present those broad ideas, you pass the bond, and then you dig in on all the details, doesn't mean it's going to cost more doesn't mean that anybody's got any ulterior agendas. It just means that you can't know all those answers before you actually pass the bond and, at that point, are willing to invest the money to nail down all those details. And it's a significant amount of money. I mean, I don't know if any, if you've ever seen James, the plans for a large building that goes on, but there, it's a roll of hundreds of sheets, technical drawings, and that just doesn't happen before you commit yourself to doing that stuff. You never spend that much money before you even knew that something was going to pass. So that's very much the way these things work. It's not unique to our community at all. It's just the way this process works.
James Bell
You know, on the cost piece, I wonder if you want to talk a little bit about that as well. For my firm, but let me let me back that up. The way that some folks seem to approach this was that the cost was not locked in when we talked about the 143 point 5 million. Yes, that's what we voted on. But that doesn't mean it's actually when it goes what it's going to end up costing the district in the end the taxpayers here, I wonder if you want to speak a little bit to that. Is that a real concern? Or is that just maybe under misunderstanding the circumstances?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Well, as my understanding the manager at risk has said is not going to cost more than $143.5 million. And so, and they're only going to bond $143.5 million. So that's that's all they've got to spend. So they've got to come in within those parameters. Now. None of us has a crystal ball. We don't know what the future looks like, specifically. And so there may be adjustments and whatnot along the way, I have no idea what those might be. But the hard number is 143 point 5 million. That's what the taxpayers agreed to do. They agreed to have a new high school to have the improvements to these middle school and junior high or the grade schools and that kind of thing. And so those numbers are pretty much locked in stone. It's not like this could go to 170 million, because we just the voters had not approved that. So they've looked long and hard at it. As I said, these people do these kinds of projects all over the country all the time, they know what costs are going to be and it won't be over $143.5 million.
James Bell
Okay, now there's one last piece on this we got to talk about and this is an impact that I think everyone can agree on taxes now that we voted on this are gonna go up and that does have some negative and positive impacts on the community and wonder if you want to speak to those.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Well, that's the Tough part nobody wants their taxes to go up including me including the superintendent to USD 49 I'm quite sure. But we sometimes have to make investments and the only thing I'll say to that is that I hear a lot of our taxes are way too high and Hayes
James Bell
highest taxes in the country right here in Hays Kansas. I've heard
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
that's simply not true. You know, our mill levy is the second lowest in the state of Kansas by like two hundredths of a 10th compared to Overland Park. So our tax our mill levy is not high now our valuations, I will be the first to admit our real estate valuations are higher than a lot of places. But this this, the same house in DOD city or garden city, as in Hayes, their taxes are higher than ours by a significant amount, even though their valuations may be a little bit lower. Their mill levies are considerably higher in our mill levies, 110 or 109, point something Mills garden or dodge cities 181. And people all the time say, you know, we're tired of these comparisons and that type of thing. But when you say my taxes are too high, you begged the question, compared to what I mean, what do you base that on? And, and I've heard people compared to maybe other states. But that's really difficult to compare to other states, because taxing systems in other states are much, much different. They may have higher income tax, they may have different types of taxes that are charged. So it's really difficult to compare from state to state, but within our state, we can compare and we're we compare very favorably in terms of our mill levy versus everyone else's. Now, the real estate values, that's a that's a component of supply and demand, we don't have enough supply. And as a consequence, the demand is high and values have run up. We're trying to fix that by adding more inventory to the market. But unfortunately, that didn't happen very quickly. You know, we've got the houses going in the Tallgrass second edition, there's what 18 to 20 of them under construction right now, every little bit helps, we've got apartments going up, that'll help but it takes time to do that. But in time, if we add inventory, we will we will see valuation soften as opposed to continue to rise.
James Bell
Very good. And I'm sure a lot of people are excited to hear that.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Well you know, I don't have a crystal ball either. So I can't guarantee that but I do know if we had enough supply, we'll even out this balance of supply and demand and properties will not sell for way over the list price and that type of thing like they are now on occasions. And that's not really healthy environment for anybody but the guy who's selling and moving to someplace else. But then again, he's faced with whatever those values are
Friday May 06, 2022
Land donation bolsters Hays Microfactory project
Friday May 06, 2022
Friday May 06, 2022
On this episode of the Post Podcast Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams shares information about the Heart of America Development Corporation's land donation to the Microfactoy project.
Transcript:
EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.
James Bell
The Heart of America Development Corporation has donated land for the Hays Microfactory. Grow Haye, Executive Director Doug Williams stops by to talk to us a little bit about the Heart of America group as well as that factory project. On this episode of the Post Podcast.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
we had a donation of the land that the microfactory will be located on Heart of America development owns some property out in the commerce Parkway area surrounding Glassman corporation that development is one that heart of America developed and, and they were good enough to donate the lot at the corner of ninth and commerce Parkway to us to construct the microfactory on so that was that was great news.
James Bell
Absolutely, yeah, and these guys have been when we talk about the heart of America, and we're going to talk a little bit about today even, but they really are helping the community. And that's kind of their goal, right to help bring these projects to the marketplace, or heart of America,
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
which was started back in the 80s by a group of visionary people and visionary businesses who contributed some money and raise some capital and purchase some land out on what is now South commerce Parkway by the airport and started basically an industrial park. And they constructed the Sykes building early on and rented it to Sykes and they've been very active in commercial development for a long time. And you know, about a year and a half ago or so they got into the residential development as well with the Tallgrass second edition to the east of the technical college. So their their mission basically is to promote community development in Ellis County. And they have done a terrific job of that over gosh, almost 40 years.
