Kansas City Finds New Value
in the Area's Underused
Properties
Kansas City, KS/MO
T
^h,
he efforts of the Kansas City, Kansas/Missouri Brownfields
Assessment Demonstration Pilot have helped leverage more than $4.5
million in cleanup and more than $100 million in redevelopment funding to
restore the city's brownfields. This type of progress led to Kansas City
being awarded an EPA Brownfields Showcase Community designation in
March 1998, and a Phoenix Award from the Pennsylvania Land
Recycling Program in 2000. The partnerships enabled through
Brownfields National Partnership and the expertise of Showcase
Community staff are helping the Kansas City Brownfields Initiative
(KCBI) realize its goal of restoring brownfields while implementing a
permanent redevelopment program for the area.
Showcase Communities are selected by the Brownfields National
Partnership to demonstrate that through cooperation, federal, state, local,
and private efforts can be concentrated around brownfields to restore
these sites, stimulate economic development, and revitalize communities.
Showcase Communities serve as models for broad-based cooperative
efforts to support locally based initiatives. Showcases receive up to
$400,000 from EPA for both environmental assessments and to support
the loan of a federal employee to the Showcase for up to three years.
Showcase Communities receive additional financial and technical support
from the Partnership's more than 20 federal partners, depending on the
community need and program eligibility.
The initial goal of brownfields restoration efforts in the Kansas City area
was to revitalize the city's Central Industrial District (CID). Located at
the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas Rivers, the CID was formerly
a bustling center for meat packing, agricultural, stockyard, railroad, and
manufacturing industries. While the CID features excellent access to
major interstates, rails, rivers, and airports, a history of flooding in the
area and general economic changes resulted in the loss of many
businesses and the creation of numerous brownfields. The Showcase
Community has since broadened brownfields redevelopment efforts to the
city limits of Kansas City, Missouri and the Unified Government of
Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas.
With the assistance of public and private partnerships enabled in part by
the Showcase Community, environmental cleanup of brownfields and
necessary infrastructure improvements are underway in the CID that are
enticing private developers toward restoration of the area. Projects
continued ^
JUST THE FACTS:
• Community involvement has been an
essential part of revitalizing the
area's brownfields. A Brownfields
Steering Committee that includes
representatives from local
communities meets once a month to
discuss brownfields issues.
• So far, more than 350 brownfields
have been assessed for
contamination, revealing that 280 of
those sites did not require cleanup.
• One of the Showcase Community's
most successful projects is the
transformation of a 22-acre rail yard
and historic railroad roundhouse into
the new Westside Business Park.
The initial goal of brownfields
restoration efforts in the Kansas
City area was to revitalize the city's
Central Industrial District, once a
bustling center for agricultural and
manufacturing industries. The
Showcase Community has since
broadened efforts to the city limits
of Kansas City, Missouri and the
Unified Government of Wyandotte
County/Kansas City, Kansas.
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CONTACTS:
For more information on EPA's Showcase
Communities, contact Tony Raia of OSWER's
Office of Brownfields Cleanup and
Redevelopment at (202) 566-2758
Or visit EPA's Brownfields Website at:
http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/
include a $17 million effort to construct and modernize industrial warehouse and manufacturing
facilities for the Faultless Starch/Bon Ami Company on three former brownfields; a completed $27.5
million new world headquarters for Butler Manufacturing Company; a completed $11.5 million
new facility for George Fern & Co. on a former rail yard; and other private
investments totaling more than $100 million. Public infrastructure investments in
CID roads, bridges, and sewers total more than $50 million. And on 55 acres
along the south bank of the Missouri River, an estimated $300 million in
private investment is projected to create a new riverfront park area with
office buildings, hotels, town homes, restaurants, and an aquarium on the
site of a former demolition debris landfill and manufactured gas plant.
This park will include wetland habitat and support species preservation, to
be funded in part by up to $2 million from the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers (USAGE). Cleanup on two-thirds of this site is now complete,
enabled by a $1.68 million EPA Solid Waste grant and $360,000 in EPA
Brownfields Cleanup Revolving Loan funds. Negotiations to clean the
remaining portion of the property are currently in progress.
Running past several brownfields on both sides of the state will be the Kansas
City Riverfront Heritage Trail, which is considered one of the KCBI's primary
projects. When completed, this nine-mile trail will connect Riverfront Park, the River
Market, and downtown Kansas City via a series of scenic bicycle and pedestrian paths. The trail
borders at least nine sites targeted as brownfields by KCBI, and will enhance those sites both
aesthetically and by providing transportation alternatives. Approximately $15 million has been secured
for the design and construction of the trail, which is expected to be complete in time for the 150-year
celebration of the Lewis & Clark Expedition in June 2004.
One of the Showcase Community's most successful projects is the transformation of a 22-acre rail
yard and historic railroad roundhouse, owned by the Hispanic Economic Development Corporation,
into the new Westside Business Park. While preserving the roundhouse's structure and facade, the
facility was redeveloped into high-tech, high-end office space for Output Technologies, a national
leader in the printing and distribution of financial statements. More than 100,000 square feet of light
industrial and warehouse space was created behind the roundhouse. This project was funded by
$14.2 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, $3 million in
guaranteed construction loans, and a state brownfields loan of $900,000. In addition, the Missouri
Department of Economic Development contributed $100,000 to survey local residents about job skills
and interests, to develop marketing tools for the Business Park, and to establish a database of
residents and employment interests. An estimated 375 jobs were created as a result of this project.
KCBI considers community involvement an essential part of revitalizing the area's brownfields. KCBI
formed a Brownfields Steering Committee that includes representatives from local communities and
meets once a month to discuss brownfields issues. With assistance from EPA and the Council for
Urban Economic Development, KCBI also held two "Distressed Properties Forums" that each drew
more than 100 stakeholders, and featured presentations on local brownfields case studies and
incentives for redevelopment. KCBI also uses the area's Community Development Corporations to
monitor community needs and the responses of local citizens to brownfields restoration efforts.
So far, the efforts of KCBI, EPA's Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilot, and the Showcase
Community have led to more than 350 brownfields being assessed for contamination. Of these
properties, 280 were determined to not require cleanup. These findings have set the stage for private
investment and new development, and the partnerships and community outreach enabled by the
Showcase Community have supported those efforts.
Brownfields Success Story
Kansas City, KS/MO
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5105)
EPA 500-F-02-159
December 2002
www.epa.gov/brownfields/
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