Banking on KC – Ann Smith-Tate of Shawnee Chamber of Commerce
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Ann Smith-Tate of Shawnee Chamber of Commerce: Advocating Growth and Community Enhancement
Kelly Scanlon:
Welcome to Banking on KC. I'm your host, Kelly Scanlon. Thank you for joining us. With us on this episode is Ann Smith-Tate, the president and CEO of the Shawnee Chamber of Commerce. Welcome, Ann.
Ann Smith-Tate:
Well, thank you so much for having me today, appreciate it.
Kelly Scanlon:
Well, tell us about some of the key initiatives or programs that the Shawnee Chambers focused on these days.
Ann Smith-Tate:
The primary thing that we are focused on right now is workforce. That is a huge issue for all of our businesses, from our smallest employers to our largest, is identifying ways to help attract more workers to the area, help create unique ways to excite the workforce about the jobs that are in Shawnee and beyond. We've done that through engagement with our schools. We've created a couple of scholarships. We have a Betty Charlton Scholarship that is for high school students going onto a four-year college. Then we just launched our SEDC Career Ready scholarship, and that is really targeted at students that are interested in going into the construction trade. Maybe not moving on to a four-year school, but going directly into a trade school for electrical plumbing, HVAC, carpentry, or directly into employment with a local contractor.
Kelly Scanlon:
That's so important. Even before the pandemic and recent emphasis on labor shortage, there was a labor shortage for years prior to that in the construction and the trades industry.
Ann Smith-Tate:
It's having a huge ripple impact because projects are delayed with inflation right now and just the cost of materials. It's escalating these project costs. It all kind of comes back to this need to have a really strong labor force in the entire metro.
The scholarships, were enhancing our way to our employment job hosting features so we can make a very robust local job board, if you will. We just did a recent survey. 64% of our members are struggling with skilled labor, and this will be something that continues to go on. I mean, our graduating class of 2023 is much smaller than it was 10 years ago, and that's a trend that will continue. We just aren't graduating as many people, and Kansas in general is seeing out migration of people so how do we create ways to get people back to, and that's really more on the quality of life piece of it.
Creating good jobs, but creating a place where people want to come home and raise a family and so that's really another initiative that we're working on through the Shawnee Chamber is revitalizing our downtown area. Over the past four years, five years, we've seen about $65 million in private investment on top of the $40 million that the city has put in infrastructure investment so new breweries, a James Beard Award finalist.
Kelly Scanlon:
I was going to mention that if you weren't, that's so exciting.
Ann Smith-Tate:
It's very exciting. Drastic Measures, Downtown Shawnee. It's a beautifully done, historic cocktail lounge. It's the limestone from the 1800s, very warm and inviting and the drinks are just unbelievable so very exciting. I mean, you see all these Honolulu, Seattle, I forget, New York and then Shawnee, Kansas. I love it. I love it. New restaurants, District Porthouse should be opening soon. Another gelato. Your listeners might be familiar with Flying Cow that's over in Westwood. They're opening another one in Shawnee so lots of great things, Mother Clucker and industrial is an important focus for us.
Kelly Scanlon:
We have just emerged from COVID, it did hurt a lot of small businesses, but it also, for a lot of them, it let them know what they were made of. They learned how resilient they could be, how flexible they could be and actually some of them found new opportunities. As we sit here in the second quarter of 2023, what are some of the challenges and what are some of the opportunities that you're seeing for small businesses? You mentioned the workforce issues.
Ann Smith-Tate:
Yeah, absolutely. Workforce would be the number one issue, but I think it's really reevaluating their business plan. It was a great time for them to sort of step back and say, is this the plan that will carry us forward in the next decade into what is a very changing business environment for everybody?
We've seen some of our businesses pivot on how they are delivering their services. Certainly the restaurant industry has been completely disrupted on how they deliver services, but just whether it's office or even some of our industrial in the way that they are now onshoring some of their supplies. We've got a local business that's wanting to bring their suppliers closer, so they're trying to buy land to do that, to make sure that they don't have that disruption again. Not one thing, but just a myriad of things that people are really taking stock of and looking at how they evolve their business.
