Day: July 30, 2026

Some say success resides at the intersection of preparation and opportunity. If that’s the case, Tim Moore and his daughter Maddie are truly successful people. Tim Moore has wanted to open a restaurant for more than three decades, but he wasn’t ready, wasn’t mature enough and, more importantly, didn’t have the resources. The opportunity just wasn’t there. Opportunity. For Maddie Moore, she’s been preparing some mouth-watering pastries for online clients and wholesale accounts and building a loyal following at farmers’ markets around Kansas City. Preparation. And soon, all of Olathe will be lucky enough to taste the fruits of their passionate labor when Mahalo Mornings, a new Hawaii-inspired breakfast, brunch and bakery concept, opens in downtown Olathe. Together, the father-daughter duo is bringing their dreams to life. “It’s a dream of my daughter’s to have a bakery and a restaurant,” Tim Moore said. “When I was in my 20s, I worked for Houston’s restaurant, and I always had a dream to have a restaurant as well. It just didn’t come to fruition back then. I wasn’t ready. I wasn’t mature enough. I didn’t have the money and no one was willing to invest in me.” Now, the timing finally feels right. At her father’s encouragement, Maddie started waiting tables at 15 to learn customer service and communication before expanding her skills into kitchen operations, working alongside personal chefs and developing a passion for baking. “She’s always had an affinity and a love for baking,” Tim Moore said. A KitchenAid mixer that he bought his daughter when she was 18 became the foundation for what would eventually grow into Mahalo Mornings. “I grew up cooking and baking,” Maddie Moore said. “My favorite thing about food is that it brings everyone together, and some of my best memories are all related to what I was eating, what restaurant we went to, whether it was a trip or just around here. You always remember that great meal.” The family launched an online bakery, building a loyal following through wholesale accounts, farmers markets and pop-up events across the Kansas City area. Today, social media has helped introduce customers to Maddie’s pastries long before a storefront has even opened. “She’s done a tremendous job growing it, organically,” he said. “People come up to us at pop-ups and say they follow us on Instagram. It’s amazing to see how many people have found us.” While the bakery, in its current form, has been successful, the Moores wanted something more. And downtown Olathe is exactly what they were looking for. “We got married and started our family here,” Tim Moore said. “And Maddie grew up in Olathe and we wanted to plant roots, so it made sense to plant roots here (in downtown Olathe).” Finishing the inside space is expected to begin after the developer (Lane4 Properties) turns over the downtown space early this fall, with the family targeting an opening roughly three months later. The restaurant’s design will embrace an open industrial look while incorporating authentic Hawaii inspired touches. The family plans to bring home vintage surfboards from an upcoming trip to Hawaii to transform into tabletops, while Maddie’s boyfriend, a tattoo artist, may create a custom mural inside the restaurant. “This place is kind of bringing together two of my favorite things – cooking and baking, but also creating that sense of family and community,” Maddie Moore added. The downtown Olathe location itself was a major draw. With downtown continuing to experience significant investment and new development, Moore believes Mahalo Mornings fills an important role for residents, downtown employees and visitors looking for a unique breakfast or lunch destination. “With everything going on downtown, there’s just not a lot of places for people to go eat during the day,” he said. “We wanted to be that destination where people can come, create memories and reconnect with experiences they’ve had in Hawaii — or experience a little piece of it for the first time.” For Moore, Mahalo Mornings represents far more than opening a restaurant. “We wanted that storefront presence,” Moore said. “A place where we could create an emotional connection where it’s not just a transaction. We wanted it to be a place where people want to come, be part of the family and feel welcome.” That sense of family is reflected in the restaurant’s name. “Mahalo” means “thank you” in Hawaiian, while “ohana” means family — a word Moore hopes will define every guest’s experience. “Welcome to our Ohana,” he said. “Our little Hawaii-inspired family here in Kansas City.” The inspiration grew from years of family vacations to the islands, where Maddie fell in love with the culture, hospitality and community. “She said, ‘What can we do to bring a little bit of Hawaii to Kansas City?’” Moore recalled. “She grew up in Olathe, so we wanted to plant roots here.” When Mahalo Mornings opens, customers can expect everything from fresh pastries to hearty breakfast and lunch offerings. The restaurant plans to serve breakfast sandwiches, breakfast burritos, biscuits and gravy, French toast, soups, salads and sandwiches, with hours expected to run from early morning through mid-afternoon. Everything will be made from scratch, blending locally sourced ingredients whenever possible with flavors inspired by the islands. “It’s going to be really, really good quality,” Maddie Moore said. “I’m going to make everything from scratch. It’s all my own recipes, so I’m really excited to bring this to the community. I always love to make people happy and I’m so excited for all of it.” Signature menu items include malasadas, pineapple banana bread, lilikoi bars, chocolate espresso brownies and a Hawaiian chocolate chip cookie featuring macadamia nuts and coconut. Among the bakery’s biggest hits are Maddie’s twice-baked croissants with frangipane filling, pistachio croissants, almond croissants and butter mochi, a gluten-free Hawaiian dessert. The malasadas, which originated in Portugal and brought to Hawaii in the late 19th century, have already developed a devoted following. Moore recalls one customer who grew up in Hawaii making a special trip

