Brian McKiernan – A Bright New Day on Minnesota Avenue
Whenever I post historic pictures or postcards of Minnesota Avenue, I always get comments that it’s a shame we don’t have as much activity as we used to downtown. People tell me that they are sad to see so many vacant buildings and so many fewer people compared to years ago.Thanks to the investment of a new community partner, two buildings in the 700 block of Minnesota Avenue will be completely renovated and will soon become home to dozens or even hundreds of new workers in our slowly re-growing downtown.Loretto Properties, LLC is a Kansas City real estate company founded by Lamar Hunt, Jr. and James Arkell. Their motto, “Investing in Families by Investing in Communities” clearly expresses the belief of both men as they work to build up communities throughout the metro.
Both men recently spent some time in downtown KCK and saw enormous development possibilities with a new Transit Center and streetscape at 7th & Minnesota along with several structurally sound buildings that were vacant and ready for redevelopment.