Kelly Scanlon:
How does the Shawnee Chamber advocate for and support its business members?
Ann Smith-Tate:
We spend a lot of time just trying to get out and understand the issues because every business has a different issue. I mean, there are some universal things that we're addressing that I mentioned before, but we pride ourselves on being small enough and nimble enough to really get to know our businesses, our business community, our members, so understanding what their needs are.
Then we advocate at the federal, state, and local level for their needs. Some of it might be as simple as some entitlement challenges that they're having, getting their business open and send them negotiations with the city or the state. Then there's bigger policy issues out there right now at the state level. We have a lobbyist that we work with and so she's there in Topeka all the time reporting back, and we're meeting consistently with our legislative body to make sure that they understand what the business needs are, because sometimes they hear a lot from our citizens constituents, which is amazing, but the businesses need to have their collective voice too, and that's what we hope to offer for those members.
Kelly Scanlon:
Well, and on some of those larger policy issues that cross city boundaries, your advocacy is actually working for all businesses in the state or in the region actually.
Ann Smith-Tate:
Right, we have the Johnson County Public Policy Council, which unites all of the Johnson County chambers, but then of course, we work with our friends in Wyandotte County, Greater Kansas City Chamber to really identify and use our collective voice to make sure that this part of the state's being represented.
Kelly Scanlon:
How you work with other local organizations and with stakeholders to achieve your goals.
Ann Smith-Tate:
I am a huge believer in the power of our region and regionalism. I've lived and worked on both sides of this state line, worked for communities in Kansas and Missouri. I feel like I have a good perspective of how important it is to work with our neighbors. I mean, we're all united in the great Midwestern values and community, and so I think that we truly rise together. I was just excited to see the announcement of the Kiewit building in Lenexa. That's not in Shawnee, but seeing the office being built is very exciting. Seeing that project that they've worked on is coming to fruition is wonderful.
We work with our neighboring partners through public policy. We have a president's council with our chambers. We also know our investors in the Kansas City Area Development Council and they work to promote the entire region, sort of 50 miles and out of the Kansas City border. Then of course, with our Department of Commerce at all levels, wherever we can, we want to be a good partner.
Kelly Scanlon:
You mentioned the Kiewit building in Lenexa. What is the Shawnee Chamber doing to promote economic development and specifically growth in the region? Are there any similar kinds of projects going on in Shawnee?
Ann Smith-Tate:
Office will probably be a challenge for most communities going forward, but we're really very focused on industrial. We see that K7 corridor as our corridor of growth over the next decade or so. We've got various multifamily projects, single-family, and then about three and a half million square feet of industrial that will be built along that area. We're really now kind of pushing on how do we get a little more services out in that area. Retail is still a challenging environment right now. We're not seeing a lot of the big box retailers expand, but bringing goods and services to that corridor is a focus of ours.
Kelly Scanlon:
When you talk about the industrial development along that corridor, what types of industry are you seeing? Can you name a few of them?
Ann Smith-Tate:
We have actually seen, with the Panasonic announcement, we are starting to see semiconductor chip and suppliers that are looking for space. For a while, we had a tremendous amount of food production that was looking. That has slowed I would say in the last six to seven months. We haven't seen as many projects come through that look like that, but we really, we want to see manufacturers. I mean, we want those quality jobs that are going to pay a quality wage for our citizens and they really come in kind of all spectrums. Again, the Panasonic announcement, we think that we are very well positioned to be home to any number of those suppliers.
Bringing those offshore back into the Midwest. I mean, we're very well positioned from a geographic standpoint with our accessibility to 80% of the population within less than 48 hours so that makes the whole Kansas City area very attractive, and there's a lot of work afoot to attract more of that foreign direct investment. Making Kansas City sort of top of mind, which is hard when you're competing against the coastal cities that everybody knows from. People know New York City more than Kansas City.
Kelly Scanlon:
It's changing though.
Ann Smith-Tate:
We're working on it. We're working on it.
Kelly Scanlon:
The draft hasn't happened yet. We've got the World Cup coming up. I mean, there's all kinds of things that are going on. Go Chiefs.
