K-State Olathe plans to relocate some of its animal health and food safety research to a new facility near its campus in the Kansas Bioscience Park.
Last week, the Olathe City Council approved a real estate contract and development agreement with Van Trust and K-State Olathe for the construction of the new facility on an 11-acre property near Valley Road and Clay Blair Boulevard.
The agreement was part of the consent agenda, which means the city council approved it alongside a series of other procedural items without individual discussion.
Looking back on the Kansas Bioscience Park
The bioscience park property off of College Boulevard — near Olathe Northwest High School and K-7 Highway — was previously intended to serve as a larger K-State Olathe campus with a Kansas Bioscience Authority partnership.
Olathe deeded over about 40 acres for the endeavor in 2007, and the first K-State campus building opened in 2011. K-State Olathe was considered a key pillar of the Johnson County Education Research Triangle, a sales tax initiative that raises an estimated $15 million each year.
But, after the vision for K-State Olathe changed, much of the property was deeded back to the city of Olathe in 2019, according to city documents. Over the years, the city has worked to recruit firms focused on life science research and development to build new facilities and hubs in what is now the Kansas Bioscience Park.
Last year, KCAS Bioanalytical and Biomarker Services was the first private firm to open a facility in the bioscience park, according to city documents. That company opened a new 70,000-square-foot lab and headquarters facility in the park after relocating from Shawnee. It has the option to expand its footprint further with the right of first refusal on the five acres to the north of its building.
More recently, Panasonic acquired the previously state-owned KBA Venture Accelerator building. Plans for another private firm — Artio Medical — to open new facilities at the bioscience park on roughly 31 acres fell through.
Van Trust will own the new K-State Olathe research space
- K-State will lease the building from Van Trust. The terms of the agreement between K-State Olathe and Van Trust are unclear.
- The plan is to build a commercial office building north of the Panasonic building with “bioanalytical testing, advanced manufacturing, and laboratory” capabilities, according to city documents.
- Olathe will sell the property to Van Trust for $1, under the agreement approved Dec. 5. That’s how much KCAS spent on their property in 2021.
- Under the real estate agreement with the city, Van Trust must pay the special assessments attached to the property, estimated at just over $300,000.
K-State Olathe research facility’s next steps:
- Van Trust and K-State Olathe will have to submit development plans to the city’s planning process for the new facility.
- Those items will come before the Olathe Planning Commission and the city council at a later date.
- The timeline is unclear.
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