4 people share why they moved to Topeka, Kansas, for $15,000

Choose Topeka will pay remote workers up to $15,000 to move to Kansas for a year.
4 professionals who moved from San Diego, Boston, Houston, and Tennessee shared their experience.
They said they love the community, larger living spaces, lower costs, and access to the outdoors.
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During the pandemic, many have dreamed of leaving their big-city lives behind and starting afresh.

From relocation programs in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to incentives to set up shop in Hawaii, there’s a growing movement of cities investing in recruiting talent to ditch NYC or the Bay Area.

Choose Topeka, a relocation incentive program that debuted in January 2020, is making those dreams come true, too — and with as much as $15,000 up for grabs, it’s certainly a convincing case.

“The relocation incentive was initially developed to help support our existing employers in the community in recruiting for critical or hard-to-fill positions, as well [as] support in the long-term retention and growth within their organization when existing employees may commute from outside the community,” Barbara Stapleton, vice president of business retention & talent initiatives at the organization, told Insider.

There are two ways for candidates to join the program: The first route is an employer matching funds option, which allows Topeka-area based employers to submit candidates for the program. Employers can match up to $10,000 for those renting and up to $15,000 for those purchasing a home.

The remote worker option, on the other hand, allows for candidates not currently residing in the community to relocate with a full-time remote work position and an employer outside the Topeka community. The incentives are tiered based on candidates’ income, with up to $5,000 available for one-year lease agreements and up to $10,000 available should participants choose to purchase a home.

Choose Topeka estimated that once a candidate with an average salary of $60,000 relocated to Topeka and the Shawnee County community (Topeka is the seat of Shawnee County), they’d earn a five-times return on their investment in one year’s time.

But things are looking better than predicted as the program grows: “The campaign, from an economic impact perspective, has really exceeded our expectations,” Stapleton said. “We have had 40 candidates relocate to Topeka with an average salary of $80,000 a year, significantly better than our salary predictions of $60,000.” The first year of the program is expected to make a $3.2 million economic impact.

Four Choose Topeka participants share how the experience has worked out for them.

Adam Outlaw moved from Boston and loves what Topeka has to offer for young professionals

Outlaw, 25, a project manager and estimator at McElroy’s Inc, a mechanical contractor, made the move to Kansas in September. After living in a big metropolitan area for over a year, Outlaw said he especially appreciates the open space and welcoming attitude that Topeka has.

“The Choose Topeka program helped give me an opportunity to work for a well-respected company in the area where I’ll have the ability to learn from experienced and motivated people,” he told Insider.

The cost of living has also been a big draw. In Boston, Outlaw rented a 1,500-square-foot apartment downtown with four other guys around his age. “Although it was an exciting area to live, it was hard to save any money,” he said.

He now rents a house in Topeka for 75% of the cost of his Boston apartment with a “considerably larger” square footage. “Being able to move around freely and park in a driveway is something I do not take for granted anymore,” he said.

He’s also enjoyed the shift in his work, having previously worked in outside sales in a gig that entailed constantly being on the road or toiling away from his cramped apartment. “In Topeka, I have an office to drive to every day where I get to work with like-minded people,” he added.

This, in turn, has made him feel more connected to the company and the work that he does. “I’m motivated to help make the company as successful as possible,” he said.

Though the gig with Choose Topeka is up for him this September, he’s got no plans to leave in the near future. “The convenience and affordability of the area make it a great place to live,” he said.

Beyond work, Outlaw has enjoyed his leisure time in Topeka, perhaps even more than he expected. “The local area offers good restaurants and bars, nice lakes, and great golf,” he said. “It also is in close enough proximity to Manhattan/Lawrence/Kansas City that you can take a weekend trip without feeling like it is a huge commitment or effort.”

After moving with his family last September from San Diego, John Del-Zio hopes to stay for the long term

Del-Zio, 53, is an operations principal for AE Financial Services, LLC, a subsidiary of Advisors Excel. He said he never dreamed of how much he, his wife Maureen, and his three kids would fall for Topeka.

Throughout his interview process with Topeka-based Advisors Excel, Del-Zio was impressed by the company’s reputation and culture, so much so that his new firm was the main draw for him.

“The culture, people, and the mission of the company are right in my wheelhouse of professional experience, and I really enjoy the work I do,” he told Insider.

He noted that his commute may be long by Topeka standards, clocking in at 18 minutes, but he’ll take that easy drive with no traffic any day over the 30 minutes it would take to drive just six miles to go shopping in San Diego.

“I don’t think we ever travel more than 15 minutes to shop and work and never have traffic,” he said.

The Del-Zios now relish living in the capital city and being close to so many attractions, such as Kansas City. They also have family in Omaha, Nebraska, and Wichita, Kansas, each two-and-a-half-hour drives from their new home.