When travelers board a flight in the not-so-distant future, there’s a good chance the technology helping guide that plane safely through the skies will have been built right here in Olathe. Indra Group is a global leader in air traffic management, mobility and defense technology based in Madrid, Spain. They’re rapidly expanding their U.S. manufacturing operations with a new 118,000-sq.-ft. facility right here in Olathe. The investment marks a significant milestone for the company as it ramps up production of critical infrastructure for the Federal Aviation Administration, the U.S. Air Force and public transit systems across the country. Indra’s new facility represents far more than a relocation. It positions Olathe as a key manufacturing hub for technologies that will modernize America’s air traffic control system while creating hundreds of high-tech jobs in the region – nearly 150 this year alone. “Our relocation is driven by incredible momentum across all our business sectors and an immediate need to significantly expand our domestic manufacturing capabilities,” Bill Colligan, CEO of Indra Air Traffic, said. “When you combine these key domestic air traffic control projects with our growing international air traffic control sales and our expanding U.S. mobility portfolio, it became clear that we had completely outgrown our previous facility.” The company’s growth has been fueled by several federal contracts, including a landmark FAA program to replace aging air traffic control radars nationwide. Indra was one of two companies selected to manufacture the next generation of radar systems, earning a contract for 185 radars as part of the FAA’s broader effort to ultimately replace more than 600 systems across the country. “The scale is frankly enormous,” Colligan said. “Before this award, there hadn’t been an air traffic control radar for civilian use manufactured in the United States in well over a decade.” To meet demand, Indra is completing the move into Olathe in three phases. The first phase is already operational, producing next-generation air-to-ground radios that allow air traffic controllers and pilots to communicate throughout the nation’s en route airspace. Those radios are replacing equipment that has been in service for more than two decades. The second phase, scheduled to begin later this summer, will transition additional manufacturing operations from their current Overland Park facility to Olathe, including navigation systems and mobility products. The third phase will establish the company’s radar manufacturing operation. Production is expected to begin later this year. “We’re currently building that section of the factory out now,” Colligan added. “In the third and fourth quarter, we’ll start producing radars for the FAA there.” While aviation technology is driving the expansion, the Olathe facility will support several business sectors. In addition to air traffic management products, the company will manufacture ticketing terminals for transit systems in St. Louis and Washington, D.C., while continuing to support defense-related manufacturing. Ultimately, Colligan said, the company’s products help keep people moving safely. “Whether we are modernizing air traffic control, equipping our armed forces or streamlining public transit, our work provides the essential infrastructure needed to ensure safe, continuous and efficient travel across the nation,” he said. The expansion is also creating significant opportunities for the local workforce. Indra has added more than 70 employees since the beginning of the year and expects to hire another 70 before year’s end, followed by more than 100 additional employees in 2027. The company expects roughly 80 percent of its Kansas City area workforce to be based in Olathe, with local employment eventually reaching approximately 300 people. For Colligan, the growth isn’t simply about adding jobs. It’s about creating long-term careers from within their current organization. “There’s been a great opportunity for career advancement for many of our employees,” he said. “If you don’t grow a company, you lose your best talent because they want to advance their own careers. Growth within is absolutely critical.” Preparing employees for highly specialized manufacturing has required a substantial investment in training. Because radar systems of this type haven’t been manufactured domestically in years, experienced workers are scarce. Recently, 30 technicians spent more than three months training at Indra’s radar manufacturing facility in Madrid, learning to build and test the same radar systems that will soon roll off the production line in Olathe. “Finding skilled people is extremely challenging because there hasn’t been radar manufacturing in the U.S. for civilian air traffic control purposes in over a decade,” Colligan said. “So, we’ve invested significantly in training our workforce.” The company has also invested approximately $50 million to transform the building into a highly specialized manufacturing and testing facility. Since signing the original lease, Indra has already expanded its footprint twice to accommodate future growth. Colligan credits much of the project’s success to the collaboration between local partners, including the State of Kansas, Olathe Chamber of Commerce, City of Olathe, JLL, Evardy Construction, GastingerWalker and Lankford, Fendler & Associates. “We’re very grateful for the confidence the U.S. government, the U.S. Air Force, the FAA and the Navy continue to place in Indra,” Colligan said. “We work really hard to make sure we fully meet their expectations.” As production ramps up, the impact of the company’s investment will extend well beyond Olathe and the surrounding area. The FAA’s current radar network averages roughly 30 years in age and supports one of the world’s largest and most complex air traffic control systems, covering more than 5 million square miles of airspace here in the U.S. By manufacturing the next generation of those systems in Olathe, local employees will play a direct role in improving the reliability and resilience of America’s aviation infrastructure. “We’re incredibly proud of the impact the work done in Olathe will have on Americans every day,” Colligan said. “Our local workforce is directly contributing to increasing the resiliency of our national airspace system, reducing outages and ultimately making the skies safer for everyone.”