Blight to Bright: Kansas City receives $4.5 million to clean up, spur investment

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - The Environmental Protection Agency announced that Kansas City is receiving $4.5 million to clean up areas of the city that will hopefully spur investment from developers.

A “brownfield” means a project is not a “greenfield,” which the latter is something developers prefer because they can immediately begin building.

Part of this federal money will be going towards the Former Hardesty Federal Complex, which sits on 22 acres of land in Kansas City’s Historic Northeast.

The project was WWII US Army Quartermaster Depot but has sat vacant for 40 years.

A local developer, the Arnold Development Group wants to turn it into 500 affordable apartments, retail space, a daycare center and a solar energy farm.

The Berkley Riverfront Park was a brownfield project, but U.S. Representative Emanuel Cleaver II points out that you can’t tell that from what’s there today.

“When I was growing up – how many times did we go to the river? Zero. Nobody went down there,” Cleaver said. “Today – everybody wants to go down there, whether to see a soccer game, to get an apartment, and by the way, they have a waiting list.”

The EPA has given Kansas City around $11.5 million in grant funds awarded since 2000.

Another notable brownfield project that is close to yielding private development includes the YMCA Paseo. It will become the Buck O’Neil Education and Research Center, and a couple of months ago a developer announced they will build the official Negro League Baseball Museum hotel on the plot next door to it.

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