All About The Linwood Shopping Center at Linwood and Prospect

[FangKC]

KCMax asked me what I knew about the Linwood Shopping Center at Linwood and Prospect. I knew very little, so I did a little research.  This thread brings everyone up to date on the history the development, and, as I'm apt to do, a little history about what used to be there.

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The site of the Linwood Shopping Center is that of the former St. Joseph's Hospital at 2510 E. Linwood. The Hospital was built and dedicated on March 17, 1917.  St. Joseph's moved there from their former site at 8th and Pennsylvania downtown.



This was a lovely old building, and I'm sad that it was torn down because it seemed perfect for a conversion to senior housing.

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From the local history database at the Kansas City Library, an archived KC Star article:

Q.: What Happened to the Old St. Joseph's Hospital on Linwood Boulevard?

St. Joseph's opened its doors at Linwood Boulevard and Prospect Avenue in 1917. After 60 years
of service the building was abandoned in 1977. The hospital had moved to Interstate 435 and
State Line Road; the new structure was dedicated on March 19, 1977.

Several parties were interested in the old property, including the Missouri Social Services Department. The intention was to lease the facilities as an honor prison center. But demolition work began in 1979 and was completed in 1982. Today the Linwood Shopping Center stands on the site of the old St. Joseph's Hospital.
 
Date January 28, 1996 
Kansas City Star 

[LenexatoKCMO]

While that looks like a nice building and was a shame to loose - I shudder at the thought of what would have happened if it had indeed been saved as an "honor prison". 

[FangKC]

Old KC Star articles relating to the Linwood Shopping Center, and its' developer, Donald Maxwell.

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What kind of city should Kansas City be?

The Kansas City Star
January 13, 1991
Author: E. THOMAS McCLANAHAN; Of the Editorial Staff

Oddly enough, the vocabulary most appropriate to the problem of America's declining cities is that of ecology - the study of niches and habitat, or how living organisms relate to their environment. Too often, we forget that the built environment of a healthy city is every bit as complex and fragile as the natural world.

In Kansas City's central core, as in many other cities, our urban niches - the cafes, the storefront shops, the hotels, the townhouses and apartments - have vanished or decayed over the years. In a vibrant city these are the places that help domesticate urban life and foster affection for human community.....

Donald Maxwell, president of Community Development Corp., developer of the highly successful Linwood Shopping Center at Linwood Boulevard and Prospect Avenue.

Maxwell said any redevelopment strategy should be "comprehensive," meaning it should include opportunities for minority developers, entrepreneurs and investors.

Maxwell pointed to several projects now in the planning stages that, if built, would help transform pockets of the inner city.

Those plans include: additional commercial outlets and housing in the 12th Street area, redevelopment of the former Martin Luther King Jr. Hospital into an elderly village, additional development at 18th and Vine streets, and plans for another shopping center at Linwood and Prospect. (The shopping center project is planned by CDC.) "These are some of the projects that are on the drawing board that with a little assistance from the majority community can happen almost overnight," Maxwell said. "In their own right, I believe these will happen. But they cannot happen in an accelerated manner unless we get participation from larger developers or a financial institution to work closer with us, with lower interest rates. " Jerry Riffel, lawyer and former member of the Kansas City Council.....

[FangKC]

Loan delinquency mars good effort to revive city Developers' lax attitude toward repayment cannon be excused by 'everyone does it' argument, or any other.

The Kansas City Star
December 3, 1992
Author: YAEL T. ABOUHALKAH

In many respects, the taxpayer-financed Downtown Minority Development Corp. is a good idea gone bad in Kansas City.

The developers it gives loans to - most recently Donald Maxwell and McCormack Baron & Associates - have a publicly cavalier approach to paying back the money.

In short, the attempt to set up a system that boosts minority businesses and the inner core of the city isn't functioning, at least when it comes to making sure taxpayers' seed money is repaid.

At last report, development groups had borrowed more than $15 million from the minority development agency. But less than $400,000 had been paid back. That's outrageous.

Consider the stance of Maxwell, president of the corporation that manages the Linwood Shopping Center on the East Side.