Once they settled into Topeka, he said they realized the city’s greatest asset “is the slower pace of life.” “We enjoy the parks locally, as well as the environment and the people of Topeka,” he said.

The transition hasn’t been without a few bumps in the road, however. “It was a bit challenging for the kids to transition to the high school during the coronavirus shutdowns, and they were isolated by remote learning,” he said, conceding that it was better than San Diego since his children still spent two days per week on the school’s campus and could participate in sports and other activities. (School districts subsequently returned to full-time, in-person learning earlier this spring.)

The family has even established their go-to restaurant haunts, including The Weather Room at the Cyrus Hotel, The Pennant (which also has vintage arcade games and bowling), and their absolute favorite, El Torito for the wide array of Hispanic groceries and the adjoining Mexican restaurant. They’ve also joined the Topeka Country Club and are making the most of the facility and tennis courts.

Del-Zio said his home in San Diego was just under 1,900 square feet on a busy street and quarter-acre lot. Now, the family lives in a three-bedroom home that’s about the same size but with a layout that makes it feel much bigger. The family maintains a large vegetable garden and a

meditation
/herb garden in the backyard.

“The fresh air, land, and quiet are a welcome relief from the busyness of So Cal,” he said. Paying less than $1,000 a month for their mortgage compared to their monthly $3,000 mortgage payments in San Diego doesn’t hurt, either.

“We do not plan on leaving Topeka and hope to live here for the rest of our lives,” he added.

Houstonian Michelle Carson lived in Topeka previously and has found bliss in the outdoors

Carson, 60, is a senior director at Safal Partners, a consulting firm in the education reform space, and she’s actually not a newcomer to Topeka. Carson lived in Topeka in both the early 2000s and also from 2012 to 2016, and has been amazed by all the positive change that’s come to town.

She works remotely for her Houston-based company, and while she misses seeing her coworkers, she’s thrilled to save the roughly two-hour commute. (Once it’s safe to do so, Carson is in talks about meeting with her team on a quarterly basis.)

She pays approximately the same amount for her four-bedroom, three-bathroom Topeka abode with a fenced backyard as she did for an 800-square-foot, one-bedroom home with a study in Katy, Texas — about $2,000 a month.

Once things reopen, Carson is eager to check out shared workspaces around town to at least periodically work out of. For now, she’s liking the fact that if she has “a personal appointment during the day” or she needs to pick up one of her two grandchildren from school, “I can do that and still get back to work within a reasonable amount of time and not lose out a half- or full-day with traffic,” she said.

For Carson, the primary allure of Topeka has been the active outdoor lifestyle. “The Shawnee County Parks and Recreation is fabulous,” she said. Specifically, she’s looking forward to the aquatics programs they offer during the summer — like 5K water walks, strolling against the current in the lazy river, and an aqua jump on trampolines.

Carson also can’t wait to spend time at Lake Shawnee. “I do love the water and even being land-locked in Kansas I can find groups and activities here in Topeka — like Dirty Girls Adventures.”

Of course, the pandemic has thrown a wrench in her plans to build a community following her November move to town, but the Facebook groups that Go Topeka (the organization that administers Choose Topeka) recommended have been helpful in connecting her “with all those essential services you need to locate after a move,” she said, like doctors, hair and nail specialists, mechanics, and the best restaurants to order from and boutique shops to check out.

“Besides moving being one of my least favorite things to do, with the cost of living and life/work enhancements — I see myself here for the foreseeable future,” she said.

Kristy Blake relocated from Tennessee, drawn by the welcoming environment

Blake, a 40-something labor and delivery nurse by training and director of the New Life Center, University of Kansas St. Francis Campus, moved to Topeka with her husband, Paul, last March.

Ultimately, they were drawn to how the Choose Topeka program is inspiring growth in Topeka, and parted ways with their Arlington, Tennessee, digs seeking a change and better work compatibility for Kristy. Originally from Denver, she said the move “gave us the opportunity to be closer to family and friends, in between both sets of adult children (two in Denver and one in Nashville).”

The family went from a 4,000-square-foot house to a 2,938-square-foot house, which still provides them with plenty of room to spread out. “We downsized a bit,” she said, adding that housing prices seemed comparable to housing in the area of Tennessee they lived in, near Memphis.

It’s been a strange time to start a new chapter, but Blake shared that “the community has been amazing and everyone has come together during these unprecedented times to help one another out.” For instance, in Berkshire Green, the neighborhood they live in, they’ve loved seeing how everyone looks out for each other, noting that people would run errands and go grocery shopping for those in need.

And joining her new workplace has been a veritable joy. “I have worked in several hospitals in different cities — this one feels like the perfect fit for me,” she said. “The people here are very friendly, and it feels like a family.”

The pair has no plans as of now to leave Topeka. “The move to Topeka has been better than we expected,” she said. “We are very happy we have made this move here.”