Month: February 2019

by Mary Rupert

What would you like to see in a new grocery store in downtown Kansas City, Kansas?

Some residents who attended the 5:30 p.m. downtown grocery community meeting Wednesday at Memorial Hall wanted to see a full-service grocery store. Others wanted the store to have a butcher and a deli or coffee shop. Still others wanted delivery for senior citizens. Others wanted a range of brands to choose from, including a private label, less expensive, brand. Online ordering and drive-through grocery pickup also were discussed. Those were just a few of the responses.

Residents who attended two public meetings on Wednesday, Feb. 13, at Memorial Hall filled out questionnaires about what they would like to see in the new store and some also talked about it in small groups. Two more community meetings on the grocery store are planned at noon and 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 21. The meetings are open to the public.

Rob Richardson, Unified Government director of planning, said there was a good community response for the meetings, and many residents offered their ideas for the new store. The planning department will be making a report on the answers.

An estimated 70 people attended the noon meeting and an estimated 40 people attended the 5:30 p.m. meeting. The UG sent out about 19,000 postcards inviting residents of the central core area to the meetings.

The new grocery store at the southwest corner of 5th and Minnesota Avenue, in what is now a parking lot across from the Reardon Center, will be about 14,000 square feet, said Katherine Carttar, the UG’s interim economic development director. That’s smaller than the Price Chopper at 76th and State, but larger than a typical neighborhood grocery store, she said.

The new grocery will be built by the UG and managed by the Merc, which has a grocery co-op store in Lawrence.

There are plans for a 100 parking spaces to be created along Minnesota Avenue, adding diagonal parking on the street and replacing some of the parking space to be used by the grocery store. A number of spaces in the lot will be set aside for Merc customers, she said.

Three different styles of buildings were displayed on drawings at the community meeting, and residents were asked by Richardson to choose the one they preferred.

Richardson said plans are for construction on the new grocery store to begin this spring, after the plans are approved.

Rita York Hennecke, general manager of the Merc, said the new grocery will be a cooperative, where everyone can shop. It will be accessible from buses that stop in front of the store, and it will be within walking distance for some residents. More parking is being added near the store.

The Merc offers affordable foods, a produce department, seafood, floral, cheese, deli, bakery and coffee shop, she said. There also are foods one would expect in a grocery store, including cereal, bread and other products. This store also will have a classroom to make presentations about food.

In order to figure out the needs of the community, the Merc has been holding meetings throughout the community asking residents what they would like to see in a grocery store. She said the store is a member of AWG and will have the ability to offer less expensive brands that are competitively priced.

“We just want to know what you want us to carry,” she said. She added there are plans to include locally grown produce. She also said it is important to have a staff that reflects the diversity of the community.

She said the Merc expects to employ about 20 to 25 people full-time at the new grocery store, with benefits and wages.

The downtown grocery store is not the only one currently under discussion in Kansas City, Kansas, Richardson said. The Historic Northeast Midtown Association also is discussing a grocery store for an existing building at 1726 Quindaro Blvd. and plans a meeting on it at noon and 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 16, at 1726 Quindaro Blvd.

The store on Quindaro also could be a co-op, and the two groups planning the stores do not see them as competitive, but just want to serve the community and be successful, according to Richardson.

The UG plans to build and own the new grocery building, and this isn’t the first time they have used a similar model, Richardson said. The UG previously financed the downtown Hilton Garden Inn, then sold the building in recent years. Also, the UG previously built a movie theater at The Legends Outlets, and within the past few years the building was sold to AMC Theatres, Richardson said.

Upcoming meetings on the downtown grocery store are planned March 11, when there will be a Planning Commission public hearing on the preliminary plan; March 28, at a UG Commission public hearing on the preliminary plan; and April 8, at a Planning Commission public hearing on the final development plan. The Merc will continue to hold smaller meetings on products and pricing.

Financial plans for the new store were not part of the community meeting discussion on Wednesday night, but are being considered in negotiations with the UG administration. A proposed development plan that was in the City Planning Commission agenda for Feb. 11 has some details on it. (See http://public.wycokck.org/sites/planning-agendas-minutes-staffreports/Agendas/February%202019%20CPC%20Agenda.pdf)

In the sale of the downtown Hilton Garden Inn, the funds received were placed in a special asset fund that is available for developments downtown, such as the new grocery store. However, the UG is trying to leverage those funds through a Local Initiatives Support Corp. (LISC) loan and New Market tax credits.

According to the proposed preliminary development plan, the cost of the new grocery store would be $6,697,946. Project costs would be paid from incremental property tax revenues from the project area where the grocery is located, and from other UG funds.

Tax increment financing would not pay all of the costs, with only $882,693 qualifying under the TIF act as redevelopment project costs, according to information from the preliminary development plan.

Besides lease payments from the grocery store operator and local sales tax revenues generated from the grocery store, the UG plans to obtain financing through the Local Initiatives Support Corp. and from New Market tax credits, according to the development plan.

See earlier story at https://wyandotteonline.com/downtown-kck-grocery-store-to-be-on-city-planning-agenda-tonight/.