Kansas Commerce highlights $21 billion in private investment, stresses KC2026 oversight and tourism planning

Rachel Willis, director of legislative affairs for the Kansas Department of Commerce, briefed the Senate Commerce Committee on the agency’s work since 2019 and outlined its project pipeline and priorities.

Willis told the committee Commerce and its partners have secured about $21,000,000,000 in committed private business investment and “a little more than 70,000 committed, created new jobs and retain[ed] jobs” statewide since 2019. She said the department now lists roughly 135 projects in its active pipeline, led by advanced manufacturing and including continued aviation, agriculture and biosciences prospects.

The presentation emphasized three headline wins. Willis described Panasonic as “our largest economic development project in state history,” saying the company has committed $4,000,000,000 in capital investment and 4,000 jobs; she said the site in De Soto had produced its first battery and the employer had hired “right around 400 employees” as of January and planned to scale to about 1,000 positions by summer and about 2,000 by year-end. Willis said De Soto budgeted $2,000,000 for…