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Area Development - Site Selection, Facility Planning and Workforce Development

Theatre Giant AMC to Move World Headquarters to KS & Retain Over 400 Jobs in Metro Kansas City

09/15/2011
AMC Entertainment Inc. (AMC) --America's second-largest movie theater operator--will move its corporate headquarters from downtown Kansas City, MO, to nearby Leawood, KS. The firm will relocate over 400 workers to the new 1.2 million-sq.-ft. Park Place mixed-use development, and become its largest tenant.

Groundbreaking for Park Place will occur this September, and AMC's move date will be sometime in spring 2013. At first the company will occupy up 115,000 sq. ft. of space; but an additional 15,000 sq. ft. may be tapped for a future expansion.

CEO/President Gerry Lopez said AMC realized last year that it needed more office space and a number of features which its current location couldn't provide. "A move was inevitable. We looked at alternatives all over the country, but in the end the KC Metro is our home and we opted to stay here."

The new locale meets many location criteria, including accessibility, available amenities nearby, economics and building quality.

Mark McDonald, AMC's executive VP, global development, said the new building will give associates state-of-the-art space in an excellent community, and ultimately, "create a special environment where we can work on the magic of the movie business."

Kansas is giving AMC incentives worth "in the mid-$40s" million, said company officials quoted in a Kansas City Business Journal story. The executives added that those funds were instrumental in their decision to remain in metro Kansas City, the firm's 21-largest market. McDonald noted that the incentives helped make "what could have been a very complicated situation a much simpler situation."

"We were competing with states around the country," noted Kansas Governor Sam Brownback. "AMC has a long tradition of supporting the entire metro area, and we look forward to that continuing for many years to come."

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