James Bell
Incredible. We want to talk about some of the details of what they do and what they bring to the community. But let's talk first about this microfactory. We talked about it again a couple of weeks ago. And really it from from my recollection, the concept is kind of a co working space, but for industrial efforts, right?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Basically, that's the concept. It's an incubator for manufacturing companies. And we received a base grant from the state of Kansas part of the ARPA money for $2.63 million to construct this 30,000 square foot micro factory, it'll be divided into 564, we don't really know yet, because we don't really know who's going to go in there. But it'll be split into sections. And we will we will offer it to prospective or existing manufacturers who are have a, maybe a guy's got a great idea, but he just doesn't have the room to operate and be efficient in his to develop his product, or a bigger company that wants to get a development of a new product off site. And they want a space to do it in. That's what this will be designed to do. It'll be constructed to be very manufacturer friendly, meaning there'll be a loading dock, there'll be high ceilings, high doors, the kinds of things that a manufacturer would need large electrical capability. And so hopefully, the concept is that we offer this at a at a bargain basement rent to these people for a few years. And then they develop their product, they grow their business, and then they move on to their own building, hopefully in the heart of America development where there will be some additional lots and and we roll the next one in. So it's a it's kind of an endowment for a long, long time. And we hope to really enhance the manufacturing capability within Ellis County because this is an area that we don't have an awful lot of we do have some manufacturing in Ellis County, obviously with the EnerSys and Hess and cross manufacturing and several others, but we don't have as much as we would like to have and typically with with manufacturers come good paying jobs. And, of course, workforce is the issue right now. But it hasn't always been and won't always be. And so we need to keep developing companies that are going to employ people and pay good wages.
James Bell
You know, and when I think when when, until very recently, we started talking about this microfactory project I when we when I thought about, you know, manufacturing, I thought about some of the companies you talked about, like Hass, or Rand says those giant companies that do employ a lot of people, but I've also come to realize that there's a lot of small manufacturer small entrepreneurs out here that maybe here's a great example down in lacrosse, the guy that they developed the flame throwers for agricultural use, you know, it's probably not huge operation. I don't know how many people work down there, but I can't imagine it's, you know, more than 20 or so. And this is a perfect project to help bring those people to Hays where we've also already done such a great job on the white collar side.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Exactly. We need to promote manufacturing small manufacturing become big manufacturers. I use this example. If you looked at what they and has his operation in 1990 or 91. relative to what it is today. We want to find the next Dan has who can come in and has an idea or a concept and start developing products need some space to do it in needs some assistance perhaps in going through a patenting process? or what have you, we have a relationship with the technology development institute in Manhattan. And that's what they do they prototype products to help an inventor or a manufacturer patent those products. And so it'll be it'll be the incubator for that type of thing. And we're looking forward to it. I think it'll I think it'll have a big impact over a long, long period of time in our community, because it'll be a building, it'll be there for 50 plus years, for sure.
James Bell
Yeah. And, you know, I think it might also, and correct me if I'm wrong here, but help offset some of those manufacturing operations. Like I think about meat processing, the things that we can't bring to here because of either the geography or in this case, you know, water issues.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
One of the reasons that we don't have a lot of manufacturing in Ellis County is because of some water restrictions. And so some things are just not going to work well here that are large water users. So small manufacturers make more sense. They're typically not big water users. And if we can diversify our economy with multiple small manufacturers, I take that over one large one, you go down to like Salina And historically, they've had large manufacturers down there, Philips Lighting, the what is now Kubota, Tony's pizza, I mean, they manufacture pizzas and food and that type of thing. And Kubota manufactures farm equipment and things and, and they employ, like 1300 people and those type of operations, we're not really looking for that we wouldn't have the workforce to meet that requirement either. But we can sure build our own and then gradually put companies in there that will go from two or three or four employees up to 15 or 20, and then hopefully, move out onto their own building and end up with the two or 300.
James Bell
You know, going back to the heart of America piece on this, you know, that organization, I'm kind of curious, like, how do they come to the decisions to fund like, I like a project like this, like did the land I think you said that they already own the land, or they just donated it to you. But you know, even thinking about the residential project, like how do they make those decisions?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Well, they have a board of directors that looks at projects and keeping in mind their mission to promote community development. And they see that, you know, that's why they purchased these land purchases they've made both on South commerce Parkway as well as the heart of America edition, by Glassman Corporation. They look for ways that they can promote growth and development. And so a couple years ago, we visited with them and we said, you know, we, historically they had been a commercial developer or industrial developer, you know, they've had land for that use. But our comment was, you know, if we don't solve our housing problem in Hayes, we're not going to have any employees to go into those commercial enterprises. And they were good enough to step up to the plate and invest a lot of money into this housing development, which is going very well so far. So it's turned out well, but so they they have been open to look at different things, but at the bar at the base of it all, is that their interest in community growth and development in our community, and and they've really stepped up in any number of occasions and done that.
James Bell
Yeah, I you know, I wonder how normal is this in municipalities, especially out here in western Kansas, where they have an organization like this a nonprofit that kind of helps spur that economic growth?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
I think it's, it's fairly normal in different ways. A lot of times the municipality itself will own an industrial park, the city will make an investment or the county will make an investment in an industrial park and develop it and, and put the infrastructure in place so that companies can come in there and, and build a building and start less common with a not for profit, like heart of America. The beauty of the heart of America deal is we've we've partnered very well with the city. You've got gro Hayes, Heart of America and the city of Hades or the city of Ellis or wherever it might be that jointly work towards these things. And that makes it a lot easier to make some things happen when you when you've got that many people with a vested interest on a positive outcome.
James Bell
Yeah, and we've talked a lot about the collaborative efforts between you know, Hayes and Ellis County and Ellis County in trigo. County, and really the whole area and everybody has to work together to make this thing work, or we're all going to be in troubled long run, right?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Well, absolutely. I mean, we're all joined at the hip in one way or another. I know each community has their own issues. Each community would like to have their own growth and some retail and some jobs and whatnot, I understand that housing. But at the end of the day, all of us are in this western Kansas ecosystem for lack of a better term. And what's good for Joaquina is good for Hayes. What's good for Hayes is good for wall Keaney, you know, or Ellis or Victoria or Russell, whatever it might be. We are very closely tied together.
