Bucolic countryside has been transformed into “shovel-ready” business sites in St. Joseph’s new Eastowne Business Park.

As the recession eases, the plan is to attract companies wanting to expand or relocate. For months, its first tenant has been tearing up ground and laying infrastructure near the intersection of Pickett and Riverside roads.

Kansas City Power & Light announced Monday that it intends to buy about 23 acres in the sprawling 350-acre business park. Its future substation will meet electric demand as industry and suburbs push east.

“Having a substation in an industrial business park not only serves our needs, but we think it’s going to be an attractive selling point for St. Joseph to compete with other communities,” said Matt Dority, north district manager for KCP&L, which became the local electric utility just more than a year ago.

Mr. Dority spoke at a ribbon-cutting ceremony Monday marking completion of the park’s initial phase. There are now nine sites ready.

Business and city leaders hope the park’s redundant power can attract high-tech employers that require a dual power source like financial institutions, data centers or back-office operations. In the past, there has been talk of landing a major national distribution center.

Ted Allison, president and CEO of the St. Joseph Area Chamber of Commerce, said commercial recruitment is made challenging by current economic conditions.

He envisions Eastowne’s future development to be on par with Mitchell Woods Business Park — a mix of manufacturing and warehouse facilities, light industrial and business operations.

“You won’t see smokestacks and heavy industry, nothing with a lot of noise,” he said. “This is a long-term project. It took 15 years to build out Mitchell Woods, and we expect it’ll be about the same here.”

Today, Mitchell Woods employees more than 1,700 workers, Mr. Allison said. Presently, there remains only a small site at Mitchell Woods. Any further industry expansion is expected to occur at Eastowne.

Some area neighbors have raised hackles over traffic concerns near Eastowne, especially residents in the Deer Park area.

“It’s just cars now. Soon it’ll be trucks,” said one neighbor who asked not to be identified. “This was shoved down our throat. We never had a choice on it.”

Some community meetings over Eastowne’s proposed site had turned heated. Other neighbors in Deer Park told the News-Press on Monday that they don’t mind Eastowne and hope it will bring good-paying jobs to the area.

Mr. Allison said most industrial traffic would go south on Riverside Road, onto U.S. Highway 169 and Interstate 29. Some traffic will travel north to U.S. Highway 36, he said.

Riverside Road was extended and expanded and a traffic signal added at Pickett Road through $10 million in federal funds. “I think it will be gradual before you see any measurable increase in traffic,” he said.

Eastowne’s infrastructure (electricity, water, sewer and roads) was built in the last two years through a $7.7 million Capital Improvements Project tax. Voters approved St. Joseph’s half-cent CIP sales tax in 2003 and 2008.

Eastowne is split by Riverside Road. Sites are currently being filled only on the west side of the business park.

KCP&L’s future substation is slated for the east side of the park, adjacent to Riverside Terrace.

Ahmad Safi can be reached at ahmadsafi@npgco.com.