Koch Industries arrives in the Crossroads, and guess where
Ah, the Crossroads, where cool ideas about tech and culture collide in restored brick buildings as the streetcar goes ding-ding just outside. Working artists, come on down to the Crossroads Arts District, where one-bedrooms start at just $1,475 per month!
Into this very hip, very funky environment last month arrived a new neighbor: Koch Business Solutions LP, an IT subsidiary of Koch Industries.
The Kansas City Business Journal reports that Koch moved into the area in June. It currently employs 10 people, but that number is expected to grow. “We want to give back [to the local tech community],” the firm’s IT manager told the KCBJ. “It’s a win-win, because we know we can bring something to the table and we know we can learn from people who we haven’t historically had access to.”
Koch Business Solutions’ office is located inside Think Big Partners, an incubator and co-working space at 1712 Main. As The Pitch reported a few years ago, the founder of Think Big Partners, Herb Sih, has multiple ties to predatory lending operations once based here in Kansas City. Sih, a former member of the Economic Development Corporation of Kansas City, resigned from his city post following the publication of our story.
In addition to being the leading supplier of climate-change misinformation on the planet and funding politicians who are actively destroying the lingering remains of any social safety net in this country, the Koch brothers, of course, also oppose laws designed to curb predatory lending such as payday loans.
To our new neighbors Koch Business Solutions LP: welcome to the Crossroads, the creative hub of Kansas City! If you get a minute, please tell your bosses to stop being so fucking evil!
