The Stadium happened because Nebraska Furniture Mart was willing to donate the land. And I think it was all put together pretty fast. And I assume Cerner wanted to be by their stadium. I wish they would have put it downtown too, but it just didn't work out that way.GRID wrote: I'm fine with everything KCK has done up to the Cerner and soccer stadium project which I simply think should have been built downtown. At least the office complex. With the amount of money that Kansas is handing out, you would think they would have just a bit more say in how it's spent.
I also don't think the city should have tiffed the Plaza at the Speedway. That project could and should have happened east of 435. Even along I-70 at 78th Street or something. A suburban infill redevelopment etc.
The city's move to build the speedway, village west, cabella's, NFM and even the baseball stadium are all great and it was very much needed.
But at some point, the city should have put a bit more effort into the actual city of KCK and subsidizing sprawl far from the city with hundreds of millions of dollars is only going to do so much for the actual city of KCK. It's barely even spurring suburban residential growth as the area around the speedway is not exactly booming with new rooftops.
Sunfresh is nice. but hardly enough.
I agree about Plaza at the Speedway and more could be done to add in the city, but somebody has to want to build it there. And 78th street isn't exactly inner-core, it's just the previous suburb area.
There are some new rooftops going out there, but nobody is adding rooftops right now.
It will be interesting to see what happens with Indian Springs and the EPA, that will show how strong the commitment is to develop east of 435.