Southeast Kansas
The Southeast Kansas BDO Zone for Corn Stover is rated ‘BBB’.
Rating Issue Date: March 12, 2025.
'BBB' ratings indicate good prospective viability of Feedstock Supply and Infrastructure and low current expectations of default risk in the Zone. Capacity to support new biobased plant operations is considered adequate, but adverse weather, supply chain, economic, or infrastructure conditions are more likely to impair this capacity over time.
Southeast Kansas holds an investment-grade BDO Zone ‘BBB’ Rating for Corn stover. Issued in May 2024, the rating certifies approximately 308,000 gt/yr of reliable, low-risk biomass feedstock available within a 75-mi driving distance from the centre point (City of Parsons, KS).
A ‘BBB’ rating is an investment grade rating, signalling a good, moderate-risk feedstock supply. It signals to developers, lenders, and investors that Southeast Kansas’s feedstock supply has undergone rigorous, standardized due diligence across 100+ risk indicators, the same framework applied to every BDO Zone across North America.
Every BDO Zone Rating assesses a region across three dimensions, mapped as expanding radii around a candidate site.
- Feedstock surplus: Data indicating at least 50,000 tonnes per year of excess feedstock available to support typical intake of new biofuels manufacturing plants.
- Supply chain strength: Evidence supporting long-term commitment to supply both quantity and quality by local farmers, forestry companies, food waste generators, haulers and municipalities.
- Sound infrastructure: Suitable transportation, logistic, operating and supporting infrastructure to meet the requirements for new facility operations.
Assets & liabilities
- Strong support for new biomass ventures and rural economic development by local crop growers
- No significant competing uses for corn stover
- An industrial park with Class 1 rail availability, extensive highway access, and 6,800 acres of contiguous land available for Industrial development
- Short harvesting and baling window requiring high degree of coordination and access to equipment
- Significant variation in year-to-year corn stover production due to erratic weather patterns in the last decade
- Labor shortage due to short harvest window for corn-winter wheat rotation
Infrastructure & sites
- Zoned for industrial use
- Local 60 day processing maximum
- State 90-120 day processing maximum
- Union Pacific service
- Multi-railroad accessibility
- Switching and Transload service onsite
- Foreign trade zone 161-D
- Tracts between 5 and 500 acres available Industrial Revenue Bonds(IRBs)
- Property Tax Abatements
- Access to continuous Green Energy
- Significant market reach: Springfield, MO – 118mi; Bentonville, AR – 117mi; Port of Catoosa Tulsa, OK – 112mi; Logistics Park Kansas City – 156mi; Wichita, KS – 128mi
Local grants & incentives
- High Performance Incentive Program: Up to a 10% tax credit on qualified, new capital investment beyond the first $50,000 of investment
- Promoting Employment Across Kansas Program: allows qualified for-profit and regional/ national non-for-profit headquarter companies that are locating new jobs or expanding existing Kansas operation
- Kansas Industrial Training: Provides workforce training funds to companies to help offset costs of training net, new employees
- Kansas Industrial Retraining: Provides workforce training funds to companies to help offset costs of training existing employees who are likely to be displaced
- Machinery & Equipment Property Tax Exemption: Automatic exemption of personal property taxes on machinery and equipment purchased or leased by Kansas companies after June 30, 2006
- Utilities Sales Tax Exemption: Electricity, gas, and water consumed to run machinery and equipment which will produce, manufacture, process, mine, drill or refine personal property is exempt from state and local sales tax
Contacts
