KC SmartPort officially elected Joe Caldwell, Market Leader for Bartlett & West, as chairman of the KC SmartPort Board of Directors.

“It is a great privilege to hold a leadership role on the KC SmartPort board,” said Caldwell, “KC SmartPort is an unique organization that has a primary focus on increasing freight-based job and investment opportunities that result in the betterment of the Kansas City region.”

Caldwell succeeds Jim Roy, vice president for Percipio Partners, who served as KC SmartPort’s chairman of the board for the past two years.

During Roy’s two-year term as chairman, KC SmartPort was involved in the attraction of 19 freight-based projects resulting in over $1.1 billion in capital investment, 3,700 new jobs, and $146 million in payroll for the region. Notable announcements in the KC region included a $350 million omni-channel distribution center for Urban Outfitters and an 800,000 square feet eCommerce fulfillment center for Chewy, as well as strategic locations Niagara Water, Dot’s Pretzels, Melaleuca, Walgreens and more.

Chris Gutierrez, President of KC SmartPort, expects 2022 to stay on the positive trajectory.

“Kansas City continues to lead the national market with speed-to-market solutions and ongoing speculative development occurring throughout the region. We expect this to include several additional cold storage developments in 2022," said Gutierrez. “Active projects on the books today equal close to eight million-sq.-ft. of new space. 2022 looks promising and the KC region will be on top of the industrial real estate market nationally.”

KC SmartPort also elected officers for the Executive Committee, including: Jim Roy, Percipio Partners; Sara Clark, TranSystems; Greg Topjon, Wiese USA; Mark Long, Newmark Zimmer; Tim Cowden, Kansas City Area Development Council; Chris Gutierrez, KC SmartPort.

About Kansas City SmartPort

KC SmartPort is a non-profit economic development organization that works to attract freight-based companies, such as manufacturing, distribution and warehouses, to the 18 county, bi-state Kansas City region. KC SmartPort holds an Industry Briefing every year on different topics relating to the supply chain industry. This year’s Industry Briefing, KC Delivers, will be held on April 13, 2022 featuring keynote Eugene Seroka, who will dive into the future of global supply chains.