A Missouri-based transportation company is making inroads in Kansas and plans to drive its westward growth out of a new operations center in North Lawrence.

Heartland Motor Coach Co., based in St. Joseph, Mo., recently established a new office, service and storage center at 900 N. Third St. in North Lawrence, a half-mile south of the Kansas Turnpike.

Plans call for six motor coaches to be running out of the complex by the end of March, when drivers hope to be plenty busy transporting one of their most high-profile clients – the men’s basketball team at Kansas University – to Topeka’s Forbes Field for trips through the early rounds of the NCAA Tournament and into the Final Four.

“That’s what lured us to the Lawrence market – the availability of KU and the athletics department and all the other groups and organizations on campus that we could serve,” said John Nichols, the company’s general manager. “Then there’s all the churches and schools and other organizations in the Lawrence area. We felt it was a market that deserved the quality and service that we provide.”

The Lawrence operation already has eight people on staff, with plans to add as many as four more in the coming weeks. While the local market accounted for less than $500,000 of the company’s $3.45 million in revenues last year, Nichols said, the Lawrence-based share will be expected to grow to as high as $2 million within the next five years.

The idea will be to add service for customers arranging trips from Topeka, Emporia, Manhattan and Junction City in the years ahead.

“We will look to serve those markets in a much broader way,” Nichols said.

Such expansion will be expected to stretch the lineup of Lawrence-based motor coaches to 10 within two to four years, he said, and buying new top-of-the-line vehicles isn’t cheap. Each coach costs upwards of $400,000, giving passengers access to DVD players, XM satellite radio, reclining seats and other comforts.

John Nichols, general manager of the St. Joseph, Mo.-based Heartland Motor Coach Co., is inside one of the company's new motor coaches that is now based in North Lawrence. The company expects to have six motor coaches running out of the center by the end of March, part of the Heartland's growth plans in Kansas. below, the rear of a Heartland coach at the center, 900 N. Third St.

“These vehicles have become pretty much airlines on wheels,” Nichols said.

Jim Marchiony, an associate athletics director at KU, isn’t quite ready to compare travel-by-coach to first-class air transportation. But he confirms that the athletics department has been satisfied with the price, service and condition of coaches provided by Heartland, which has transported KU volleyball, soccer and basketball teams to area airports and to competitions at Kansas State, Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa State.

As a board member for the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce, Marchiony is happy to see an out-of-town company investing in Lawrence – and, in turn, offering an even more attractive option for an athletics department with several operators to choose from.

“It certainly does help that they’re close, because sometimes things go wrong,” Marchiony said. “It’s important to be able to go to plan B, if you need to. It’s great to be able to support a local company as well. All those things go into it.

“But the bottom line is: If they didn’t provide the quality service at the price we’re looking for, we wouldn’t be using them.”