KCRag Forum

aknowledgeableperson wrote: GRID:
I would agree on most of your points.  Why not take over the old Leeds auto plant and build a Legoland there?

aknowledgeableperson wrote: The Leeds auto plant has been closed for many, many years.  I think close to 20.  Clean up?  Why not.  You turn a non-productive tract(s) of land into something productive.  Drive up the cost?  Well, that is what happens when previously empty downtown buildings are rehabbed.

shinatoo wrote: The Leeds plant had been divided up into individual industrial spaces for starting companies since about 1992. It's basically was incubator for new manufacturing businesses.

It currently houses Weld Wheel (purchased in 2004), an very successful custom wheel business. There payroll is around 9 million as of 2004. They also make the Sean John/P Diddy/Puff Daddy line of custom wheels.

To get even more off topic, the Leeds plant was opened in April of 1912 by Henry Ford and was the first automotive plant outside of Kansas City.

Highlander wrote: Do you mean outside of Detroit?

I remember when they announced their intention to Leeds into individual industrial space so its good to here that something positive has come out of it.  I am curious about how many other companies have taken up shop there...any other success stories?

Kard wrote: Is Weld Wheel out of bankruptcy?

shinatoo wrote:

To get even more off topic, the Leeds plant was opened in April of 1912 by Henry Ford and was the first automotive plant outside of Kansas City.

aknowledgeableperson wrote: Leeds was always a Chevy plant, I believe.  Ford did have a plant closer to Truman Road in the Blue Valley Industrial Area before it opened the Claycomo plant.

shinatoo wrote: Looks like you are right, http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascit ... .htmstates states that First plant outside Detroit was in KC. I assumed it was Leeds.

voltopt wrote: http://www.umkc.edu/labor-ed/history11.htm

This is a story about the Ford Motor Plant at 12th and Winchester in the Blue Valley area.

...
Stonemont now eyes a $67.2 million redevelopment of the industrial building's footprint on the park's northern 50 acres. Initially, the firm looks to start demolishing the structure in July, after which it will remove an underlying concrete slab and remediate soil. A project timeline then calls for new construction to begin in early 2023 and wrap up that year.

The project team could opt for either a 799,000-square-foot single-tenant building or two smaller buildings — 470,000 and 290,000 square feet — Patrick Heffernan, Stonemont's vice president of asset management, told the Port Authority of Kansas City's development committee Monday.

The park's southern 35 acres will remain undeveloped for the foreseeable future because of their location within a floodplain. In the property's southwest portion, Stonemont and Port KC have discussed setting aside and preserving green space along the Blue River, allowing for future connectivity in the broader 4,600-acre Blue River Ecodustrial Corridor.
...
Port KC's development committee recommended approving an expression of intent to issue as much as $90 million in bonds to support Stonemont's project, which the authority's full commission could approve on Feb. 28.
...

In the property's southwest portion, Stonemont and Port KC have discussed setting aside and preserving green space along the Blue River, allowing for future connectivity in the broader 4,600-acre Blue River Ecodustrial Corridor.