Ann Smith-Tate:
So many great things. Our Chiefs, all of those things that are really putting us on the map.
Kelly Scanlon:
James Beard winners.
Ann Smith-Tate:
I know, it's exciting.
Kelly Scanlon:
Absolutely. You mentioned a little earlier that there has been an out-migration of late from Kansas, but yet I hear all these things that are going on. What are the factors behind the out-migration?
Ann Smith-Tate:
I don't know if I could pinpoint one answer, but a lot of our colleges and universities are graduating Kansas students that are born and raised in Kansas, and then they're going off to another maybe bigger metro area for different job opportunities. I think making sure that we keep those job opportunities and those quality of life things. I mean, you just mentioned a couple of really fun things that are going to be happening for the region with the draft. The World Cup is just an unbelievable get for the whole area.
Things that they're doing along the riverfront. I grew up on the Mississippi River, and so much of our town was centered around the river and so I am so happy to see that we're finally doing that in Kansas City. Not turning our backs to that river, but embracing that whole area. I think that's going to be really exciting for years to come.
Kelly Scanlon:
Well, and you mentioned that that's another first is the stadium that's being built for the women's soccer team too. I mean, that's another big-
Ann Smith-Tate:
I think I just saw they had a record crowd.
Kelly Scanlon:
Yeah, I think I saw the same thing. Do you have any upcoming events that our listeners from around the Kansas City region could be interested in?
Ann Smith-Tate:
We always have something going on at the chamber. We're actually doing in honor of Earth Day, one of our big partners in Shawnee is Waste Management and so we've partnered with them to do an Earth Day event, a cleanup in the community, and that is really open to anybody. It's on April 21st, so if people want to come out and do a little good and then we're having lunch afterward. Earth Day is technically April 22nd, but we're doing this on Friday, April 21st.
Then we always have coffees. We have a lunch coming up talking about our partnership with DeSoto and the Panasonic plant and then going down the line, we do a trivia night, which is really fun, and people have had a great time doing that so that's something that's open to everybody as well, whether you're a Chamber member or not.
Kelly Scanlon:
Tell us a little bit about your background and how it led you to the Shawnee Chamber of Commerce. You're also the executive director of the Economic Development Organization there and you said you've worked both sides of the state line so tell us about Ann and how you got to this position.
Ann Smith-Tate:
Not a super interesting story, but sure. I've been in this economic development chamber world for 20 years now. I started initially with the Overland Park Chamber of Commerce doing economic development there, business retention, and I literally had never heard the term economic development before I started. I knew I had a degree in community health, public health, which gosh would've been helpful in the last couple of years. I worked in some nonprofits around the Kansas City Metro, but I just didn't see long-term it being something I wanted to do, but I've always been fascinated with the built environment. How do some communities really thrive? How do some not? I am passionate about building community, especially in our downtown. That was very important to me in my little hometown of Burlington, Iowa and I think that's really special for people. It brings a connection back to them.
Somebody introduced me to Brian Starner, who was my boss in Overland Park and worked there and then opportunity opened up in Independence, Missouri, and I was the economic development manager for Independence for about 11 and a half, almost 12 years. That was a really unique experience. Very different community from Overland Park and very different challenges and opportunities to be had so spent a lot of time working with them and that this position opened up in Shawnee and it seemed like the right fit at the right time in my career and kind of the next step but they had restructured so it was both economic development, which really had been my background and the chamber, and it's been a wonderful experience. I have a wonderful team that works with us, great people that are passionate about what they do and care about our members and care about the community.
Kelly Scanlon:
You mentioned as you were talking about your career path there, that there are certain things that you've always been fascinated by and one of those is why do some communities thrive and other communities seem to always be struggling. Given all of your experience, and it's very broad, what have you seen from your own experience that helps communities thrive?
Ann Smith-Tate:
There's any number of factors that can, geography, topography, that can make development challenging and that's always hard for a community when they don't have the inventory, when they don't have that proper land that can really develop into the next thing that their community needs. Primarily, the most important piece of it comes down to working for that big vision and working together. I mean, your school districts, your private industry, your local government, your state government. That's why I think chambers are so important because we can always play right in the middle of that. We are the hub of that wheel. We're right in that connecting all of those. Lockstep, knowing what you want for your community and being true and consistent to that, it's very, very easy for all of us, no matter the industry to get pulled off in the crisis de jure. What's the big issue today and what's causing all of the fuss, but learning to lead is so much harder than just being good customer service.
