American AgCredit Purchases Property in Great Bend, Kansas

“We are extremely excited to announce our intentions to build a new facility in Great Bend in order to better serve our customers in Central Kansas. The location at 10th and Patton provides easy access for our customers, and is located in close proximity to several other complementary businesses,” said Roger Bastow, Chief Administrative Officer.

The new Great Bend facility will be approximately 6,300 square feet, and will include offices and conference rooms to support the company’s lending, crop insurance and appraisal businesses in Central Kansas. In addition, the facility will include an 800 square foot conference room that can be made available to customers and agricultural groups needing a convenient place to meet and conduct business. American AgCredit plans to utilize the services of Simpson Construction and SPT Architecture, both of Wichita, Kansas. “We have successfully utilized the talents of these two firms not only for the construction of our new facility in Salina, Kansas, but also the remodeling of virtually all of the company’s offices located throughout Kansas and Oklahoma,” added Bastow.

“We don’t build buildings very often, and when we do, we need to focus on the needs of our customers not only today, but 20-30 years in the future,” said Greg Reno, Regional Vice President. “Land ownership groups and family farming operations are continuing to grow in size, as the farms pass down from generation to generation. We need to have offices that can accommodate these groups for face-to-face meetings, as well as add the capability of video conferencing for members who may not live in the immediate area,” added Reno. “This facility will allow us to accomplish that in a single location.”

Construction will commence on the new facility this spring, with a targeted completion date of the fall of 2014. Total initial employment is anticipated at 10, with the facility housing lending, appraisal and crop insurance staff.