James Bell
Yeah, no, I don't think we really actually talked about this, but the heart of America or the heart of America, the group, are they just a MOS county or just hates
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Ellis County? Okay, so their mission is to promote development in Ellis County. And they've they've helped way back when I think they had some role in the wheelchairs a Kansas move to Ellis. When they expanded from I believe lacrosse to Ellis, I was a little before my time in this position. But they were they were involved with that, as was our organization. And so Ellis County as a whole, they they want to promote development throughout Ellis County, and they don't go outside the Ellis County borders, but they do it. They do go beyond the Hayes borders for sure.
James Bell
Okay. And again, as part of that collaborative effort, you know, what's good for us is good for Phillips County and Brooks County,
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
believe it is?
James Bell
Well, you know, Doug, I don't really have anything else on the heart of America thing. I wonder if you have any other last thoughts or anything else we want to talk about in terms of that microfactory project?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Well, you know, I think for people to understand it better, we've kind of described what it is, the financial piece is somewhat interesting, you know, the state of Kansas, Department of Commerce put out these base grant applications and we and 417. Others applied, believe they granted 33, so we're very fortunate to receive it. But the project is about three and a half million dollars. And so the state wants a match from the organization is doing it. And in the case of gro Hayes, they wanted to match it from us. So of 26%, which is about seven or 800 $900,000. And factor that into the fact that we don't really know where construction costs are for sure today, because it's really a moving target. That's why a donation like the land donation from Heart of America is so important because we're going to scramble to to come up with that additional match money, we may be able to get some grants, we may be able to borrow it, whatever the case might be, we felt it was too important not to happen, when we've got the opportunity to get this amount of funding from from a grant from the state. We're just going to make it happen. And so we've we've dug in and done that, and we're in the process of applying for some other grants and that kind of thing. And, and hopefully those will come through but we're, we're burning our ships on the shore on this one, we're going full speed ahead and going to get this thing constructed. And we'll figure out how we pay for the rest of it. At that point in time. We've we've established the funds, it's just a matter of where they come from and how we do that. And so we're excited to get going on it. As with all projects like this, it's slow to get started. And you've got to get architectural plans, you've got to get bids, you've got to get all kinds of permitting and that kind of thing. But we're eager to get going and keep keep watching it ninth and commerce Parkway, it won't be real quick. But I'm hoping maybe sometime late summer, early fall, you'll start seeing some activity out there. If nothing else, somebody with a bulldozer moving around dirt to get the site ready.
James Bell
Yeah, I love that. And it's a two year timeframe. It has to be done in two years. We need to be done in two years. Yeah. You mentioned the base grant that put that together. That was an interesting list. And we've got just about a minute or so left, a minute or so left. But I wonder if you want to talk about that. I thought it was kind of surprising the projects that they chose to fund out of this thing
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
little bit. You know, it was if you read the the requirements for the grant, it was primarily to be economic development. And I think many, many applications were for infrastructure. And one could argue that infrastructure is economic development, but I think they were looking for more impactful type things. His direct economic development, was also heavily skewed, which probably comes as no surprise to eastern Kansas. I think Johnson County got maybe half the funds, perhaps. But nonetheless, you know, there was great interest in it lots of applications. We were very pleased. I think we had the right project. We put in some applications for some other projects, too, that we did not get. And so in in hindsight, when I look back, I can see why the microfactory was appealing to them because it's pure economic development. You know, when what what develops out of that facility will employ people and provide good quality jobs and that's what at the end of the day, that's what's really important.
Friday Apr 29, 2022
Grow Hays shares project updates with city officals
Friday Apr 29, 2022
Friday Apr 29, 2022
On this episode of the Post Podcast Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams shares updates presented to the city of Hays during this week's commission meeting.
Transcript:
EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.
James Bell
Grow Hays can often act as a point of contact for business owners in Ellis County Grow Hays, executive director Doug Williams stops by to talk to us about that and more on this episode of the post podcast. We had the City Commission recap a little bit earlier on the show. And one of the things that came up was user apparently you were at their meeting last time. We're gonna talk a little bit about that today. Right?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
We are and I was there.
James Bell
Good stuff. Well, good and bad. I think Sandy Jacobs told us.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Well, mine was all good. There was some bad there are some challenges. But yeah, challenges.
James Bell
That's a better word for it. Because I mean, we talked about this all the time. There's there, we all know, there are some opportunities here. And hey, so we've got to take on and also some amazing things going on.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
That is true. And we I wouldn't say that it was all good what I talked about, but most of what I talked about was positive, you know, our microfactory housing, that type of thing. And that there was a group of childcare providers at the at the meeting last night, and Sarah was singer who's leading the childcare Task Force spoke and gave an update and, and childcare is certainly a challenge for our community.
James Bell
Yeah, almost unbelievable numbers that we were hearing this morning about parents in need, and students that are children, I guess that can't find a spot.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
That is true. And it you know, that ties back into much of what we do, which is workforce. And if if one of the parents can't work because they have to stay home with the children, because they either can't find childcare, or it's too expensive for them. That takes out of our workforce. And the task force has done a survey which has identified a large number of people that would go back to work if they had childcare. So it's an issue. We're not unique, you know, like many of these problems. It's all over the country that childcare is a challenge, but particularly I think, Kansas, because we actually have some, some pretty antiquated regulations that limit the number of children that can be taken in certain situations. And that just makes the problem worse. So we have some challenges in that area.
James Bell
Absolutely. You know, I we did hear about some of the action and activities that are going on locally to address that problem. I wonder if you have any insight on on the bigger picture, the state level stuff? Or if you've even if they've even really done anything with that in the last few weeks? Well, I
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
think there's discussion. You know, a lot of it comes if you talk to, if you talk to childcare providers, the ratios that they have to maintain based on how many children they can look after, at certain age groups and how that affects. If you take so many infants, she can't take some others. So age, children, just just different things like that, which I think that is being looked at that the state, the Kansas Department of Health and Education, I guess is who supervises that. And when you look at Kansas, compared to many other states, the ratios here are, are pretty prohibitive with, say, the number of infants that the number of providers per infant, I believe it's four to one under 18 months. So if you look at the economic aspect of a daycare center or childcare facility, they can take four infants per employee to provide that service. Well, they can charge, let's just say three bucks an hour. For those for infants, maybe that's $12 an hour, and to hire someone to take care of those kids. And that kind of thing may be more than that, not to mention payroll taxes, and that kind of thing. So it's a it's a broken system, because of these ratios. And I understand, Katie, he they, their primary concern is child's safety as it should be. But there's got to be a happy medium in there someplace. And I think when I last look, Kansas was a one of two states in the United States that had that stringent of a ratio requirement. And so we really, you know, they need to look at that, and I think they are.
