KTKA

For Manhattan and the surrounding communities, the accomplishments in 2009 come from years of hard work.

"2009 was a very good year," Vice President of Economic Development for the Manhattan Area Chamber of Commerce, John Pagen said. "It was a very eventful year."

The Little Apple was chosen as the site for the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility at the end of 2008 and Pagen says that win, along with the growth of Fort Riley and K-State, kicked off this year’s success.

"NBAF we think will be a third economic engine," he said.

Work on getting NBAF to Manhattan started ten years ago when K-State began telling Washington legislators about the need to research food threats. In about 5 years, that research will be done behind the BioSecurity Research Institute, but other research labs are already relocating to Manhattan. Megastarter and ABADRL were two that announced the big news this year.

"When you compare that with NBAF, you just have a tremendous amount of talented people coming to the region, which is what I think everyone’s goal is," Pagen said.

It’s not just researchers interested in the area.

This year the town had 35 ribbon cuttings for new businesses. Some were entrepreneurs opening up a second store, others were people from out of town.

"Riley County was voted the least economically stressed county in the country and that gets you on a lot of radar screens," Pagen said.

While business was steady, there was a decrease in sales.

"We’ve had a slight downturn but really not that bad," he said.

However, Pagen says sales tax in 2008 set a record, so he wasn't surprised they weren't able to top that amount this year.

He says the outlook for 2010 is a bright one.

"This whole region actually is in a very good position," he said.

Pagen says the focus next year will be attracting more research labs to the area and there is already another lab interested in relocating to Manhattan.