Behind the scenes: Nordic Windpower

Jan. 24, 2011  |  By: Tim Cowden  |  Category: Advanced Energy, Economic Development, KCADC News, Recruitment Success
Tags: advanced energy, Kansas City, KCADC, Newmark Knight Frank, Nordic Windpower, Tom Carbone, wind energy

Admittedly, I’m still pumped from last month’s announcement that Nordic Windpower USA will move its headquarters, R&D and assembly operations from locations all over the world to Kansas City.  This is a big deal for KC and KCADC. It authenticates our efforts over the past 18 months to build a case for the KC region as “the location” for wind energy related activity—particularly the kind of operation like Nordic that needs engineering and other high end professional and technical talent found in abundance here.  Combined with the recent success of Exergonix’s decision to locate their big battery storage operation here and Smith Electric electrifying delivery trucks at the former AA Overhaul Base, our Advanced Energy initiative is on a roll!

What makes me feel so proud about this particular recruitment success is that none of the decision makers with Nordic had any operational or significant personal ties to the Kansas City region.  Also, their location consultants, the team from Newmark, Knight, Frank in Chicago and D.C., didn’t really know KCADC, our team or KC before we got started.  Factor that their CEO, Tom Carbone and his wife, Linda, lived in the Dallas area (where everyone thought the company would eventually locate), well we had a challenge in front of us that I’m sure plenty of people thought was insurmountable.  I love it when people doubt KC, and our regional team.

As with any project, there were one or two critical points when the project could either die or move ahead.  In retrospect, there were actually many times during the recruitment of Nordic to KC when the deal could have gone south.  Unlike their patented, two-blade 1 MW wind turbine, this deal was complicated with many moving parts!    What kept this deal alive when many had given up the ghost?  Well, for starters the intel we received from Kim Pearse of GBA and Alan Anderson with Husch Blackwell early on in the process was invaluable and helped place us on a firm knowledge footing from the get-go.

Dave Long and Mark VanLoh from the Aviation Department were again huge to our efforts to secure another unique, advanced energy project to KC.  Combined with the real estate and deal structuring acumen of Steven Bradford (Trammell Crow – Dallas), Jim Didion (CORVUS – St. Louis), Dave Hinchman (CBRE), Brian Station (CBRE) and Dave Harrison (Caymus Development), the many strengths of Kim Young of the Missouri Partnership, Jeff Kaczmarek, Mike Kirchhoff (EDC of KCMO) and Pete Fullerton in Platte County were maximized.   David Kerr, Director of the Missouri Department of Economic Development, stepped up in a big way and lived up to his deserved reputation as an economic development leader who knows how to make things happen.  Certainly, Greg Kindle and John Engelmann were instrumental in their efforts to get Terry Bassham, EVP of KCP&L, involved with the effort once Nordic began to really evaluate our region.  KCP&L will be a critical partner for Nordic and other wind energy-related companies who locate in the KC region.  Finally, there truly are many others who played a key role with this success and I’ll probably hear from some of them for not mentioning them by name—but as they say—“you know who you are.”

In our business, the company’s location advisors, in this case the team from Newmark, led by their principal, Bob Hess, were incredibly important and influential.  I believe that over time Bob and his team of Rajeev Thakur and Greg Krzysko came around to KC and undoubtedly helped us build our case along the way. They were always candid, sometimes critical, yet always open to our ideas.  Had they not been open to the premise that Nordic could be successful in KC, the Nordic team never would have given us serious consideration.  Also, our team really clicked with Tom and Nordic’s COO, Jeff Brown.  When things got dicey towards the latter part of the summer, both Tom and Jeff played stabilizing roles and were instrumental in helping to find solutions that eventually paved the way for success.

However, there was one seminal moment in the process that proved extremely important and it involved the spouse of the CEO.  Tom Carbone’s wife, Linda, is a smart and sweet lady. But let me tell you, when she stepped off the AA flight at KCI and into my SUV for a weekend last summer of “reorienting” herself with KC, well, let’s just say I didn’t get the strong sense that she was too happy to be here—in fact it was just the opposite.  Linda’s a professional and formerly travelled to KC on business often some years ago. Let’s just say her experiences here at that time were not all that positive and her memories of the old KC would not be easily forgotten.

Well, after a weekend of touring the region with my good friend Cindy Guttery, CEO of Coldwell Banker Relocation, and getting to spend some time just knocking around the Plaza, Johnson County and downtown Kansas City with Tom, I could see that Linda was beginning to show some outward positive signs about KC.  I have to admit that when my friend and board member, Mark Henderson, COO of the Lockton Companies, was able to snare two primo seats to the Paul McCartney concert—at the last minute—for them (McCartney is on one of Linda’s and Tom’s favorite artists), we had a chance of convincing her to leave Dallas for KC.  After a wonderful dinner at the home of Charles and Patty Garney the next evening, Linda stood up in front of the small gathering and thanked me and Kim for the time we spent with her that weekend. Most importantly she said that her opinion of Kansas City had changed for the better.  That was one of the best moments I’ve experienced in my career and I knew then that Linda would not stand in the way of Nordic coming to KC if the business case was eventually proven in our favor.

I just had dinner the other night with Tom, Linda, Jeff and his wife, Kay, along with their I.T. director, Mike, and the CEO of Exergonix, Don Nissanka.  While the KC winter will take a little getting used to for them, I could tell they were happy with their selection of KC and were anxious to move and get involved in the community.  In any event, it would be nice to have an early spring this year for our new residents from the Lone Star state!