News & Issues
Stories from around the Kansas City Metro area on a variety of topics.
TIF Commission Agrees to Study Luxury Hotel Plan–Reluctantly
By Kevin Collison A $63 million ultra-luxury hotel project proposed next door to the Kauffman Center cleared its first hurdle Wednesday when the Kansas City TIF Commission reluctantly approved a funding agreement to study the plan. The 145-room hotel is being pitched by developers Whitney Kerr Sr. and Eric Holtze for vacant land controlled by…
New Plaza Preservation Battle, Developer Plans to Demolish Prominent Church for Apartments
(Editors’s Note: Plans for this project were first posted online by Next Kansas City) By Kevin Collison A plan to demolish a prominent church in the Country Club Plaza and replace it with a 12-story, mixed-use project is unfolding as the latest historic preservation battle over the soul of the venerable district. Legacy Development wants to redevelop…
New VisitKC Exec Anticipates Filling a ‘Saturated’ Downtown Hotel Market
By Kevin Collison The first time Jason Fulvi visited Kansas City 13 years ago, he flew back to Pittsburgh convinced there was no need to ever return. At that time downtown was in the early stages of its current renaissance, the Power & Light District, Sprint Center and Bartle Hall ballroom expansion just starting or…
This Man Paved The Way For Lee’s Summit
This resource has been removed permanently. There are two sorts of people in the world — those who are blissfully uninterested in the origin of street names, and those who are helplessly intrigued by the history behind this most basic feature of public life.When it comes to Todd George Parkway in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, Sam…
KC Pinoy Serves a Taste of the Philippines in the West Bottoms
By Kevin Collison Chrissy Nucum helped her mother, aunt and grandmother prepare meals growing up in Manila, but it took persistence to wrangle the recipes for her new West Bottoms restaurant, KC Pinoy. “My grandmother was the cook in the house and keeper of the recipes,” she said. “In 2013, she visited the States and…
Here’s What Trump Missed About Violent Crime in Kansas City
It was a week of political intrigue in Kansas City. President Donald Trump arrived Friday, flanked by an entourage of Republican favorites. Kellyanne Conway took a bow at Trump’s insistence. Jared Kushner stood in the wings behind newly elected U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, as Trump rightly claimed credit for helping the Missouri attorney general unseat…
Troost Developers Deserve Support, Not Criticism
GUEST COMMENTARY By John Hoffman, principal and co-founder of UC-B Properties The recent editorial in The Kansas City Star entitled “Stop the Denverization of Kansas City. Troost doesn’t need to be hipster-friendly” sparked an interest worth responding to by someone who has been developing along Troost for the last 10 years. Whoever was responsible for…
Candidates to Replace Sly James Compete for Likes
The idea seemed far-fetched when it was first suggested in October to East High School teacher Katharine Perna. What if her multiculturalism and social justice class could persuade the nine leading mayoral candidates to answer questions, in person, crafted by the students themselves? On Wednesday night, before an audience of about 150 people in the…
Downtown Dazzle Urban Homes Tour This Saturday
By Kevin Collison The Downtown Dazzle Urban Homes Tour returns Saturday and this year current and prospective downtown residents should find a robust, competitive market. “Right now, things are running well, but you can see there are a lot of incentives,” said Christina Boveri of Boveri Realty Group. “We have a lot of great product…
Shared E-Bikes Rolling Into Downtown Soon, KC Among Nation’s First
By Kevin Collison E-bikes are scheduled to begin rolling into greater downtown by Christmas, making Kansas City one of only a handful of North American communities to adopt the latest in “first and last mile” shared transportation technology. “E-bikes are really new, especially for shared use, and Kansas City is in the forefront of this,”…