Last month, Fiserv, a leading global provider of payments and financial services technology, announced plans to establish a strategic fintech hub at Overland Park’s Aspiria campus. This new hub is part of the company’s strategy to bring people together to inspire innovation and deliver exceptional products and services for its clients.

The impact of this announcement is enormous. It’s the largest office recruitment project in Kansas history. Fiserv will renovate two buildings on the Aspiria campus – 427,000 square feet, with tenant improvements of $175 million in capital investment. The 2,000 jobs it creates will have six-figure average wages, not counting executive salaries, injecting $4 billion of payroll into our economy over ten years. Fiserv’s selection of Overland Park and Kansas City is strategic for them, and an enormous boost for us.

Of course, these things don’t just happen. It takes a team, working together, along with communities building the kind of place in which companies will grow and prosper.

First, the team. Successful economic development projects engage partners to address the prospect’s needs. For this project, partners from Governor Laura Kelly, Lt. Governor David Toland, the Kansas Department of Commerce, KCADC, Mayor Curt Skoog, Gary Oborny and Chad Stafford at Occidental Management, our City Council, City staff, and Chamber staff led by Libbey Tucker were vital players in the key steps of analysis. Other partners assisted, including community and civic leaders, to share resources and examples of how our region can meet and exceed Fiserv’s goals for its new hub.

When the company’s representative spoke with the Overland Park City Council’s Finance, Administration & Economic Development Committee (FAED) in April, he shared that the Overland Park/Kansas City region wasn’t originally on the list of sites under consideration. He knew the area from working on the Panasonic project and encouraged the company to give us a look.

Here’s where building a place becomes critical: we didn’t have the most lucrative deal for the company. Nearly always, locations in other states will put more money on the table. Other major metros under consideration were Nashville, Dallas and Phoenix, among others. However, Overland Park’s excellent educational infrastructure and high quality of life are must-haves for Fiserv to attract and anchor talent, which tipped the scales in our favor.

That’s why the Chamber’s work is so critical – we’re hyper-focused on issues, policies and programs that build the quality of life and business climate that make your business and the businesses around you prosper. When your business grows, it elevates those around you. The impact is exponential when we attract a transformational project like Fiserv from outside our region. The economic multiplier for these jobs is high at 7.9, meaning for every one job created, 7.9 other jobs are created or impacted through supporting retail, restaurants, construction, architecture, engineering, utility services, housing, and transportation, to name a few. In all, 15,800 jobs can be impacted. This represents a major opportunity for job creation and the growth and diversification of our local economy with quality employment that supports families and attracts top-tier talent.

This is a win – and an opportunity for all. Thanks to our partners and to Fiserv for selecting us, and to all who’ve made Overland Park a community of choice.