Kansas City hopes to fill empty storefronts ahead of World Cup 2026
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - Before thousands of fans fill the streets of Kansas City for the World Cup in 2026, officials are looking to fill empty storefronts.
Kansas City has been preparing for the rise in tourism since the FIFA announcement in 2022.
On Tuesday, the plans reached a new height.
The City Council’s Finance, Governance and Public Safety Committee ed a resolution to put $1.4 million toward the Small Business Storefront Vacancy Revitalization program.
Ryana Parks Shaw, who represents the 5th District and serves as mayor pro tem, co-sponsored the legislation. She says it is an opportunity to revitalize storefronts while helping entrepreneurs.
“Help small businesses to be able to take advantage of some of the vacant storefronts that we have in Kansas City,” she went on, “To ensure that we can put our best foot forward during World Cup.”
Nia Webster, assistant director for Kansas City’s Neighborhood Services Department, presented the program to the committee.
“The biggest goal of the program is to actually get businesses in place for the World Cup,” she explained.
Webster says it also presents a new opportunity for existing businesses.
“[For owners to] say, you know what, I want to be closer. I want to test out maybe downtown or somewhere in that market, where I can probably have a second location. It just creates a lot of different opportunities.”
Webster said that the city does not have data on all the vacant storefronts as of this report.
In a statement sent to KCTV5, Webster said, “[We are] still awaiting a new city platform build out that has potential to give us that data. The current pilot budget has potential to around 20-30 storefront activations.”
The target locations will be in the downtown area, near the World Cup set up.
The pilot program has not yet launched.
The city council is set to vote on the ordinance on Thursday.
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