News & Issues
Stories from around the Kansas City Metro area on a variety of topics.
Holiday Inn Express Opens in Historic Interstate Building
By Kevin Collison The historic Interstate Building at 417 E. 13th St. has reopened as a 73-room Holiday Inn Express, a $9.5 million project that took four years to complete. The seven-story building was built in 1915 and is on the National Register of Historic Places. It opened for business last month, according to General…
Downtown Chefs Savor the Rush of KC Restaurant Week
By Jill Wendholt Silva Michael Werner’s staff at The Jacobson in the Crossroads is preparing to get slammed during “the busiest 10 days of the year,” aka KC Restaurant Week. Located at 2050 Central St., the hip eatery known for mingle plates and flask service can bring in “$100,000 easy.” In exchange, 10 percent of…
City Manager Praises Downtown Development Ripple Effect, Says Potential Ballpark Cost Now $800M
By Kevin Collison City Manager Troy Schulte was unapologetic about reinvestment along Troost and the city’s support for luxury downtown residential projects during a wide-ranging talk Wednesday that also included the latest on a potential new ballpark. In a luncheon speech to the Downtowners group, Schulte said the city’s investment in revitalizing downtown over the…
Scientologists Proclaim Downtown Arrival, Welcome ‘Xenu Light?’
By Kevin Collison For more than a year, the Church of Scientology has been quietly renovating the historic City Bank Building at 1801 Grand into its new regional headquarters. Few people noticed. There was nothing posted on the building identifying the new tenant and the project looked pretty much like any other historic rehab job…
Regional Effort Aims to Improve Health and Education of Native Americans
If you want to know how many American Indians live in the United States, the Census Bureau will tell you — sort of. That’s because its count of approximately 2.6 million Native Americans, or about 0.8 percent of the population, mostly groups them together with indigenous Alaskans. The same goes for federal health and education…
City Survey Reveals Rising Worries About Affordable Housing
By Kevin Collison The number of Kansas City residents concerned about the availability of affordable housing rose slightly last year, according to new city data, with the greater downtown area reporting the greatest increase. The analysis prepared by KCStat revealed that citywide, 55 percent of the respondents to the latest Resident Survey conducted last spring…
Streetcar Ridership Up 2.6 Percent Last Year, Fed Shutdown May Delay Word on Expansion
By Kevin Collison The Kansas City streetcar rolled out of 2018 with ridership up 2.6 percent over the previous year and looking for signals early in the new year about its planned expansions to the riverfront and UMKC. The downtown streetcar attracted 2,114,886 rides last year compared to 2,060,327 in 2017. Overall, more than 5.5…
Former Mayor Kay Barnes Belle of Downtown Council Luncheon, Gov. Parson Late Add to Event
(Editor’s note: The Downtown Council announced today (Jan. 18) that Missouri Gov. Mike Parson will address the audience attending its annual luncheon on Jan. 24) Former Mayor Kay Barnes, credited with launching the current downtown Kansas City revitalization boom in the early 2000s, will receive the Downtown Council’s top honor when the organization hosts its…
New Crossroads Microbrewery Goes West
By Kevin Collison The Crossroads latest microbrewery, Rochester Brewing and Coffee Roasting, is straying a bit from the neigh-brew-hood and plans to open in late March on the west side at 2129 Washington St. “The Crossroads is a great place for breweries, but it’s getting saturated in that (East Crossroads) corridor,” said David Bulcock. “We…
ARTerra Opens, Crossroads First New Apartment Tower
By Kevin Collison The new year in downtown Kansas City kicks off with the opening today of downtown’s newest apartment tower, the 12-story ARTerra project at 2100 Wyandotte. At its groundbreaking in August 2017, the developers of the 126-unit luxury project predicted it would set a new bar for downtown rents and it appears to…