The Unified Government’s Economic Development and Finance Standing Committee voted Monday, June 29, to end nearly two years of negotiations with Eastside Innovation over redevelopment of the former Indian Springs Mall site. The committee also approved the details of a manger for the downtown grocery store agreement, and approved a tax incentive for residential development

Commissioner Melissa Bynum, the committee’s chair, was absent for bereavement, and Commissioner Andrew Davis (District 8) served as acting chair.

Committee votes to end Indian Springs negotiations

In the meeting’s most consequential vote, the committee voted 4-1 to terminate the UG’s award of the Midtown Station project to Eastside Innovation for redevelopment of the former Indian Springs Mall site. The decision ends talks that began when the developer was selected in October 2024. Eastside Innovation is led by KCK-native developer Erik Murray, who is also running for US Senate. The firm describes its mission as focused on redeveloping communities that have “historically been on the social, environmental, and economic margin.”

The Midtown Station project proposed to bring mixed-use development, including 1,500 new residences, 200 thousand square feet of commercial space, and a hotel to the now-vacant site near I-635 and State Avenue.

The future of the site, which has seen several failed attempts at a renaissance, is now up in the air once more. This summer marks 10 years since the mall was demolished, and nearly 20 years since it was condemned as unusable.

Todd LaSala, an attorney with the Stinson law firm who serves as the UG’s outside counsel, told the committee that the two sides had exchanged proposals in June but remained apart on several points, including the sale price, payment structure, distribution of tax increment financing revenue, and the amount of state STAR Bond assistance needed. LaSala said the last substantive conversation between the two sides took place June 18, and that the developer’s attorney had only asked since then whether the item was back on the agenda.

Commissioner Howard moved to allow more time for negotiations, but the motion died for lack of a second. Commissioner Pacheco then moved to terminate the award; the motion passed 4-1, with Howard casting the dissenting vote.

Grocery store management deal fast-tracked

Commissioners voted 5-0 to approve a management agreement with Santa Fe Grocers, to reopen the former Merc grocery store at 501 Minnesota Avenue, and to fast-track the item to the Board of Commissioners’ July 2 meeting, to allow the operator to begin ordering equipment and hiring staff as soon as possible.

Anthony Estrada, owner-operator of a United Market store on 31st and Prospect in Kansas City, Mo., and a principal on the KCK project, described plans for a full-service market with a butcher counter, scratch bakery and food-pantry partnerships, and said the company moved quickly to hire local staff at his Missouri-side store.

“I’m happy to report that within 4 hours we hired 50 local residents,” Estrada said.

Under the agreement, the UG will provide a $150 thousand pre-opening fund toward an estimated $572 thousand in store improvements, including new produce coolers, expanded meat and bakery sections and additional shelving. Santa Fe will pay the UG $5,000 a month in occupancy fees starting after the first year, rising 3 percent annually, with an option to purchase the property. The UG will collect a $104 thousand annual management fee, and could also collect up to 5 percent of the store’s net operating income after the manager recoups costs.

Several residents who spoke during public comment raised concerns about the deal, citing the low occupancy fee and the lack of performance benchmarks. LaSala, who also negotiated this deal on the UG’s behalf, told the committee the structure reflects market terms for a manager taking on all of the store’s operating risk and the bulk of the renovation costs.

“If you could find somebody to do that for $25,000 a month, we should do that. That’s just not what the market is for this,” LaSala said.

Committee adopts new housing incentive policy

The committee voted 5-0 to adopt a Reinvestment Housing Incentive District policy, a state-authorized tool similar to tax increment financing that lets developers use future property tax revenue from new homes to pay for streets, sewers and other infrastructure. Unlike a traditional TIF, the policy applies only to housing and lets the UG share 60 percent of the new tax revenue with the developer for up to 20 years, with the remaining 40 percent going to the UG during the term. After 20 years, the incentive expires and the UG collects the full amount.

Staff said the county faces a projected shortfall of six thousand housing units by 2030 and that infrastructure costs are the biggest obstacle to building. Staff also said the policy was written to avoid past mistakes in which the UG backed loans for incentive projects that were never completed. Under the RHID process, developers carry the financing risk if a project fails.

Megan Painter, director of neighborhood development at Build WyCo, urged commissioners to approve the policy, calling it essential to unlocking housing development in the Douglass-Sumner neighborhood.

“We are not asking for money. We are asking for a tool,” Painter said.

Downtown taxing district renewal advances

The committee voted 5-0 to set a Sept. 3 public hearing on renewing the Self-Supported Municipal Improvement District, known as the SSMID, which taxes downtown KCK property owners to pay for cleaning, marketing and safety initiatives. The district’s 2026 budget is roughly $693 thousand.

Bill Hutton, an attorney who has long served on the SSMID board, urged the committee to renew the district. “I’ve been a business owner and a property owner in downtown Kansas City, Kansas for over 40 years, and the monies that the SMID raises through taxing ourselves, including myself, has made a profound difference,” Hutton said.

Homefield reports first nine homes underway

In an information-only update, Curt Petersen, an attorney with Polsinelli representing Homefield, provided an update on the developer’s project to build nine homes on land bank lots in northeast KCK. Homefield has committed to $4.35 million in downtown and historically urban-area investment under an earlier development agreement, and Peterson told the committee it has signed joint-venture agreements with two KCK-based builders, Sutton Homes and Mosaic Homes. Total construction costs for the homes is estimated at $3.2 million, or roughly $355 thousand each, with completion planned by the end of the year.

Some residents pressed the committee on affordability. Beth Finney, a lifelong KCK resident from District 1, asked what the UG was doing “to prevent gentrification in Kansas City, Kansas, like what has happened in Kansas City, Missouri.” She contrasted the Homefield deal with the committee’s decision earlier that night to end negotiations with Eastside Innovation, which she said had proposed affordable housing for the Indian Springs Mall site.

Adrion Roberson, a KCK resident and community advocate, separately asked who the new homes are intended for given their price point relative to the surrounding neighborhood.

“Are these homes not necessarily for the people that are here, or is it to bring in other folks who can afford that and unfortunately move those people out that are already here?” Roberson said. “Affordable housing can’t be over $200,000, $300,000 a house. Not on 21st and Quindaro. It just can’t be,” he added.

Petersen did not dispute that the price point is out of reach for much of the surrounding area, but said there is no single definition of affordable housing and that delivering a new standalone single-family home anywhere in the Kansas City metro for meaningfully less than $350,000 is difficult given current materials, labor and code-compliance costs. Staff said the new homes will not displace existing residents because they are being built on vacant land bank lots, and that the development agreement with Homefield contemplates new construction rather than rehabilitation of existing homes.