Kansas City Foreign Trade Zone

Foreign-Trade Zones are funny things to learn about.  And we still don't know much about them but Kansas City has one.  A foreign-trade zone is a defined area in a port of entry where commercial merchandise is handled outside of customs and stored duty-free.  We have figured out that a port of entry does not have to be a seaport but can be an airport.

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What is fascinating to us is that the storage area for the Kansas City foreign-trade zone is in a limestone cave.  Doing more research: we find that that is just one of many businesses in the underground caves. 

Kansas City has 12 underground industrial parks including the world's largest complex called SubTropolis. Nearly 50 local and international companies are doing business there where there is over 4.5 million square feet of developed space, 4.5 miles of paved, two-lane roads, 2.1 miles of rail spurs, 350 truck docks, and 1,500 parking spaces and it covers more area than the city's downtown business district. 

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We find that there is over 20 million square feet of caves underground in Kansas City.  And 6 million more cubic feet of limestone is mined out each year.  Lots more room for development! 

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Because it costs much less to build and run businesses underground, it is referred to as the Kansas City bargain basement.  Ho ho!