A review of major projects over the past decade shows significant industrial expansion, new employers and housing growth, but also plant closures, lost jobs and a population that has continued to decline

Salina has seen approximately $1.15 billion in major capital investment tied to economic-development projects over roughly the past decade, according to a project list provided to Salina311 by Salina Community Economic Development Organization Executive Director Mitch Robinson.

Salina311 independently added the individual investment figures on the list, which total approximately $1.1485 billion. But that number does not mean Salina gained $1.15 billion worth of entirely new companies or that every dollar represents new economic activity that did not exist before.

A closer review shows that most of the investment came from major expansions of businesses already operating in Salina. Other projects brought new employers, created housing or redeveloped existing property. At the same time, Salina also lost longtime manufacturers and hundreds of jobs, meaning the decade is better described as a period of expansion, recruitment, replacement and redevelopment rather than simple uninterrupted growth.

Fourteen Projects Total Approximately $1.15 Billion

The SCEDO list includes 14 projects ranging from major industrial expansions to housing developments and smaller business investments.

Together, those projects total approximately $1.1485 billion. Robinson cautioned that the list is not intended to be a complete accounting of every dollar invested in Salina, but rather the projects SCEDO directly supported or worked on.

“The list could be much larger, but again this is the projects supported/worked on by the SCEDO,” Robinson told Salina311.

He pointed to additional investment not included on the list, including more than $160 million in downtown projects and upcoming health-care investments such as a roughly $75 million surgery center and a $58 million medical building on South Ohio.

Two Existing Employers Account for Most of the Total

The most important context behind the $1.15 billion figure is how concentrated the investment is. Schwan's accounts for $600 million, while Great Plains/Kubota accounts for $350 million. Together, those two projects represent $950 million, or about 83% of the total investment on the SCEDO list.

Neither company was new to Salina.

Schwan's has operated in Salina for decades, so the $600 million represents a major expansion of an existing employer rather than the arrival of an entirely new company. The investment increased manufacturing and distribution capacity and brought additional jobs, equipment and production to the community, but it is more accurately described as new investment by an existing business.

Great Plains/Kubota follows a similar pattern. Great Plains was already headquartered in Salina when Kubota expanded construction-equipment production here, bringing additional manufacturing activity into the community while also substantially expanding an existing local operation.

Robinson said those two projects were by far the largest on his list.

“The two major projects of Schwan’s and Great Plains/Kubota make up the largest investments,” Robinson said.

Former Salina Area Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Renee Duxler also said the broader investment figure historically included more than just new-company recruitment.

“I believe we were including Downtown, the Fieldhouse, and some of the other sports venue projects along with local company expansions and new investment — to include Great Plains and Kubota — in that total,” Duxler said.

She also clarified that references connecting Schwan's and Great Plains to the $1 billion threshold were not intended to suggest those two projects alone represented entirely new outside investment.

“I think the verbiage ‘with the Great Plains and Schwan’s expansions’ was used in the context of those two expansion efforts taking us over the $1B investment total,” Duxler said.

That distinction matters because the story of Salina's investment over the past decade is less about recruiting $1 billion worth of new companies and more about convincing major employers already here to make their next large investments in Salina.

Expansion Is Still New Investment

That does not make those expansions less significant. Existing companies often have multiple locations and multiple options when deciding where to place a new production line, warehouse, equipment purchase or major facility expansion.

When Schwan's chose Salina for hundreds of millions of dollars in additional manufacturing and distribution capacity, that represented new capital being placed into the local economy. The same is true of Great Plains and Kubota choosing Salina for expanded construction-equipment manufacturing.

The distinction is not whether the investment was real. It was. The distinction is whether it represented an entirely new company entering Salina or an established company growing substantially larger here.

For Salina, both types of development matter, but they represent different kinds of economic growth.

Some Growth Replaced What Salina Had Lost

The Great Plains/Kubota project also shows why gross investment numbers can tell only part of the story.

The large manufacturing facility used for the expansion had previously been occupied by Signify, formerly Philips Lighting. When Signify ended manufacturing operations in Salina, the community lost a longtime industrial employer and associated jobs. Great Plains later acquired and redeveloped the property as part of its expansion.

That means the community experienced both a loss and a gain. Salina lost one manufacturing operation, then later gained a larger and expanding operation in the same industrial space.

A similar loss occurred when ElDorado Bus closed its Salina manufacturing operation, eliminating more than 100 jobs.

