Kansas City, Mo. ? Kansas tax dollars soon may be used to keep the Stowers Institute’s second campus in the Kansas City area and possibly lure it to the Kansas side of the state line.

The institute, which has a $1.6 billion endowment for life science research, has been courted by other cities for future development, including San Diego, Houston, Boston, Dallas and Birmingham, Ala.

But a plan unveiled Monday by two Kansas legislators and Kansas City civic leaders would create a new state authority and fund to divert money from other life sciences firms to help keep Stowers in Kansas City.

“I truly believe we have an unprecedented economic opportunity here, and we need to capitalize on it, or it will go away,” said Rep. Kenny Wilk, a Lansing Republican.

Stowers officials said their 600,000-square-foot facility, which opened in 2000, is only about half full. But with current growth rates, they say they’ll need to build a second campus in the next few years, though no time frame has been announced.

Bill Neaves, president and CEO, said the institute’s founders, Jim and Virginia Stowers, want to build that second facility in Kansas City.

“For that to happen, there needs to be healthy growth in the research enterprises at the local universities,” Neaves said. “Those universities need to grow at a pace of the Stowers Institute.”

That, he said, will take major funding commitments from the Kansas or Missouri legislatures, or both. Stowers officials have not set a minimum dollar amount.

A plan for that funding in Kansas was unveiled by Wilk, Sen. Nick Jordan, a Shawnee Republican, and the Kansas City Area Development Council at a research information day organized by the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce at the Stowers Institute and the Kansas University Medical Center.

¢Stowers Institute for Medical Research¢ $1.1 billion added to Stowerses’ gift (5-11-03)¢ Stowers Institute depending on KU’s help with research (4-8-03)

Bob Marcusse, president and CEO of the development council, said the plan would create a “virtual benefit district” involving health care and other life sciences businesses in Johnson and possibly Wyandotte counties.

The district would take any increases in taxes above the current level and place that money in a fund that would be governed by a new state authority. That money would then be funneled to life science researchers at Kansas University and Kansas State University, though details for that have yet to be determined.

Marcusse said the benefit district could raise $260 million over the next 10 years, according to an analysis done by the Arthur Andersen consulting firm. Wilk said legislators may choose not to use all of that money for the research authority.

Preliminary plans call for a 1 million-square-foot facility that would be constructed in four phases and house 900 employees. Marcusse said the economic impact would be $1.4 billion for the Kansas City area, according to the consultant’s report.

A bill to provide funds for Stowers stalled last year in the Missouri Legislature.

Wilk and Jordan plan to present the Stowers proposal in January as part of an Economic Growth Act in the Kansas Legislature. The act also will include issues involving work force development, rural development and encouragement of entrepreneurship.

Though Kansas lawmakers approved $130 million in bonds for research projects in 2001, the Stowers proposal likely will face scrutiny this session.

Sen. Mark Buhler, R-Lawrence, said while he supported the idea of keeping Stowers in Kansas City, he didn’t know if the research authority was the best way to do it or how it ranked compared with other legislative priorities.

“I need a whole bunch more detail on that,” he said. “We’re a small enough market in (life sciences) and growing, and we have a tremendous private sector commitment. To let that go would be a shame.”

Rep. Tom Holland, a Baldwin Democrat, said he favored the state working to lure Stowers but didn’t know if other legislators would be easily convinced.

“That will be a tough sell, especially for folks in areas where there isn’t as much impact,” he said.

Chancellor Robert Hemenway said KU officials planned to let others take the lead in the effort, though KU would be a beneficiary.

“At this point, it’s all conceptual, and people are trying to work out the ideas,” he said. “We’ll have to wait and see what the final product is. It’s not something KU is trying to impose on anybody. It’s something legislators who are concerned about the economic growth of the state are doing to figure out how we can best grow the Kansas economy.”