Kansas farmers who buy crop insurance through Great American Insurance soon will have their policies underwritten, questions answered and claims handled out of a new office off Wakarusa Drive.

The Cincinnati-based company, the country’s third-largest crop insurer, is consolidating its Lenexa and Topeka offices into a single location: 4910 Corporate Centre Drive.

The new regional office, expected to open by Feb. 1, will have 50 to 60 employees handling insurance work for up to 50,000 policies covering farmers in Kansas, Arkansas, Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Wyoming and New Mexico.

The office will handle $150 million in crop coverage for the region, part of Great American’s $600 million total.

“In today’s environment, agricultural environment, it’s big business,” said Tim Copeland, an assistant vice president for crop insurance at Great American. “There’s too much money at stake.”

Great American already is planning for growth in town. Copeland declined to discuss specific plans, but noted the region as “vital” to the company, given its wide geographic area and key placement in markets for soybeans, corn and other essential crops.

“That’s a vital area of the country for us,” he said. “We’ve got a pretty aggressive growth plan. As we grow, we’ll need more people here and there – in the field, as well as the office.”

Mark Allison, Great American’s profit center manager for Lenexa and Topeka, will manage the new Lawrence office. He played football at Kansas University from 1991 to 1994.

Being back in Lawrence will be nice, he said, but the reasons for choosing Lawrence were geographic. Wakarusa Corporate Centre allows Great American to boost efficiency by combining two offices on a single floor, and the location in Lawrence is a midpoint between Topeka and Lenexa.

“Lawrence is very familiar to me, but it’s all about Great American keeping as much of our staff as possible,” Allison said. “We’re planning on retaining as many employees as feel that they can make the move.”

Decisions about hiring additional employees likely won’t come until after the office opens, he said.