James Bell
Okay, well, and I looked forward to see you know, what, what results come out of these discussions and what actual action we can take to alleviate some of this need, because it sounds huge. But I wonder if you want to speak about some of the other updates that you gave the city last night? Well,
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
I told him about our microfactory project, you know, we got the base grant, and we're proceeding along with the try and get arrangements made architects engaged to get that project started. That of course, is the 30,000 square foot building that we intend to construct at the corner of ninth and commerce Parkway. And it'll be split into either five or six different areas for upcoming or startup manufacturers who we hope to you know, it's to be an incubator for them. They go in there where they operate for three to maybe up to five years, perhaps trying to get their product established and grow their business. And then we roll them out into a facility of their own, and we roll the next guy in. So it's it's one of these deals that will, that will serve as an endowment for our community for a long, long time. And so I explained that to them and what our plans are there. We hope to get started sometime this summer, on the construction of that we have two years to get it constructed in under the terms of the grant we received. But we hope to be up and running well before two years. So we're getting started on that. I talked about housing, we talked about the apartment situation last week, a little bit in terms of the number of apartments that are being constructed in the area right now. And then also discussed the tall grass addition, the fact that there are currently now there are four homes that are owner occupied, they've been completed and the owners have moved in.
James Bell
so fast that didn't happen. I mean, we talked about how long it takes to get these things to happen. But that actually seemed like it happened overnight. It seems like
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
it it was back in, you know, the fall that they started construction on these and, and so they I give the contractors that are building out there all the credit in the world, because they have had to overcome a lot of obstacles.
James Bell
And we heard about some more of those obstacles that are coming, or at least for one of the builders, I think that they said they wouldn't be able to start the next set until July.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Well, well, yeah, I mean, the if you go out there, and I encourage everybody to do so. There are eight basements that are in the ground right now. But the framer who the contractor uses is tied up on other projects and can't get to it till probably June. And so there they sit for 30 to 45 days, that just adds to the construction time, it just adds to the time that that home is going to be available for somebody to move into. But we've got activity going there's there'll be four completed in the next 30 I actually another six completed in the next 30 days. And then these eight are going to are already started that have basements, the other contractors plan to start another 11 this summer. So that developments going to be built out pretty quickly. I'd say by year end, you're going to see lots and lots of houses out there. Excellent.
James Bell
And that really ended Sandy Jacobs talked a little bit about your I say famous kind of workforce needs pyramid that you go around the community and share. And that's that's the bottom. So to help us kind of get to the spot where we can develop those other things. And that's really something else we want to talk about today. There's been an effort that you guys have made, and really, I think done a great job within the last few months of promoting Hayes's story, and getting people out here. And we talk a lot about this remote workers, they can pick wherever they want to go. And we hope Hayes is one of those places. But I want to talk about that. As your organization grow Hayes's the Economic Development Group, and connections with so many other organizations, I wonder if you want to talk a little bit about someone that maybe is looking at Hayes from the front range of Denver, and they want to start a business here, what resources are available to
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
well, where they're starting place, obviously, if they want to start a business, we have an E community loan program where we can provide funds to a business startup, they have to involve a bank as well. And that and we've we've actually got a couple of we're meeting today on one application for a business analysis. And we will probably be funding a portion of that one. And then we obviously we kind of know where the sites might be available what either space or building site might be available. So we assist them in that regard. And then we can connect them with all the other resources that they may need. The Small Business Development Center on campus can help them with business plans. We can direct them to the northwest Kansas Planning Commission and some of these people who can help them with some SBA loan things. So we're kind of a connector, we if they start with us, which we hope that they do, we can help them find the resources that they need, and show them why Hays is a good place to come if you're going to start up a business, or why Hayes is a good place to come if you just if you're a remote worker, and you can live anywhere you want to live. We've got a great story to tell here.
James Bell
Absolutely. You know, I wonder if we want to talk a little bit of the details and some of those other organizations. I know network Kansas is a big one that you guys partner with a lot and I think they provide some of those resources for potential business owners or entrepreneurs as well.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
They do they're a great partner for us. They're a great resource for across the entire state. They do fund are a community loans. So we work with them and if once we have a loan committee local made up of local people, but once we approve a loan, they send us the money to provide to the borrower and integrate new twist on that is that network Kansas was able to get a grant from the Patterson Foundation. And now, up to 20% of what a borrower, the loan amount from us is available to them in in form of a grant. So if some are our loan limit is $45,000, if somebody qualifies, and if they meet the requirements of the of the grant 9000 of that comes back to them as they don't have to repay it. So that's a great deal not to mention the fact that our interest rates are typically around prime rate, so typically going to be lower than they would expect to pay elsewhere. So it's a great program, I encourage anybody that is starting up a business or wants to do an expansion to to contact us on that. And network. Kansas also does our youth entrepreneurship programs. And they sponsor a lot of entrepreneurial activity. So they're a great organization and a great partner.
