Kansas City Business Journal – ‘Healthy campus’ is at heart of new downtown KCK master plan

Rob Roberts – Kansas City Business Journal

Mark Holland, mayor of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kan., and representatives of architecture firm Gould Evans unveiled a new vision for downtown Kansas City, Kan., that centers around the mayor’s initiative to develop a healthy campus near the intersection of 10th Street and Minnesota Avenue.

The vision, which is being laid out in a proposed amendment to the downtown master plan, resulted from months of meetings with stakeholders and was shared with about 175 residents during a Thursday evening forum at City Hall.

The healthy campus at the core of the plan was part of Holland’s and the UG’s response to a 2009 study that ranked Wyandotte as the unhealthiest county in the state, partly based on the lack of physical assets such as grocery stores and fitness facilities.

The proposed Downtown Central Parkway plan, so-called because of the expanded swath of downtown greenspace proposed between Big Eleven Lake and Waterway Park, calls for as much as $30 million in investment in a new community center and grocery store.

The $12 million community center, which will be managed by the YMCA, will be constructed within the next two years at the northwest corner of 10th and Minnesota. According to Holland, the city already has committed $6 million in tax revenue generated by the Hollywood Casino in Village West to help pay for the community center. The Wyandotte Health Foundation has pledged an additional $1 million, and the remaining $5 million will come from philanthropic donations.

Lamar Hunt Jr.