Black & Veatch is planning a $1.34 billion project to build a new world headquarters in Overland Park, Kan., and make it the anchor of a surrounding mixed-use development.
The 110-year-old engineering and construction company plans to demolish its current 50-year-old headquarters building, build a new $500 million structure on the same land and add 700 multifamily housing units, 88 townhouses, a daycare center, a hotel and a park in a mixed-use district that would be called Overland Park Plaza II.
Black & Veatch will serve as lead developer for the multi-use portion of the project, which is expected to take 10 years to complete. JE Dunn of Kansas City will serve as general contractor for the headquarters, and fellow Kansas City architect BNIM is a designer along with Chicago-based Clayco as consultant to the owner.
“Most importantly, Black & Veatch’s employee-owners will continue to be integrated in every phase, playing a key role in shaping the best quality experience for our future headquarters,” the company said in an email.
Its current headquarters sits on 33 acres of mostly grass and parking lots at 112th and Lamar Streets in Overland Park. It was built in 1976 and expanded to about 600,000 square feet in 1996. A 12,000-square-foot Innovation Pavilion was added in 2014, which also serves as the main entrance.
Despite these expansions, “the building no longer supports the competitive and dynamic needs of today’s workforce or the way our teams collaborate, innovate and deliver in the future,” the company said.
The new headquarters is expected to have nine floors and increase capacity from 2,250 employees to more than 3,500 in the future. It is planned to include a new garage with a weather-protected walkway that connects to the building, a courtyard and green area, an employee gym and a daycare center.
The proposed mixed-use development “is designed to create an expansive, walkable community that integrates with surrounding areas to bring sustained vitality to Overland Park,” the company said.
Patrick Hogan, Director of Business Development, said the new headquarters “will continue to support our accelerated growth, attract the next generation of talent and create a dynamic environment of innovation and collaboration for decades to come.”
The city’s plan commission recently approved the company’s request to rezone its office headquarters property to a mixed-use district. Black & Veatch is asking for more than $200 million in tax increment financing that has yet to be approved by the city.
Overland Park Mayor Curt Skoog said the proposed development fits with the priorities of Framework OP, the city’s comprehensive plan that was adopted in 2024.
“Part of that is taking ownership like Black & Veatch [headquarters]which is a building surrounded by parking lots and which transforms it into a more mixed-use community,” he said.
Black & Veatch is a 100% employee-owned company. Its annual revenue was approximately $5 billion by 2025, and it is the sixth largest employee-owned company in the US. This year it was ranked 14th in the ENR Top 500 Design Firms.
