Cerner shows south KC plan -The company hopes the new site's design promotes creativity and teamwork

With a bulked-up payroll and souped-up software, Cern er Corp . on Tuesday unveiled details of its plan for a creative campus at part of the former Marion Laboratories site.

North Kansas City-based Cerner, a leading provider of health-care information technology, said it intends to lease three buildings comprising about 500,000 square feet at the campus, which is south of Bannister Road near Interstates 435 and 470.

"Our rapid growth has created additional demands for space," said Julie Wilson, Cerner's chief people officer. "This gives us the opportunity to create a unique environment to bring the best creative minds from this area and around the world to develop Cerner solutions for health-care providers and health-care organizations around the globe."

Wilson said Cerner hoped to sign a lease with drug manufacturer Sanofi-Aventis, the successor to Marion Laboratories, by the end of this year. Plans call for moving hundreds of software engineers and designers there in the first quarter of next year.

Sanofi-Aventis spokesman Marc Greene said Tuesday that talks between his company and Cerner about the lease are serious and ongoing.

Greene said the "ultimate goal of the negotiations is a sale of the property, but because of issues with utilities, a lease has to be considered before a sale can be finalized."

The southward move, which has been in the works for several months, is another indication of how Cerner has grown in recent years. Cerner now has nearly 7,500 employees around the world, including about 4,500 in the Kansas City area. In 2005, Cerner added 1,500 new jobs globally, including 750 here.

Most of the employees moving to the new campus will come from the North Kansas City headquarters. The headquarters complex has greatly expanded in recent years, and a new data center is currently under construction there.

Cerner also will continue to operate from its other area locations, including the Riverport campus at the site of the old Sam's Town casino and the Cerner Oaks campus on North Oak Trafficway. Cerner also leases space in the Summit Technology Campus in Lee's Summit.

Sanofi-Aventis says the space Cerner wants could house about 1,200 employees.

"Cerner seems to be following in the same tradition of Marion Labs in terms of being a homegrown firm in a health-related field," said Frank Lenk, director of research services for the Mid- America Regional Council. "The field itself is growing, and they're a key player."

Lenk said that besides the economic impact of adding jobs, Cerner's growth "gives the region a psychological boost at the same time that Sprint has moved its (executive) headquarters out of the region and Hallmark is, at best, stable."

Lenk said a similar role is being played by Olathe-based Garmin Ltd., "which also is in a technology-based field and growing successfully. The challenge for the region is to have firms like this on its bench, ready to play in this new global economy."

Cerner was recently recognized by Business 2.0 magazine as one of the 100 fastest-growing technology companies for the second year in a row.

The company's bumper crop of growth is occurring as experts around the world are advocating for information technology to improve safety, lower costs and increase efficiency in health care.

Cerner today is releasing Cerner Millennium 2007, the 15th upgrade to its Millennium software since it was introduced in 1998. Cerner said the upgrade will make it easier for physicians to interact with hospitals and different departments of hospitals.

"It's one of our most comprehensive (software) releases," said Jeff Townsend, a Cerner executive vice president.

Cerner plans for all future software upgrades to occur at the new south Kansas City campus, where the atmosphere will be designed to encourage creativity and teamwork.

"We intend to create design-center kinds of environments, very team-oriented," Wilson said.

Like Cerner's headquarters complex, the new campus will include widespread use of natural light. The design-center segment will feature high-tech depictions of Cerner software solutions at work.

"Since this is an environment where our intellectual property will be developed, we will be very selective about taking clients through that environment," Wilson said.

There also will be a cafeteria, a child-care center, a fitness center, a coffee bar and an area with pool tables and other games, "where you can go play some games and recharge and get ready for the next project," Wilson said.

The campus currently is occupied by Sanofi-Aventis, Quintiles Transnational Corp . and Aptuit Inc . The campus has a large amount of vacant space resulting from a corporate reorganization by a Sanofi-Aventis predecessor in the late 1990s. Quintiles plans to leave the campus in mid- to late December after it completes a new research facility in Overland Park that will employ 700 people.

The south Kansas City campus was originally developed by Marion Laboratories when it was headed by legendary entrepreneur Ewing Kauffman.

Cerner shares closed Tuesday at $49.44, down 18 cents.