James Bell
Yeah, you mentioned the SBDC, down on the Fort Hays campus. And I wonder if we want to talk about this as well. I think really out here in Hays, we've generated this culture of entrepreneurship, that really, I think kind of maybe starts there on the campus and permeates the entire community. But if you're someone that's looking for that kind of place where you can connect with those folks, Haze is a great place for that right?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Or it is now the campus, obviously, they're they're very focused on entrepreneurship on campus with the Faulkner challenge and and Hanson Hall are both very entrepreneurship focused, the SBDC that's Rick Felton Berger leads that group, and they're very good at helping a person take an idea and getting it on paper, because you know, a bank, they always want to see it on paper, they want to see your business plan. And, you know, I've always said, a business plan is one of those necessary evils of starting a business. Because the second day, you're in business, everything changes, and you can kind of the business plan may not be as appropriate, as applicable, as it was, when you thought you were gonna get started. But it is, it is something you have to do. And Rick does a great job with working with prospective business owners or business owners who are wanting to expand to actually crunch the numbers and put the components of the plan together, so that the bank can look at it and understand what you're trying to accomplish. And, and it's more likely to fund a deal. Very cool.
James Bell
You know, I wonder if somebody out there is listening, and maybe their local, maybe they are out on the front range or somewhere else in the country. But if they're listening, I think and man, I think he's might be a place I want to check out what's the best and easiest way for him to get those economic resources? Is it just calling or checking out websites? Or a little bit of both?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Well, a little bit of both. But certainly calling our office is where we start. And that's as a connector to these resources, we're going to, we're going to ask him some questions about what they're trying to do and what their resources are and what their background is. And then from that we can direct them into and put them in the right direction, get them in touch with the right people. We don't do it all we do some of it, but we don't do it all. But we do know who does. And that's the key. And we can save people a lot of time and grief, I think if they would call us and allow us to help them connect with the right resources.
James Bell
Yeah, you know, I think about all those business owners that I've known over the years that when they launch their business or launch a new operation anyway, they try to reinvent the wheel. And I think oh my gosh, guys get go to get the help that is out there. That's what it's for.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Yeah, and we don't charge anything. SBDC doesn't charge anything, you know, this is all free stuff. So why not take advantage of the resources that are available to you, and can ensure your success?
James Bell
Absolutely. Well, Doug, I tell you, we've got just about a minute or so left in the thing else that we want to hit on before we go?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Well, I think, you know, we talk about brief space all the time. But brace space is the microfactory for office workers. You know, we have space down there and it's really going well down there. We do still have space available for some people if they want to come down and check us out. The usage of the facility just keeps getting more and more the meeting rooms and the various our podcast station and all those things that we have for resources for people. So as always come down, check us out. We'll give you a tour and maybe it'd be the right spot for you
Friday Apr 22, 2022
Apartment construction in Hays to help housing shortage
Friday Apr 22, 2022
Friday Apr 22, 2022
On this episode of the Post Podcast, Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams shares information about the ongoing apartment construction in Hays.
Transcript:
EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.
James Bell
Over 100 apartments will open soon in Hays, Grow Hays, Executive Director Doug Williams shares with this that impact of those apartments on the housing market and more on this episode of the Post Podcast.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
turnkey properties LLC has brought forth an application for an Rh ID, which is a rural housing Senate District, which is a program that helps pay for some of the infrastructure and that type of thing. These type of projects and it's a, it's a 36 unit apartment complex, at the corner of fourth and fourth, which is right behind the old Washington school property. In South Hays, it will be 36 units for buildings with nine units each if I've got my math right, so much. And they will be both one and two bedroom units with garages and multi storey with garages on the main floor, because it's in the floodplain, you have to do some things a little bit differently. And so there will be garages on the main ground level, and then apartments above. So a good project and should be should be a very positive addition to that part of town.
James Bell
Yeah, very cool. Very cool. So you know, RH IDs, we've we've talked about these a lot. And I think it was maybe two or three segments ago, we talked about kind of all of these tax incentive districts, but this one that gets seems to be getting used pretty regularly here in Hays,
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
it is it's, it's a good tool for a developer to use to try and recover some of the infrastructure costs that they have to incur in putting in a development. So that can be sewer water, Electric Gas, some other costs are eligible to be recovered, and it's recovered through the tax increment, meaning today, the taxes on that property are zero, it's been a school, when that apartment complex is complete, and it's probably 36 units, you can just take that easily, probably times $100,000 per unit, that's $3.6 million dollars, the property taxes are going to probably be 30 to $40,000 a year, well, a portion of that can come back to the developer to pay for some of those infrastructure costs until he is recovered his costs on those. And so it's a good program really doesn't cost the taxpayers anything. Because it's all based on the creation of taxes and not taking any of the property taxes that are currently in place. So it's a good program, it encourages development that we badly need. And so he was taking the first step last night with the City Commission next Thursday, they will adopt a resolution to start the process of acquiring that RH ID designation, which is about a 90 day process, it has to be approved by the Kansas Department of Commerce, it is in approved by the city that we have to bring forth the housing study that shows the need, which we have a say that shouldn't be too hard. That's not That's not a tough requirement to meet. And then we have to get that it has to go to the county in the city, or I'm sorry, the county and the school district, both of which have to approve it as well. So it's a process that has to be gone through, but we're confident that it will happen. And we'll see some activity down there sometime in August or September is when the plan would be to start.
James Bell
Yeah, you know, I really like on these deals, it seems like everybody is willing to accept that the RHA D programs are are a necessity. And to me, it's a win win win. Because just as exactly as you say, it's not taking away tax revenue. It's just using that tax revenue to offset the cost of the infrastructure and everybody or nobody's losing any money. It's all it's all net gain.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Well, that's That's correct. I mean, the only way that you would say that, that it's a loss of any tax revenue is if you think that this developer would do this project without this particular incentive. 99 times out of 100. That's not the case, they would just not do it, because it doesn't make economic sense. So these things have to be put in place to allow them to recover these costs. And these are, these are things that are going to be in existence for decades, you know, the infrastructure, for example, the heart of America Tallgrass addition that those streets and the sewer and the water that'll be in place for a long, long time. And it really cost the taxpayers nothing. Because the development just wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for these incentives. And this this program for the developer to recover some of these costs. So they're good programs. They don't take any existing tax revenue, and they're accomplishing what they're they're set out to do, which is to provide housing in a market in a market that's much needed. And that's why they send in the application to the Department of Commerce, because they assess whether or not you You truly have a housing need. Now we, we can say this is obvious, and it is here. But still they go through the process of making sure that this isn't something that's been given when there really isn't a need for this type of housing.
