Parade Park -- the catalyst of east side economic development
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - The revitalization of Parade Park took a more than $20 million step forward this week after Kansas City’s City Council ed an ordinance on Thursday funding part of the project’s first phase.
Mayor Quinton Lucas’s office provided renderings of what the project will eventually look like after the developers, Flaherty & Collins and Twelfth Street Heritage Corporation, break ground this summer.
Dwayne Williams is the President and CEO of Twelfth Street, and he described what this development will do for Kansas City’s east side.
“The thing that I’m excited the most about is the transformation that’s going to take place, not just here in the 18th and Vine District, which is an absolutely amazing thought, but the transformation that will take place throughout the third district,” Williams said. “This is bigger than just Parade Park. I think anytime you drop $400 million into an area, it gives us an opportunity for Renaissance.”
The plan is to produce nearly 1,100 housing units – 465 are affordable at 30 percent to 60 percent area median income (AMI), 560 workforce 60 percent to 80 percent (AMI) and 60 units for sale.
When you add all of that together, it significantly increases housing from the original 510 townhomes.
Williams aims to have the first phase completed by 2027.
“I think this is the catalyst to start a lot of economic development in this area,” Williams said.
The ownership part of a revitalized Parade Park is significant to Kansas City’s history, according to Alexis Williams, Twelfth Street’s director of operations.
“Parade Park was originally the first black co-op in the United States, and so now we’re trying to bring that sense of community back,” Alexis Williams said. “The whole idea of a co-op is so people could own something, and this was the first thing that a lot of black people owned in Kansas City, so we wanted to bring that piece back, and that’ll be available in the second phase.”
Congressman Emmanuel Cleaver II has played a part in helping with the financing by securing around $15 million in federal dollars. That has also meant the developers have to follow standards set by Housing and Urban Development (HUD) when it comes to relocating families that are currently living in Parade Park.
Kansas City purchased the townhomes around a year ago in a foreclosure sale after living conditions had deteriorated greatly in recent years, and that’s when they brought in Flaherty & Collins and Twelfth Street.
“We got this from HUD, so there are some requirements, and that was relocation,” Alexis Williams said. “We’ve moved people off site – we’ve paid for that, some people even have purchased houses – that was important. But the one thing (they all) get is the first right to return, so not only are we moving them to a better place temporarily, we’re working with other apartments around here, other developers, so we’re kind of spreading the wealth through the community right now as we try to relocate.”
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