“Cerner anticipates the extended campus would include on-site day care, a clinic for associates, fitness facilities, food service and training spaces. It could also house future data centers as needed. A portion of the site may be made available to be developed as retail stores, restaurants, or a hotel,” according to the statement.
The new complex, 17 miles from Cerner's main corporate headquarters, could house up to 15,000 additonal workers, Cerner said.
According to the Kansas City Star newspaper, the site of the mall, which opened in 1980, closed in 2007, and was demolished two years later, has been a blight on the area. Kansas City Mayor Sly James hailed the Cerner deal as "a great step forward for the former Bannister Mall site. South Kansas City has been on an impressive forward trajectory in recent months, but this site has remained an issue,” he said in a prepared statement.
The Star article revealed the redevelopment project “is being pursued by Trails Properties II, a company established by Neal Patterson, Cerner's chairman and CEO, and Cliff Illig, Cerner's vice chairman.”
Cerner has nearly 2,900 employees working at its “innovation campus,” opened in an earlier move to the former Marion Labs pharmaceutical company office building near the former mall site. The new facility “would be an extension of that campus,” according to a Cerner statement.
The mall redevelopment would create the fourth main campus for Cerner in the Kansas City area. Another Cerner office complex, called Continous Campus, is in Kansas City, Kan. It is occupied, but also is being expanded, according to Cerner spokeswoman Megan Moriarty.
In total, Cerner says it has nearly 8,800 employees working in the Kansas City area.
Follow Joseph Conn on Twitter: @MHJConn