James Bell
Okay, you know, also we talk a lot about, you know, housing, like homes, but the apartment piece is something I think that it kind of is been maybe overshadowed by that lack of available homes for sale. But this project is just one of many that are going on. And I think if I'm let me check here, oh, yes, the there's over 100 or nearly 100 apartment units that are about to be completed here in Hays, right.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
There are there there are, I think 102 or 104 units that are either currently under construction, or that will be started in the near future. This been 36 of them this project at fourth and fort, of course, right in front of it is the Washington school renovation that Oberlin property group is doing. And that's 14 units. And they're there right at the end of that I believe they're having an open house here in the next week or two,
James Bell
I was gonna say I think I was speaking to somebody in the community not too long ago, who had toured one and said it was just a amazing apartment, maybe a little bit on the pricier side for a college student. But what a great location.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Well, the good news, I guess for that is that they're not eligible to rent to college students, Oh, those are income regulated apartments and they to hit the income qualified and to hit the price, the demographic that they have to appeal to it's not students that people have to be non students. And they're, they rent below market rate to certain amount, that's one of the factors to that program that the developer has to comply to is they have to rent them below market rent for a certain, I think believe it's 15 years, in order to get the tax credits that they got that allowed them to construct this thing, but I'm eager to see it, I haven't seen it. And that's a great repurpose of a building that in a great location down there by the aquatic Park and that kind of thing that that really should be good. And then there are other projects around town as well, Ellis estates on 33rd Street, that's a project that geared towards retirees and seniors, they've got 42 units under construction, if you've driven over there, as of late, you can see the steel starting to come up out of the ground and a lot of activity over there. And then there's a couple of duplex projects in town going on to so it's over, I counted, it's about 102 or 104 total units going up right now or in the near future will be being built and we we have a strong need for nice apartments in this community, we don't have enough. And consequently, it that does drive rents up, you know, real estate, housing markets are supply and demand based. And when you don't have enough choice, you know, rents go up. If the demand is high, and the supply is low, that's what causes rents to go up. So if we add some supply, it should soften those rents a little bit and give people some choices.
James Bell
It helps to on the the home buying piece, right because those folks that we talked about a little while back about your housing rehab program, and the housing that might be eligible for those programs are just getting rented right now there because there's such a need that they're just rent, they're turning them out. So I wonder if you wanna talk a little bit about that as well how that might affect the overall housing picture?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Well, you know, when you add inventory to a market, whether it's rental property, whether it's new homes, it does free up other property. And that's the argument that everybody likes to make when they when they say that the $225,000 is not an affordable home. Well, that's very subjective, everybody has a different opinion as to what is affordable. But the reality is, when that $225,000 home is completed, and somebody buys it, they probably have another home, that they're moving out of maybe for 125 or 150, or whatever, they may move out of an apartment that somebody can then rent and that opens up. And so when you add inventory to a market, you soften the pressure on these upward prices of both the cost of housing in terms of buying as well as renting. So inventory added to a market is a very good thing. Now it's it's always a challenge to balance that because you you really have certainly I've been in the other side of that as a landlord and it's not a fun place to be when there's nobody to rent it and rents are continually dropping and and you know that that's you've got a payment to make and you don't have enough rent coming in to make that payment. That's not a good situation. So we strive for that balance but we're way out of balance right now with way too much demand and way too little supply of both apartments and homes.
James Bell
How long you know, with this 100 units coming on, how long will the impact take to really kind of, as you say, you know, soften out even out across the, I don't know, Ellis County, I guess you might say,
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
I think that we've got so much pent up demand that it's going to take a while, you know, we've got these 100 units that are going to be constructed. But it's going to take a couple of years to get these constructed. We've got 10 homes in the Tallgrass second edition that are nearing completion. Actually, a couple of them are closing, I think this week, I was told by the builders, the others will be closing pretty quick. And there's another 14 or 15 that are going to be you know, if you go out there right now, there's a lot of dirt flying around because they're digging basements and putting in basements. So there's going to be another 1516 homes constructed in the next six months. So that that will help add to it. But I think we're still a ways away from meeting the demand as well as the opportunity for people who are looking to relocate into our community, we're still not even with all these apartments. And with this construction going on, I don't believe we're still getting to the point where we need to in terms of having sufficient inventory in our market to meet the demand.
James Bell
Yeah, you know, you mentioned those builders, we were Are you are kind enough to host a tour with the city leaders down there. Oh, I think it was maybe two weeks ago now. Yes. And I happen to go down there. And I got to the opportunity to talk to a couple of those builders. And yeah, they were more or less saying many lots as we can get our hands on, we're ready to go.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Yeah, the challenge right now is, you know, we had 36 lots in phase one. And there's 29 of them are spoken being going to be built on right away here. And so we're trying to get the engineering done for the next phase of 18. Lots and hope to start that this summer. But I know we're gonna run out of lots, I can just see that before we can get the next phase up and going. But we're going to try real hard to get there before we do run out. But at the pace of things are going we're going to run out a lot. And then we're going to be wishing we had done more to begin with.
James Bell
Yeah, I'm wondering, you know, I know, there's always stuff bubbling under the surface that you can't talk about, but are there some similar projects kind of in the works or, and I know, there's there's also the private construction going on as well, in Ellis County, right, a little bit of
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
that the challenge with the private construction is that they build one at a time, typically. And this is the first time in, I would say 40 years that I have seen in our community. And I've been here for all of them, that I have seen a builder building at this scale like they're doing in the tall grass edition, you know, we're eight at a time six at a time. We haven't seen that for a long, long time. So we're starting to see some some that are building the way that builders need to, to hit certain price points, you know, they need to build at scale, you build them one at a time. And that that doesn't. You can't get any economies of scale, any efficiency. But if you've got eight of them in a row, you can make a deal with your foundation guy. And he just comes in and does all eight of them in a row. And then your framework follows him man and building more in the way that they do and metropolitan areas. In terms of building scale. Yeah,
James Bell
you know, you drive towards the Denver on i 70 used to see him break rows and rows of these houses, they're cookie cutter, they look exactly the same. Well,
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
not not really what we're after. But we're certainly after, you know, some scalability and getting some inventory to the market. And that to when when you can buy a brand new house for $225,000. That's absolutely going to cause some of the other inventory to have to soften. Just because people always like new. Same with apartments, people like new it makes sellers of homes have to step up their game and maybe do some updates before they sell it makes apartment owners have to clean theirs up and have their you know, maybe do some maintenance things that they don't have to do right now. Because they rent either way, there's no choice. So if we can add some inventory to the market, that will be a very good thing.