Maxwell recently proposed paying back loans to the Downtown Minority Development Corp. with a dime for every dollar he got.

That would be an absurdly low total of $140,000 for the $1.4 million he owes....

Meanwhile, Maxwell is plunging ahead on another taxpayer-assisted shopping center across the street.

The magic phrase "cash flow" has been mentioned in the cases of Maxwell and of McCormack Baron. The Linwood Shopping Center and Quality Hill developments, it is said, are not creating enough cash to allow developers to pay back their loans.....

[FangKC]

Council panel recommends aid for development groups

The Kansas City Star
March 25, 1993
Author: KEVIN Q. MURPHY; Staff Writer

A Kansas City Council committee Wednesday recommended giving $188,000 to two development corporations already receiving city-related subsidies, but which have had trouble repaying loans.

The Community Development Corp. will get $40,000 and McCormack Baron & Associates Inc. $148,000 under ordinances the Plans and Zoning Committee approved Wednesday.

Donald Maxwell, president of the non-profit Community Development Corp., said the money is needed to ease a cash-flow bind.

The corporation, which developed the Linwood Shopping Center, has suffered recently from a lack of private contributions, Maxwell said. He said "bad press" about corporation finances has hurt private support.

The corporation has been found in default on $1.2 million in loans from the Downtown Minority Development Corp., a city-created agency. It owes a minimum $17,505 payment.

Maxwell said talks continue with the DMDC to resolve the loan problems....

[FangKC]

Port Authority leader faces unpaid loans, taxes Hundreds of thousands of dollars are owed by chairman and partners.

The Kansas City Star
March 14, 1996
Author: TOM JACKMAN; Staff Writer

The chairman of the Kansas City Port Authority is one of the region's top debtors to the federal government, owing more than $500,000 in delinquent Small Business Administration loans and nearly $100,000 in unpaid income taxes. ...

Anderson's stepbrother, Donald L. Maxwell, and Maxwell's wife, Delores Maxwell, also were being pursued by the government for more than $500,000 in defaulted SBA loans. But that pursuit stopped when the Maxwells filed for personal bankruptcy in Topeka in August 1994.

Last week the bankruptcy case ended with one payment - $6,863.25 - to the government. The remaining $500,000 debt will remain unpaid, although taxpayers repaid the loans to the lending banks.

Donald Maxwell said the failed loans were the result of trying to generate business in the inner city. Donald Maxwell has gained renown for developing the Linwood Shopping Center at Linwood Boulevard and Prospect Avenue.

``We've attempted to do business in the inner city when nobody else will,'' Donald Maxwell said.

``You invest in deals in the inner city. Sometimes they work; sometimes they don't. '' Garnisheeing starts In 1986, Elbert Anderson and Donald Maxwell obtained a $300,000 loan to buy Celebrity Chevrolet, a car dealership on Independence Avenue near the Paseo. The SBA guaranteed the loan. Two years later, Anderson and Maxwell defaulted, still owing more than $270,000....

[FangKC]

Money shift at issue in campaign

The Kansas City Star
March 16, 1999
Author: MATT CAMPBELL; The Kansas City Star

A shift in public housing money from one group to another is causing friction in the campaign for the 3rd District seat on the Kansas City Council.

Councilwoman Mary Williams-Neal helped remove $80,000 from the $180,000 budgeted for the Community Development Corp. of Kansas City and give it to another group for housing in the impoverished Ivanhoe neighborhood.
Carol Coe, Williams-Neal's opponent in the March 30 election, says the money shift is political payback because Donald Maxwell, a former Community Development director and now a consultant for the group, is a Coe supporter.....

``It is clear punishment of people that have been perceived to be involved in the political process,'' said Coe, a former councilwoman.

``I think it violates the ethical code of the city.''

The issue goes to the heart of the 3rd District contest, in which both candidates claim they are the better choice for one of the city's poorest districts.

Williams-Neal says she is guarding public money that too long has been wasted by community-development groups. Coe says Williams-Neal is out of touch and much more a political player than her righteous image might suggest.

