Bannister Federal Complex
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Bannister Federal Complex is a United States Federal Government complex located at 1500 E. Bannister Road in Kansas City, Missouri. The 310 acre complex consists of 10 buildings located at the corner of Troost Avenue and Bannister Road. The complex is occupied primarily by the General Services Administration and the Department of Energy.
[edit] Location History
The site of the current Bannister Federal Complex was originally home to a huge wooden racetrack.
[edit] Complex History
On July 4, 1942, following the World War II attack on Pearl Harbor, President Harry S. Truman broke ground on the site for construction of a large facility that became home to Pratt and Whitney. The famous Double Wasp airplane engines were manufactured for the Navy at the facility through the duration of the war effort. Following the victory in Japan, the facility was closed and remained vacant until 1947. At that time, Westinghouse began leasing a portion of the space to build jet engines, many of which were used in the Korean conflict. At that time, the Fairfax Storage Company also began using part of the complex as a warehouse for tires, raw rubber, sugar, and lumber.
In February 1949, the Bendix Corporation began operating the facility for the Atomic Energy Commission and building nonnuclear components for nuclear weapons. This portion of the complex became known as the Kansas City Plant. The Kansas City Plant occupied the greatest portion of the complex.
A Department of Defense landfill was established in 1942 on a portion of the area, as a disposal site for the Bannister Federal Complex. From 1942 to 1964, when the landfill was closed, several government contractors, including Pratt and Whitney and Westinghouse, disposed waste into the landfill. Disposal activities at the landfill resulted in contamination to soil and groundwater by solvents, metals and, petroleum contaminants.
[edit] Current Usage
The Kansas City Plant portion of the Bannister Federal Complex, which under the control of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and operated by Honeywell, continues to provide high-tech production services to government agencies. As one of the most secure production facilities in the country, the plant produces nonnuclear mechanical, electronic and engineered material components for U.S. national defense systems such as high-energy laser ignition systems, microwave hybrid microcircuit production, and miniature electromechanical devices. The plant also provides technical services such as metallurgical/mechanical analysis, analytical chemistry, environmental testing, nondestructive testing, computer-based training, simulations and analysis, and technical certification. The Kansas City Plant provides 85% of the components that go into nuclear weapons under NNSA programs.
The Internal Revenue Service once occupied 474,000 square feet in two buildings of the complex, but IRS moved into a new facility near Union Station in October 2006, taking about 2,500 jobs out of the Bannister complex. The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, which occupies 153,000 square feet of space at the complex, also has plans to move to the midtown Kansas City area by 2007. The Defense Finance and Accounting Service currently occupies 300,000 square feet in the complex, but its plans to move about 600 jobs out of state will leave more vacant space in the complex by 2008.
GSA still employs nearly 800 people in the western portion of the complex, which serves as the headquarters to GSA's Heartland Region.
