Emmet Pierson’s call for help to keep the SunFresh grocery store in the Linwood Shopping Plaza has finally gotten the attention of Kansas City elected officials, the police department and surrounding community.
Pierson is president of Community Builders of KC. The company has operated the SunFresh grocery store at the corner of 31st and Prospect since 2022. CBKC, a community development corporation, is best known for building and renting affordable housing on Kansas City’s eastside. However, it’s currently operating two grocery stores, not because they were looking to get into the tough grocery business, but to keep both stores open.
The SunFresh on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., near the Community Builders Headquarters, is surviving, but the SunFresh on Prospect is bleeding money. According to Pierson, the store lost $1.3 million last year. It’s money the nonprofit could use to provide other services for the community.
So far, the organization’s board has voted to keep the center open for the same reason they entered the grocery business, to keep from creating food deserts in the city’s core Black communities. However, board members have made it clear, the store’s current operating status isn’t sustainable.
The Problem
CBKC drew the attention they needed and wanted after holding a Sunday afternoon press conference outside the Prospect Avenue store, where they detailed the store’s current situation to Mayor Quinton Lucas, Police Chief Stacey Graves and the media.
The store is losing money for several reasons, says Pierson, the largest of which is theft. Also adding to the loss is the large cost they’re incurring to keep private security onsite..
In addition, Pierson and his board members expressed their concern for the safety of their employees and customers. They identified problems with homeless people sleeping around the center, drug use and sales, loitering at the bus stops and vagrants begging for money.
“People are setting up tents and running prostitution rings right around the corner,” said developer Donald Maxwell Jr.
Everyday, there are incidents in the store, said CBKC board member KiKi Curls, who shared concerns about untreated mental health issues as a driver of some of the problems. As an example, she shared an incident where a man came into the store naked and assaulted people.
Problem Goes Beyond the Store
“People are hesitant about coming here,” said Maxwell, who operates the retail centers located on three of the 31st and Prospect corners. “Other businesses are hurting because the homeless people and drug addicts are keeping customers away.”
A SunFresh customer who arrived during the press conference, asked for help at the library located on the northwest corner of 31st and Prospect.
“When they run them from here, they come to the library,” she said. “It’s become a homeless shelter, they’re sleeping in there. They have security over there; they’re young kids, but they don’t have guns. They don’t even have billy clubs.
Solutions Begin to Flow
“We really need police protection in sync with our security guards,” said Maxwell at the press conference.
At the press conference, Chief Graves immediately agreed to 24-hour police presence at the 31st and Prospect intersection.
Another concern was the revolving door for people who are arrested for minor crimes, who sometimes aren’t charged and even if they’re charged, they’re quickly released.
“You pick them up in the morning and by the evening they’re right back here,” said acting SunFresh Manager Adriana Rentie.
One immediate action implemented by Graves was the activation of the few holding cells at a nearby police station.
Kansas City does not have a municipal jail and leans on rural counties for jail space. The city also does not have an agreement to use Jackson County jail facilities and Kansas City council members have not agreed on a plan to move forward on a city jail.
In a decisive move that will provide an interim fix, but not immediately, Mayor Lucas proposed an ordinance to execute a contract to fund a downtown holding and booking facility on the eighth floor of the KCPD headquarters.
If the ordinance returning detention and holding space to KCPD Headquarters passes, Lucas proposed using Public Safety Sales Tax Funds to pay for the construction cost. As proposed, the holding space would have capacity for 144 individuals with 55 overnight beds, with a maximum 72-hour stay for each detainee.
If approved, construction on the $16 million facility would begin in the first quarter of 2025 and would begin operation by the third quarter of 2026.
Urban Summit Brings Community to Issue
The Urban Summit, a nonprofit dedicated to advocacy in east Kansas City, hosted a meeting to discuss the problem and find solutions. The members reviewed steps that had been agreed upon to address the problem but also suggested other ideas to address the problem.
In addition to Mental Health Services offered by the Black Mental Health Coalition, boards of several nearby community organizations committed to spending money at the grocery store.
Another idea that was considered was moving the bus stops to different locations as a way to discourage loitering.
Urban Summit committed to stay with this issue and not to make this a one-and-done meeting.
“We’ve been begging for this amount of attention for months,” said Councilwoman Melissa Patterson-Hazley. “This is an emergency.”