Both the community development group and Blue Hills Homes Corp. are nonprofit groups that apply for federal money channeled through the city. The community development money can be used for housing or commercial projects.

Community Development, for example, developed the Linwood Shopping Center....

Maxwell, who circulated nominating petitions for Coe's candidacy, called the money shift pure politics.

``It's unfortunate that any candidate would cut the program fund because they feel that someone associated with the organization supports someone else,'' Maxwell said....

[Highlander]

The site of the Linwood Shopping Center is that of the former St. Joseph's Hospital at 2510 E. Linwood. The Hospital was built and dedicated on March 17, 1917.  St. Joseph's moved there from their former site at 8th and Pennsylvania downtown.

      And to think I was born there.

[FangKC]

Former official pleads guilty

KC man admits taking kickbacks

Kansas City Star, The (MO)
April 5, 2001
Author: MARK MORRIS; The Kansas City Star

A former official of a Kansas City public employment agency pleaded guilty Wednesday to accepting a kickback for his influence on a contract.

Donald Maxwell, until recently the secretary of the Full Employment Council, admitted in federal court that he accepted a $1,400 kickback on Sept. 3, 1999. The council uses federal, state and local funds to support a job training and placement service.

As part of his plea agreement, Maxwell, 54, acknowledged receiving more money in illegal kickbacks....

Maxwell is best known as the executive director of the Community Development Corp., which used millions of dollars in federal grants and loans in the 1980s and 1990s to develop the Linwood Shopping Center and inner-city housing.

He resigned as president of the corporation in the late 1990s and since has worked at his own consulting firm, Maxwell & Associates....

[FangKC]

KC man gets probation for kickbacks

Defendant was on the board of a job agency

Kansas City Star, The (MO)
August 9, 2001
Author: MARK MORRIS; The Kansas City Star

Kansas City businessman Donald Maxwell was sentenced Wednesday to probation, 600 hours of community service and a $20,000 fine for accepting a kickback while on the board of a public employment agency.

Maxwell also must serve 90 days of home confinement under the sentence imposed by U.S. District Judge Fernando Gaitan. Maxwell can leave his home to work or perform community service during that period, Gaitan said.

In April, Maxwell pleaded guilty to accepting a $1,400 payment to influence a contract while serving as secretary of the Full Employment Council. The council uses federal, state and local funds to support a job training and placement service....

[KCMax]

I visited the area this week. Its not nearly as awful as I thought it might be. It could certainly use a shot in the arm, but its very salvageable. I talked to a rep with the local development non-profit and they had some big plans for that intersection as a magnet for east side retail. I certainly hope they're successful.

Many thanks Fang.

[FangKC]

Article on the Kansas City Library local history database:

Donald Maxwell, the 40-year-old black "president of the Community Development Corporation [CDC] for 11 years" and National Minority Advocate of the Year in 1987. Description of his career in urban renewal through the CDC, helping to found the Linwood Shopping Center and operate "a plastics plant, a cement block manufacturer, the Seven Oaks Shopping Center and the Seven Oaks Housing Complex."

Author William R. Wehrman

Date July//1987  
Source Kansas City Magazine

[FangKC]

Longtime grocery is calling it quits

Kansas City Star, The (MO)
February 24, 2007
Author: JOYCE SMITH; The Kansas City Star

As the CVS pharmacy celebrates its grand opening next door, a much more somber sign greets customers of Meiners Linwood Thriftway.

"Going out of Business ... Everything Must Go" declares the banner covering the front window of the longtime grocery in the Linwood Shopping Center. All items excluding tobacco and alcohol are 25 percent off, and customers who spend more than $50 get a free turkey.

Gene Jenkins, manager of the store, said the Meiners family has tried to find a buyer for five years.

"They had five stores at one time, but they have closed all but this one," Jenkins said.

"Because of cash flow, they had a difficult time keeping inventory in the store. It's kind of sad, for the employees, the community and the Meiners family."

Jenkins said the store also faced increased competition from the new Baron's Foods in The Shops on Blue Parkway and was long overdue for a remodeling.