James Bell
Yeah, you know, and again, going back to the tour of these houses, I don't think we've got to talk about this yet at least not on air. I was really impressed with the builds on all three but also the take the three builders had were so very different. And it I mean, they're all kind of a similar size. But the very different have a very different personality in the builds. I think
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
I agree. You know you've got some with basements, you've got some without, you've got different floor plans different ways they have finished it out. And so and that's great that diversity in the options out there is terrific. That way we can appeal to you know, maybe a family who has a growing family who wants some more room so that a basement might be important for future expansion. They're not finished but at some point in time they can finish the basement and add some additional living space. They're the one the basement houses have egress windows and the things that you would want in a basement but by the same token, the slab homes are all zero entry. So Though if you've got somebody that is older, that doesn't want to deal with steps and that kind of thing, they've, they've got us an option for them too. So lots of options out there. That's going to continue, I think they're going to continue to see some slab, some basements, different types of floor plans, the one thing they all have is at least 1000 square feet and at least a two car garage because we want to get the cars off the street, as opposed to lots of street parking, which makes it a little bit difficult on those streets to go up and down when there's cars on both sides on the street.
James Bell
But again, really good homes and I think, are you planning on another tour out there where people might go check those out in the near future?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
I'd like to that I'd love to have a public open house out there. The problem is that they're all sold ahead of time. And so once people are wanting to move in, I hate to traipse people through, you know, three fourths or 90% done house because it's it's hard to see what it's really going to be like when there's no countertops or the flooring in in yet or what have you. But I'd love to get ahead of the game where we could have a public open house and people could really see what's happening out there. Because it's it's pretty cool. I mean, I have not taken anybody in any of those houses out there that have thought that this isn't a good thing. You know, I think everybody that went through from the city, the county or anywhere else school district thought that hey, this is this is badly needed. And this is a great development. Absolutely.
James Bell
Well, Doug, I can tell you, we got to get over the news. But any last thoughts before we go?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
I just I just encourage people to drive out by the Housing Development at 22nd. Wheatland and see what's going on because it's impressive. And also keep an eye on these other projects we talked about as they go up because they're going to be exciting. They're going to be great addition star community
Friday Apr 15, 2022
Hays microfactory to bring industrial opportunities to the area
Friday Apr 15, 2022
Friday Apr 15, 2022
On this episode of the Post Podcast, Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams shares information about the Hays microfactory project.
Transcript:
EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.
James Bell
A spark grant from the state of Kansas is going to allow Grow Hays to move forward with their microfactory project. Grow Hays, Executive Director Doug Williams stops by to talk to us about that and more on this episode of the Post Podcast.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
It was an exciting week, the Kansas space grants were awarded on Monday, I believe it was. And the bass stands for building a stronger economy. I believe that this was $100 million, that the state of Kansas was putting out for grants to people who applied and fit their criteria. These are funds that came down from the ARPA, federal funds, post COVID infrastructure type bill. And so the Department of Revenue wrote some specifications for grants that they would be willing to do that they had, I believe it was 417, or over 400 applications totaling 1,000,800,000 1,800,000,000, for this 100 million. So clearly, there was a huge demand. But we were fortunate enough to get a, a grant for microfactory, which we've been working on for a while. And so that was terrific news.
James Bell
Yeah, I want to back this up a little bit, because I do remember, we talked about it on this segment A little while back, but this is one of those projects that I think it was kind of flying under the radar. And I really I kind of want to ask this and not in a bad way. But I don't think this grant we we really didn't expect to get this great. Did we? Well, we always expect well, I know you want the you applied and you hope but
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
You know, we you just never know in these situations, you hope you put forth a good proposal, David Klingon, who is our new Director of Recruitment and retainment put together a great grant proposal explained it very well. And so but you never know, when you send them in, there were at least five grants submitted from Ellis County, we submitted a couple a couple other people submitted a couple. And I think there was one other one that I'm aware of. And this was the only one in Ellis County that was awarded. So we were we were happy about that. In looking at the criteria, it was it was very much economic development driven. And many, many of the applications were infrastructure related streets, roads, that kind of thing. And we put one in for infrastructure as well, and the Tallgrass edition. And it was clear by the awards that they didn't do a lot of infrastructure stuff, they they really narrowed down projects that were economic development related. And that's what this microfactory really is, is a long term economic development engine. We hope it's an incubator for manufacturers. And so I think that's why it received the attention it did and got the award.
James Bell
You know, I want to talk about this kind of a facility in detail, the one that's proposed here, but, you know, this is really something I think that's kind of new to the industry, you run the brief space down there, that co working space and for office, kind of jobs. But, you know, I haven't really heard anything about this kind of a microfactory concept isn't relatively new.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
It is at least as far as I know, I've not seen much of it out there. But it makes a lot of sense. Just like brief space makes a lot of sense. It's an incubator, in this case, and microfactory is an incubator for manufacturers, this, this building will be a 30,000 square foot structure built to the specifications that manufacturers need, you know, tall ceilings, large overhead doors, the opportunity maybe to put in a overhead crane of some sort, or what have you. And this 30,000 square feet will be sliced up in five or six areas of five to six to seven, you know, it might slice and dice a little differently depending on who goes in and what you need. But we will offer it to a small manufacturer or an existing manufacturer who has a new idea and need some space to develop that idea. A small, maybe an inventor who has an idea for an invention but just needs some space, as well as some assistance to bring this product to market. And then the hope is that they they go into this space at a considerably reduced rate of rent, they develop their product, build their business and outgrow it so that we can then build them another building and have them expand into that and then move the next guy in where they were and so that's the concept we're excited about it i think i think it's got good opportunity for the community and and I think it'll be really good.
