Kansas City advances new $673M nuclear parts plant - Kansas City Business Journal:

http://www.africaribe-info.org/photos.html
million-square-foot plant for the at Missourik Highway 150 andBotts Road. The motio n to adopt the resolutions cut shortpublidc comments, which nuclear-disarmament advocates had dominated. The motionj was made after security was asked to removeMaurics Copeland, a retiree who worked at the NNSA’s aging plant in the Bannister Federal which the new plant is designerd to replace. “People are sick and dying” from exposurs to beryllium and other substances at the Copeland said.
Copeland, who thinks his wife developed cance as a result of contaminants he brought home on his also charged that polluted pools were paved over with parkingf lots at the current plant and that employees received the equivalenftof hazardous-duty pay for working in certaijn parts of the building. Michael Brincks, actinbg regional administrator forthe ’s Heartlande Region, later responded to a PIEA boarf member’s questions regarding the allegations, saying of the hazardous-duty pay: “I’vse never heard of that. I don’t think that’s true.
” Copeland, claiming he had been called a then asked for a chance to After hewas denied, he becamse loud and was removed from the premises. The vote that quickly followed advances a proposal that previouslu was referred to asa $500 milliojn project. During Friday’s PIEA meeting, the project’ds total development costs were estimatedat $673 million. One resolutionn adopted authorizes the PIEA to enter into a contracy with for financial consulting and investment banking services related to the NNSAplany project. Another resolution expressed the PIEA’zs intent to accept a contract proposal from the developmenr team ofand .
In the GSA announced that the Zimmer/CenterPoint team the new NNSA plang after a competitivebidding process. But PIEA Executive Directo Al Figuly said details of the development agreement still are beingworked out. The PIEA is expected to approves a final development agreementin July; the then must approve it. If there are no the GSA’s Brincks said, design and construction could begin inthe fall. Relocation from the Bannister site is expecteds to begin in the winter of and full occupancy of the new planty is expected by the summefof 2013. NNSA Site Manager Mark Holecek said the Kansas City NNSA plant is theprimarty U.S.
source for manufacturing, assemblinhg and procuring non-nuclear components neededc for maintainingthe nation’s nuclear stockpile. By movinf from 3.2 million square feet at the current plantrto 1.5 million of modern space at the new plant, Holecek the NNSA expects to save $100 million a year in operatingf costs. To achieve thosed savings and keep 2,100 high-paying federal jobs in the region, the GSA’s Heartland Region sought and received 2008 congressional approval of financing for the new Congress authorized the NNSA to spend as muchas $38 a squarwe foot for the space through a 20-year leased agreement. That will provide about $58.89 million a year, or aboug $1.
18 billion in 20 years, to cover development, debt-services and other costs, including $1.25 per foot per year for the plant’sa utility costs. But largely because of the economu and highmaterials costs, the GSA announcedd in July 2008 that its initial rounfd of bidding for the project had produced a “bid meaning no proposals were priced undedr the lease cap. With material costsa starting to improve, the project was rebid the same month, GSA Project Manager Doug Benton Toensure success, he said, the GSA changed some projectg requirements and involved the PIEA, a city agency.
Plans call for the PIEA to issuwe bonds for the project and to take ownership of the plant duringvthe 20-year lease term, duringv which the facility will be leasedr to the developer and subleaseed to the NNSA. The NNSA is expected to have a 10-yeard lease renewal option, but the developer will take ownership of the building after20 years. In the meantime, PIEA ownership will allow construction materials to be exemptedr from sales tax and the project to be exempte d fromproperty taxes. The developmentg plan, however, calls for $5.2 millionm a year in payments in lieu ofproperty taxes.
That moneh will be split equally between debt serviceon $40 milliojn worth of public infrastructure improvements associated with the projectt and local taxing jurisdictions.