The store at 3110 Prospect Ave., which has 24 employees, should close by mid-March.....

Jenkins hopes another grocery will be able to open in the spot.

When Linwood Shopping Center opened in 1986, it transformed an abandoned hospital site into one of the biggest development projects undertaken in the inner city. Within a few years the center was so popular it spurred the construction of Linwood Square Shopping Center on the east side of Prospect....

[shinatoo]

Those balconies are SWEET. That would have been a great condo conversion.

[FangKC]

STEVE PENN COMMENTARY - COMMENTARY: Winging it at Rhythm & Ribs
Kansas City Star, The (MO)
June 23, 2007

Don Maxwell, owner of Wing BustersDon Maxwell, owner of Wing Busters

"I've got lemon pepper, ranch, garlic Parmesan, hot wings, mild wings, jalapeno and Caribbean. And it goes on from there." -- Don Maxwell, owner of Wing Busters

It's where entrepreneurial creativity and artistic expression meet in a big field. A festival like Rhythm & Ribs brings together musicians trying to broaden their harmonic artistry and small-business owners trying to broaden their customer base.

At last weekend's festival, I ran into examples of both.

Remember Don Maxwell, the former developer of the Linwood Shopping Center? Maxwell has retired from development. Now he is doing what you might call "trying to wing it."

Maxwell is the owner of a small-business franchise known as Wing Busters, an eatery at 11902 Blue Ridge Blvd. that specializes in a wide variety of flavored chicken wings. He had some for sale last weekend.

Maxwell is partners with V.L. Dixon, the owner of the former Wings N' Things in Kansas City. Maxwell also operates another franchise in Omaha.

"We're very much operational," Maxwell said. "We specialize in 26 different flavors of wings. We can shake 'em and flake 'em to your delight. We can find a flavor that almost anyone likes."

Maxwell's verbal mastery of his wing repertoire was amazing.

"I've got lemon pepper, ranch, garlic Parmesan, hot wings, mild wings, jalapeno and Caribbean," Maxwell said. "And it goes on from there."

Lately, Maxwell and Dixon are trying to spread their wings.

"We're in an expansion mode," Maxwell said. "We're constantly looking for new sites. We're looking for new operators."

[aknowledgeableperson]

Boy, this sure brings back some memories.

Hard to say if the old hospital could have been saved or not.  It was in very poor condition when is was closed and then it sat vacant for many years before being torn down.  Of course, decisions are made all of the time and there are many factors that are considered when the decisions are made.  In short many felt that retail/commercial (especially a grocery store) space for that block was more important than having residences.  And the condition of the building had much to do with it.

And don't forget, many of the preservation benefits we have now did not exist at that time.

[FangKC]

Those balconies are SWEET. That would have been a great condo conversion.

It really is a lovely piece of architecture, and would have made a great condo building. Had it been located on the Plaza, it probably would have been.

[FangKC]

Information needed to lure businesses to urban core

Kansas City Star, The (MO)
January 9, 2002
Author: MARY SANCHEZ; The Kansas City Star

It is expensive to be poor. Neighborhoods with low household incomes are economic opportunities waiting to be tapped.

Both statements appear illogical. Yet both are true. Either point could be proven by anyone living in the central city who tries to grocery shop conveniently.

Large, competitively priced grocery stores are hard to come by in the urban core. In fact, if the comparison is a well-stocked monstrosity in the suburbs, such stores don't exist. There is a Meiners in the Linwood Shopping Center near 31st Street and Prospect Avenue, but few other options east of Troost Avenue to about 50th Street. The Northeast fares a bit better. There is an Apple Market on Independence Avenue. And a Price Chopper at Independence Avenue and Topping.....

[aknowledgeableperson]

It really is a lovely piece of architecture, and would have made a great condo building. Had it been located on the Plaza, it probably would have been.

If it was on the Plaza it probably would not have fallen into such disrepair in the first place.

And your point proves three important real estate rules.  Location.  Location.  Location.

[KCMax]

The hospital was used in the nuclear-holocaust movie "The Day After". No joke.