Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers held an official ground-breaking ceremony at 6 p.m. April 9 to announce the start of construction of an auction site. The ceremony took place at the Odessa Ritchie Bros. property located on US-40 at Reich Road, approximately 25 minutes east of Kansas City.

The site will be the company’s 19th permanent auction site in the United States.

The new auction facility will sit on approximately 40 acres (16 ha) of the 140-acre (56 ha) property, with lots of room for future growth. The facility will include an approximately 28,000 sq. ft. auction theater and administrative offices, a 36,000 sq. ft. refurbishing building and a 2,100 sq. ft. equipment check-in building.

The grand opening of the new facility is planned for Spring 2008, while auctions will be held on the site in a temporary facility in the meantime. The next auction is scheduled for June 19, 2007.

The new permanent auction site will replace the company’s existing leased facility in Kansas City.

“We are very excited to be building our state-of-the-art auction facility here in Odessa,” said Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Area Manager Jesse Cantin. “We’ve held close to 50 auctions in Missouri throughout the years going back to 1976. Our auctions were always held at temporary facilities in a number of cities around the state. It will be great to have a permanent presence in Odessa, where we will plan on holding around four unreserved industrial auctions each year. Our customers here in Missouri will be able to benefit from our regular auction schedule and will be able to plan ahead to participate in our auction either as a buyer or a seller, or even both.”

For more information, visit www.rbauction.com.