Key Points:
—After 25 years, development is set to begin on the $250 million SouthPointe at 63rd project.
—The project includes a hotel, restaurant, office, and residential spaces.
—Minority-owned firms CJR Development and Urban America collaborate on the project.
—The Southpointe project aims to uplift the surrounding community, particularly after years of blight and environmental hazards at the site.
City and community leaders joined alongside developers Jan. 29 to celebrate the long-awaited groundbreaking of the $250 million Southpoint at 63rd development project.
The four-phase project hopes to revitalize a 25-acre plot of land near on the northside of 63rd Street and the westside of Prospect that has been vacant for decades. When completed, the mixed-use development will feature 240 apartments and townhomes, catering to various income levels, along with office spaces, large and small retail outlets, restaurant spaces, and a 114-room hotel.
Construction is set to be completed in phases, with the project projected to be fully complete by 2032. Phase One, which includes a 114-room hotel, office and retail space, and multi-family mixed-income housing, is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
Minority-owned Developers
Development of the project is a collaborative effort between two minority-owned firms: CJR Development and Urban America.
“We believe in building the middle class. We believe our communities deserve better,” said CJR Partner Harold Johnson. “The collaboration between the city of Kansas City, CJR Development, Urban America, and enterprising capital partners showcases the power of public-private partnerships in driving impactful change and fostering community growth: Southpointe will do just that.”
Mayor Quinton Lucas said the development represents a foundational and fundamental change in the area.
“[Redevelopment] often it is somebody sitting in a city hall or at HUD saying, ‘this is what we are going to do for you.’ which too often it seems like ‘this is what we are going to do to you,’” said Lucas. “Instead, this is years of collaboration about what this community wants, what our business community — particularly our Black business community — is working on and building.”
Lucas emphasized the project’s commitment to promoting local and national Black-owned and Black woman-owned businesses.
“Folks who don’t always have an opportunity to show their excellence will be heralded and will be the center of what this project is all about,” said Lucas.
Uplifting the Surrounding Community
The site of the Southpointe redevelopment project is surrounded by a majority Black neighborhood and has been awaiting development on the set of large empty lots next to Research Hospital since at least 1994.
“The Southpointe development is not just about constructing buildings,” said Mayor Pro Tem Ryana Parks-Shaw. “It’s about building a brighter future for our community. This groundbreaking represents a commitment to reducing blight and enhancing the neighborhood creating a vibrant, sustainable, and inclusive space for all of us who call this area home.”
Despite ongoing efforts to get a successful development project for the site off the ground, the community has had to deal with the vacant, often blighted site for almost 25 years For many of those years, the site was full of cancerous construction debris, generated by a developer who demolished houses in the area without first properly removing asbestos and then left much of the asbestos-laden debris on the site.
The long and challenging delay in the project was often referred to during speeches at the groundbreaking.
City Manager Brian Platt, noting how hard urban development can be, mentioned that when he met former council member Lee Barnes, who served eight years on the council, Barnes listed this development as his No. 1 and only priority.
In one of the most stark indications of how long this development has been in the making, Mayor Lucas mentioned asking his mom about the project site when he was a child.
Indicating his frustration with the project’s adversities, 5th District Councilmember Darrell Curls said, “It’s a great day for the 5th District, but it’s an even greater day for this community because this community now can say that hopefully, eventually, there’s gonna be something there that we can see, as opposed to blight, dead trees, and trash.”
Decades of Delays
Visions for the development of this prime property in the heart of Kansas City’s Black community date back to 1994, with the City designated the area for tax increment financing – an incentive given to encourage development in an area. In a move praised by many, the City awarded the development contract to the community-based non-profit Community Development Corporation of Kansas City (CDC-KC).
The organization went to work purchasing the nearly 160 plots of land needed to pull together the land needed for the massive project. The planned $80 million project, called the Citadel, was to bring housing, restaurants, retail, and a full-service grocery store to the area.
From 2001 to 2005, lots were razed, but much of the debris was never hauled away. Then, it was discovered the developers had not removed asbestos – a cancerous material – from the homes before they were demolished, creating an environmental hazard on the land that wasn’t remediated until 2014.
As lawsuits and judgments against CDC-KC began to pile up, it became clear the developers were struggling financially, but it took the city until 2010 to cancel the development agreement. Eventually, the City paid $15 million to settle lawsuits filed by individuals who weren’t paid by CDKC and, through some creative financing, ended up taking control of the land under a long-term lease with the City’s Tax Increment Financing Commission.
Still, the city wasn’t finished paying. It cost over $1 million to remediate the environmental hazard on the site, with the city footing about half that bill. The balance was covered by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, who had been intrinsically involved in funding the project from the start and also lost millions on the project.
In 2016, 20 years after the project was envisioned, the city put out a request for proposal seeking a new developer for the site, and Urban America was selected. As City Manager Platt said, urban development can be tough, as indicated by it taking six years from that point to get to a ceremonial groundbreaking on the site.
As Councilmember Curls said, “Hopefully, eventually, there’s gonna be something there that we can see.”
