KCRag Forum

Downtownkc.org has a dashboard for stats such as population and employees.

https://www.downtownkc.org/research-reports/

It currently says 28K population and near 124K employees. The latter seems high even factoring 'greater' downtown as a lot of office space converted to residential.

Also says around 5K units planned and under construction. That should put greater downtown pops well over 35K when complete, which some urban planners have set as an important milestone for KC to hit. Potentially easier to attract broader range of retailers (like Target).

This is incredibly interesting. Going to continue to play around with these reports.

Says current downtown population (which appears to be from 2021) is 31k. Projects just over 32k by the end of 2022.

Probably hit 40k by end of decade. From what I've read, 40k is the downtown population needed to start getting everything downtown.

UMKC Roo wrote: ↑Wed Nov 16, 2022 1:22 am Probably hit 40k by end of decade. From what I've read, 40k is the downtown population needed to start getting everything downtown.

Hopefully. This dashboard projects over 42k residents by 2028.

Seems ambitious, and I don’t know how they arrived at that number but that would go a long way to making downtown feel more lively

With all of the residential development spilling out of the loop into surrounding areas, 40K shouldn't be too far away. But the finish line keeps moving as to what population level will bring increased amenities. I remember when 10K was the goal, then 20, 25, 30 and now it's even higher. I have no doubt the right retail would succeed if they dove in. The only department-style store in between Roeland Park Walmart to Blue Ridge Walmart and Ward Pkwy Target to Chouteau Target is Costco - that's a huge hole.

Isn't there some dispute that the Census didn't count the downtown population properly?

kcjak wrote: ↑Wed Nov 16, 2022 8:47 am With all of the residential development spilling out of the loop into surrounding areas, 40K shouldn't be too far away. But the finish line keeps moving as to what population level will bring increased amenities. I remember when 10K was the goal, then 20, 25, 30 and now it's even higher. I have no doubt the right retail would succeed if they dove in. The only department-style store in between Roeland Park Walmart to Blue Ridge Walmart and Ward Pkwy Target to Chouteau Target is Costco - that's a huge hole.

Unfortunate that every step forward on residential seems to come with 2 steps back on jobs.