Those losses do not appear as negative entries on an economic-development project list, which is why the roughly 1,688 jobs associated with the SCEDO projects should not be interpreted as Salina's net job growth over the decade. The list reflects jobs created or retained by those specific projects, not every job that disappeared elsewhere.

Some Projects Were Entirely New to Salina

Other projects on the SCEDO list more closely resemble traditional business recruitment.

Amazon brought a new distribution operation to Salina and is listed by SCEDO with 400 jobs. Pure Imagination represents another type of recruitment, with a $41 million project and more than 100 jobs projected to begin in 2027.

Those projects are important because they diversify Salina's economy beyond its traditional manufacturing base. They also differ from the Schwan's and Great Plains investments because they represent operations or industries that were not already established locally in the same way.

However, some of those jobs are still future projections rather than positions already filled today, which is another reason the project list should not be treated as a snapshot of Salina's current employment base.

Housing Is Also Part of the Investment Number

The $1.15 billion total also includes projects such as Magnolia Village, President's Place and Lee Lofts Phase II.

Those developments are economically important, but their effects are different from those of a manufacturing plant. Housing projects create construction activity and expand the available housing supply, but they do not typically create hundreds of permanent jobs once construction is complete.

That means the overall investment total combines several different kinds of projects: industrial expansions, recruited employers, housing developments, redevelopment efforts and projects focused partly on retaining existing jobs.

Each represents investment in Salina, but they should not all be interpreted the same way.

Chamber Leadership Says the History Needed to Be Reconstructed

Current Salina Area Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Christina Hayes told Salina311 she did not want to speculate about how previous investment figures had been calculated because she had only recently taken over the position.

“Rather than speculate or provide incomplete information,” Hayes said, she wanted to make sure Salina311 received “the most accurate information and documentation available.”

Hayes brought Duxler and Great Plains representatives into the discussion, which eventually led Salina311 to Robinson and SCEDO's project list.

The responses help show why the $1 billion figure has been difficult to summarize with a single definition. Different presentations over the years appear to have referred to combinations of private expansion, public projects, downtown redevelopment, housing and other major investments.

Population Has Not Grown With the Investment

One of the clearest counterpoints to the investment figures is Salina's population.

Salina had 47,707 residents in the 2010 Census and 46,889 in the 2020 Census. More recent Census estimates have continued to place the city below its 2010 population.

That means Salina has attracted or generated more than $1 billion in major project investment without seeing corresponding population growth.

The two measurements are not necessarily contradictory. Companies can invest heavily in automation, machinery and expanded production without creating thousands of jobs. Workers can commute into Salina from surrounding communities, and some newly created jobs may be filled by people who already live here.

Still, population provides an important measure of whether economic investment is translating into broader community growth. So far, the investment boom has not produced a population boom.

What Salina Gained

The strongest gains over the past decade are visible in Salina's industrial capacity and business infrastructure.

Schwan's became substantially larger. Great Plains and Kubota expanded construction-equipment production. Amazon brought a new distribution operation. Pure Imagination is intended to introduce a different category of technology and entertainment employment. Housing projects added or redeveloped residential units, while other companies expanded operations and retained jobs.

Those are significant gains, particularly for a community competing with other cities and states for business investment.

The larger lesson is that economic development is not always about landing a company that has never been in town before. In many cases, the competition is over where an existing company will make its next major investment.

What Salina Lost

The same period also included meaningful losses.

Signify and ElDorado Bus ended local manufacturing operations. Jobs disappeared with those closures, and some properties had to be reused or redeveloped. Population also remained below its 2010 level despite the investment and job announcements.

That is why the $1.15 billion figure should not be treated as a simple measurement of how much Salina grew. It is a gross total of selected major projects. It does not subtract business closures, lost jobs or declining population. It also mixes newly created jobs with retained jobs, future employment projections and construction-related employment.

A Decade of Expansion, Replacement and Recruitment

The 14 projects identified by SCEDO total approximately $1.1485 billion in capital investment, with nearly $950 million coming from Schwan's and Great Plains/Kubota alone.

That concentration explains much of Salina's investment story. The community did attract new employers, but the dominant source of investment was existing companies choosing to expand significantly here.

At the same time, other employers left, some jobs disappeared and population did not grow.

The result is not a simple story of either rapid growth or decline. Salina gained manufacturing capacity, housing, new businesses and jobs while also replacing portions of its economy that had been lost.

The approximately $1.15 billion represents substantial investment in Salina. Understanding what that investment actually meant, however, requires looking beyond the headline number at what was new, what expanded, what replaced something else and what the community lost along the way.