James Bell
Yeah, absolutely. And I think for Hey, specifically we've talked about this in the past Hays is primarily a white collar economy and this can help maybe drive some of that opportunity space that we're that we have here in the region.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Well absolutely Hays in our our three largest employers are the Medical Center, the University and USD 489 Was your primarily white collar office type jobs. We have some manufacturing obviously with inner sis and Hess and cross and size wise and and what Not but we don't have a lot of manufacturing. And this is an area of opportunity for us and an area that we believe we need to grow this part of our economy in an effort to kind of diversify things and have a broader range of of job options in our community. And so this will be a great opportunity to do that. And we need some more manufacturing here. And this, this should we hope, over time, provide that opportunity to grow some manufacturers.
James Bell
Very cool. Now, I know, location, and a lot of the details have yet to be worked out because it really was kind of a conceptual plan when the grant was applied. And now you've got the money now, we have to actually make it go. But I don't know if you want to talk a little bit about some of those specifics on this project that will be the people will see is it's kind of coming to fruition.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Sure. You know, as you say that the easy parts over now we have to actually execute and make it happen. But the proposed location is at the corner of ninth and commerce Parkway, which is just to the south of Glassman Corporation, that's an area owned by heart America development and has had seen some activity out there lately, there's been a couple of lots sell out there. And, and this is on one of those lots that they have available. It's about a five or six acre tract, which will house this structure nicely and would even add allow for some potential additional development of structure if need be. It's it's a great location from the standpoint that it's easily accessible to highway 40. Right down the street is on day 70. So it's a great spot for shipping things in and out and that kind of thing. And, and so we think it's a great spot for it. timeframe, this has to be done, doesn't have to be done. But the guidelines require about two years. So within two years, we need to be have this project completed. That's a bit of a challenge. Because right now as an example, there's about a 12 month lead time on metal buildings. So you know, the process, we've got to get some architectural drawings done. And then we've got to start the construction process bidding on the construction process and things, order the building, put the slab in and those kinds of things. So we'll be busy for the next couple years getting this done. But it's very doable in that timeframe, we just can't doddle on a lot of things.
James Bell
Yeah, and, you know, I'm curious, like, what does that process gonna look like for air review even thought this far ahead. For those people that are interested, you know, like, you know, say, I've got an idea for a new broom, and I want to move out there, what do I do?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Well, you contact us to begin with that that's the good part of a two year lead time or a 1218 monthly time as well we're constructing the facility, we can be looking for prospective tenants, and they can be ramping up and figuring out how much space they would need. Because in a building like that, you can divide it really any way you want to divide it, it could be, theoretically, if you had the right opportunity, it could be one person could take half of it, I don't see that happening, I'd rather have more small spaces. But when you've got 30,000 square feet, if you've got five, you know, if you divide it up by five, that's 6000 square feet per tenant, which is a fair amount of square footage. So just depends on kind of what happens. But that's that's the as I said, the nice thing is, we'll be able to be looking for those tenants while we're constructing the facility. And really how you how you split it up inside is one of the last decisions you have to make. And you can even leave it open until you have somebody that needs a certain amount of space, and then you just put up a wall. So it's a pretty simple process at that point in time. But so if anybody out there has an idea or is a small manufacturer that needs some additional space and is looking to do some things, we'd love to hear from them, because we'd love to figure out how they might work into this space.
James Bell
Excellent. You know, I'm curious to what about businesses that maybe are looking to relocate to this area? I think about there was a project over in Russell a couple years ago to bring a hemp processing manufacturing, they made the equipment and they were building it there in Russell, is that going to be helpful for those kinds of businesses to move into the region as well?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Well, certainly could be, you know, a lot of times those people looking to move and make that kind of a move are going to be larger. So they may need more space than what 6000 7000 Square feet might offer. But definitely somebody who's in a community or out in another location that that needs some space and would be willing to relocate. We'd love to talk to them as well.
James Bell
Do you think to that folks might utilize this space as a way to kind of collaborate even like a no. And again, I think I think of that brief space model that co working space and it's such it's such a cool situation that's happening down there as you're seeing more and more businesses that are kind of firmly you know, using that spot, it's not a temporary space, it's their office space. So I wonder if that's gonna happen there as well,
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
I think it could I think you could get complementary businesses out there. You know, if you look at to Wichita, which is very heavy manufacturing community because of the aircraft industry and whatnot. There's a lot of small businesses that that make this particular widget for an airplane, and then it has to be attached to this next thing. And there may be two manufacturers side by side who, who work closely on a complementary product. So I could see that happening, for sure.
James Bell
Very cool. And you know, and I think the last piece on this, so we didn't really talk about it's the the funding piece overall, because two and a half or 2.6, from the state that covers a giant portion of the overall cost, but you still got about what 800,000 to go right.
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
And we do. And that's going to be the challenge. But we've we're working on making sure we've got that covered, we obviously had to show that we had the funds to do this to cover our match to begin with. And so we've got a couple of sources for that. But we're also exploring other sources. So we've got it in place. But that's not to say that we aren't looking for alternative ways to fund that portion of the project. And, and I think we're, we've got a pretty good story to tell. So I think a couple of our other sources will be helpful to us and bridging that gap and making this happen.
James Bell
Very cool. Well, we've got just about a minute left, Doug, any other last thoughts or anything else you think folks should know about this project? Is it starting to kick off?
Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams
Well, just take watch, we'll keep people posted on our website on Facebook and that type of thing. And in terms of when we get started and where we are in the process. I don't think you'll see a lot of activity on the actual site for a while yet probably six months, maybe but maybe sooner, but just we'll try and keep everybody posted. And obviously if there are prospective tenants out there that are looking for space, and we'd like to utilize this opportunity. We'd love to talk to him.