Kelly Scanlon:
People want to see things happen quickly but in the world where you work, change is a long time coming. Some of these projects, you can do your annual planning and work with your stakeholders, your partners as you said, but it can take years. A lot of times the people who started some of the things that you're seeing built now, they're long gone, but the work they did started it but it takes that long sometimes to make those things happen.
Ann Smith-Tate:
It really does. I mean, the arc of a big project can take decades, and in that time you have leadership changes, you have political changes, you have changes in financial world is doing, where are we on interest rates, right now are definitely compressing some of the activity that we see out there. Staying true to that vision is really hard and keeping people. It's always, it's that proverbial herding cats. How are you keeping all of these disparate views still focused on the goal and making sure that that goal's really well communicated? How do we make sure that people are continually bought in on that?
Kelly Scanlon:
Looking ahead, what do you see as the future of the Shawnee Business Community? One, how is the chamber driving that future and second, how is it preparing for that future?
Ann Smith-Tate:
I think our biggest opportunity, again, will be along the industrial corridor of 43rd Street out on the K7 corridor. One of our biggest challenges, to be very candid, is making sure that those businesses that come in from there, maybe relocation from Wisconsin, how do we get that business bought in and committed to the local community? They may be moving in from outside, and how do we get them to really care about Shawnee, about Kansas City, and making sure that they're involved because we need to be able to have that good relationship with people. Sometimes we try and get in there and they're like, what is it you want? Just building those relationships to say, no, what we want is for you to be successful and however we can help you with that is very key. That K7 corridor developing that area is going to be prime for us over the next decade. I think that's really where we're putting a lot of our focus.
Of course, revitalizing our downtown. That unique opportunity for our citizens is something that they have really wanted. It's something that we think can kind of be a little bit unique for Johnson County. There's definitely an interest in going back to the heart of a community and seeing that redevelop. I think for me, that was an important part of my childhood is taking the bus to our downtown and going to the shops and the record store and going to Woolworths, that's how old I am.
I think that if you can help create that for a community, I mean, that's magic, that's amazing. We're continually trying to evolve our business as well. I mean, chambers have been around. We just celebrated our 75th anniversary a couple of years ago. It was a great celebration, and we were able to have the great-grandson of E. Paul Amos that started our chamber was chair at our 75th anniversary, Parker Amos. It was a really great celebration, great time to be involved in the Chamber.
Chambers, associations, organizations like that, we're all kind of at this turning point with how do we continue to be valuable to our businesses when it isn't just local anymore? I mean, everybody's global. How do we bring that value? How do we still serve as that connector, convenor, advocator for these businesses? We believe in the power of getting together face to face and having conversations and getting to know your neighbor and finding those connections, but how do we get that next generation to find power and value in that as well? It's a conversation in sort of the greater chamber world, and it's something that I challenge my staff with too, is how do we excel at what we're doing and think differently about it?
Kelly Scanlon:
Ann, thank you so much for being with us on this episode of Banking on KC. We really appreciate everything that you're doing. Not just for Shawnee, but for the Kansas City metro region in general.
Ann Smith-Tate:
Well, thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate our partnership with Country Club Bank and thank you for allowing me a few minutes of your day.
Joe Close:
This is Joe Close, president of Country Club Bank. Thank you to Ann Smith-Tate for being our guest on this episode of Banking on KC. Like much of our metro, Shawnee is growing and has identified opportunities for thriving well into the future. Regional collaboration is one reason so much of the Kansas City area is experiencing success and gaining attention nationally.
As Ann points out, in a region united by Midwestern values and common interests, we all rise together. Country Club Bank, with 21 locations throughout the Metro, understands the importance of collaboration among our various communities. We appreciate the work our local chambers do in the communities they serve and we value the opportunity to work alongside them. Thanks for tuning in today. We're banking on you Kansas City, Country Club Bank, member FDIC.