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Despite continuing economic woes nationally, business is doing fine in Bonner Springs and Edwardsville. That was the overriding message Thursday at the Bonner Springs-Edwardsville Area Chamber of Commerce’s annual luncheon at the Edwardsville Community Center.

After lunch, the audience of about 70 people heard reports on the state of economic development in the two cities.

First up was Tom Horner, a developer of trailer parks in several states, including the Edwardsville Manufactured Home Community. Horner recited a list of new businesses in Edwardsville, including Top Care, a St. Louis-based landscaping business, and VanBooven Tree Care, a horticulture and landscape architecture firm He noted 10 acres at 98th Street and Woodend Road had been sold to a developer for a 171,000-square-foot, $20 million building.

“Economic growth is healthy in Edwardsville. I think we’ve been able to accomplish substantial economic development,” which started 20 years ago, Horton said.

“I think we accomplished it without giving away the store,” he said, referring to over-generous tax breaks and incentives used elsewhere to lure new businesses.

“There’s a different attitude in City Hall” here, he said.

For the Bonner Springs report, Marcia Ashford, director of economic development for the city, spoke.

“We’re holding steady in light of the economic downturn,” Ashford said.

There are now 282 businesses operating in Bonner, Ashford said, which compares to 276 last year. The city added 12 new businesses so far this year, including three home-based businesses.

The vacancy rate for storefronts is low, Ashford said, with the biggest unused retail space being the site formerly occupied by Cummins Tool, at 626 S. 130th St.

“There is not much new construction,” Ashford said, but one bright spot is on the horizon: Bonner Pointe, a planned retail development at the northeast corner of Kansas Highway 7 and Kansas Avenue, that will include more than 73,000 square feet of retail, including a national chain drug store, plus a fast-food and a sit-down restaurants.

Ashford said the leasing and re-branding of Capitol Federal Park at Sandstone Amphitheater was a boon to the city for the sales, amusement and liquor taxes it would bring the city.

On the tourism front, the city had 500,000 unique visitors in 2007, based on attendance figures from Verizon Amphitheater, the National Agricultural Center and Hall of Fame, the Renaissance Festival, Marble Crazy and Marble Days.

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