New distribution center to open in 2004, create 650 new jobs Topeka

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Jun 14, 2002 by Michael Hooper

THAD ALLTON/The Capital-Journal

The new Target distribution center will be built where the building in the lower right corner is located. Pauline Co-op is at top right. Forbes Field is at the top of the photo. The view is toward the southeast. Construction is scheduled to begin in July.

By Michael Hooper and Alicia Henrikson

The Capital-Journal

Target Corp. announced Thursday it had chosen Topeka over Olathe and Wichita as the site for a new distribution center that will employ 650 people.

"This is by far the biggest thing to happen to Topeka in recent history," said Ben Blair, a Topeka real estate developer.

Target, the No. 2 discount retailer in the country behind Wal- Mart, will begin construction in July on a 1.3 million-square-foot distribution center on 143 acres at US-75 highway and S.W. 57th Street. In terms of square footage, the distribution center will be larger than West Ridge Mall.

The Minneapolis-based Target will begin hiring employees in spring 2004 and open the facility that summer, said Brie Heath, spokeswoman for Target.

A distribution center is a clearinghouse where wholesale merchandise is delivered and then distributed to Target stores in the region.

When Target decides to build a distribution center, she said, the company wants to make sure it has chosen the correct location.

"Topeka provided a great site, and their development group and their local officials were extremely helpful in helping us pick that site," Heath said. "It was a perfect fit for us. And we're very excited about coming to Topeka."

Several hundred jobs will be added during the first five years of operation, Heath said. Total employment could grow to 1,000 jobs.

She praised Topeka for providing a site that could be quickly developed.

"We are growing at a very rapid rate," Heath said. "We're opening a little over 100 new stores every year. And we definitely need these new distribution centers to help support all these new stores. So it is imperative for us when we begin looking for these distribution sites that we'll be able to move forward on it quickly.

"Local government officials, the Department of Commerce and Housing, and Go Topeka have all been incredibly helpful in making this happen for us," Heath said.

Doug Kinsinger, president and chief executive officer of the Greater Topeka Chamber of Commerce and Go Topeka, said one word, more than any other, described why Topeka was selected --- cooperation. The community has been working with Target for eight months.

"It took a lot of different pieces of the community coming together at the same time and a little bit of luck to make this happen," said Shawnee County Commissioner Vic Miller, who is chairman of the Joint Economic Development Organization.

Every time Target officials would visit the community, Topeka had gotten done what they wanted, plus a little more, Kinsinger said.

"Our governments worked together as a single unit," said Kinsinger, who was so excited Thursday that he had been awake since 2:30 a.m.

Kinsinger praised county residents who passed the quarter-cent sales tax for economic development because the deal wouldn't have happened without it. Money from the sales tax will be used to pay for the land.

Topeka City Councilman Duane Pomeroy said the announcement is "about as exciting as it can get." He noted the quarter-cent sales tax dedicated to economic development and county road projects doesn't go into effect until 2003.

JEDO and Go Topeka have been working with an $800,000 gift from the city and a $1.2 million loan from the county, which is to be paid back by sales tax money.

"We're bearing the fruits of of our labor early," Pomeroy said. "It would have been crazy if we sat on our hands for a year. Both the city and the county took risks. It ended up paying off."

Kinsinger said Target is a quality employer with a growth model that could double the size of the company.

"We're just glad to be part of their growth," he said.

Heath said Target has carved out a niche as an upscale discount retailer, offering quality products at low prices.

Heath noted Michael Graves, a designer and architect, has provided Target with many popular products, including a new backgammon game, picture frames, teakettle, vases, a toaster and a telephone. She was impressed to learn that Graves also designed the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library.

"He is so great to work with. His products are some of our best- selling products in our stores," Heath said.

The last major employer to come to Topeka was in March 1999 when Denver-based TeleTech Holdings opened a customer-service center in a former Osco Drug building at 115 S.W. 29th. The inbound telemarketing center employs 660 people, according to the chamber's 2002 membership directory.

An article in Sunday's New York Times said Target, which also owns the Marshall Field's and Mervyn's department stores, "is performing spectacularly well."

Target (NYSE: TGT) reported sales of $39.9 billion for the most recent fiscal year, mostly from its 1,100 Target stores, pushing it ahead of the beleaguered Kmart to make Target the nation's second- biggest discounter, the Times reported. Analysts are impressed with its earnings, which soared 36 percent, to $345 million, in the most recent quarter as revenue increased 15 percent, to $9.59 billion.