Kansas City Rising

Kansas City continues to grow at a rapid rate since the start of a major revitalization initiative in 2004, reported KSHB 41’s JuYeon Kim recently.  “After billions of dollars in investment, downtown Kansas City now welcomes over 10 million visitors a year,” she wrote.

Twenty years ago that number was just 225,000. John Monke, president of Power and Light, and one of the visionaries behind Kansas City’s growing skyline, says the rejuvenation began with the opening of the district. Now over 32,000 thousand people live, work and play downtown.  “Moncke’s vision is to build an ecosystem,” Kim noted, explaining that it would be a community of people who invest in each other. “That all starts with creating jobs and places to live, including three luxury apartments Kansas Citians have surely seen.”

“The Power and Light District was really a catalytic project,” says Moncke. Sixty percent of the people moving into the district now are actually coming from outside of the market. These are people who never lived in Kansas City before.  “And they are choosing to move here because of these kinds of projects,” he points out.

Matt Jansen, a project director with JE Dunn Construction that is building Three Light – a $140-million-dollar luxury apartment complex that broke ground in June 2021 – told Kim, “Currently we’re working on level 16 of the concrete,” said Jansen. “Times have substantially changed over the course of several years since my last project. Material pricing — escalation, inflation has been a big item to work through. And material of available workers has also been a challenge.” But progress is being made. Even with pandemic-induced challenges, Kim said, workers are turning over each floor in about nine working days. “Interior framing for mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire sprinklers have started this month and elevators are set to be put in starting Oct. 31.”

Further proof that a renaissance is taking place in Kansas City was the announcement in September that the Kansas City Current of the National Women’s Soccer League was building an 11,000 seat state-of-the-art soccer stadium at nearby Berkley Riverfront.  It will be ready for the 2024 season and is expected to be an anchor of ongoing riverfront development projects undertaken by the Port of Kansas City. Team officials claim the construction of such a facility signals its commitment not only to the athletes and fans  but also to Kansas City itself. 

By the way, the upstart women’s soccer team– in only its second year of existence – will be playing in the NWSL’s championship final against the Portland Thorn, Saturday, October 29. The game will be televised on CBS and Paramount + at 7 pm Central from Audi Field in Washington D.C.