This Week in KC

🏟️ KANSAS CITY VOTERS COULD DECIDE THE ROYALS STADIUM DEAL IN APRIL 2027​
Missouri Workers Power asked the city clerk on Tuesday, September 1 to put stadium funding on the April 2027 ballot after the council let an August 31 deadline pass on the group's certified petition, which drew more than 4,500 signatures. The proposed law would force a citywide vote on any funding, design or permitting decision for venues seating more than 2,500, sweeping in Starlight, the Kauffman Center and CPKC Stadium alongside the Royals. The council committed $600 million toward the $1.9 billion downtown stadium in August. Here is the catch: the charter lets nine of 13 council members repeal an ordinance passed by voters, and 11 voted for the Royals deal.

🏗️ NORTH KANSAS CITY IS SPENDING $2.8 MILLION TO TAKE THE CENTURY-OLD PURINA MILL DOWN ONE PIECE AT A TIME​
Mayor Jesse Smith's own description is "the most boring demolition you will ever see." There is no implosion. The 1913 grain elevator, built by the Wabash Railroad and sold to Purina in 1960, sits between two sets of active railroad tracks and contains asbestos, so crews will take it apart piece by piece using crusher trucks and sprayer trucks for dust control. The building changed hands several times, fell into disuse, and the city took possession in 2022 and declared it a dangerous structure. Deconstruction runs six to eight months. Nothing is going in behind it either. Smith called the remaining ground a sliver with very little utility, and said the city has been budgeting $4 million to $5 million a year toward work like this since he took office seven years ago.

🏠 GROUND BROKE IN OVERLAND PARK ON 17 APARTMENTS BUILT FOR ADULTS WITH DISABILITIES​
Friends of JCDS turned dirt Tuesday, September 1 at 79th and Floyd streets on a $9.7 million building with 17 one and two bedroom apartments for up to 19 residents with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Future tenant Ron Mabel toured the unit he is moving into. The money stack includes $3.1 million in COVID funds redirected from the failed Lenexa homeless shelter, plus a no interest gap loan of up to $2.5 million the Johnson County commission approved July 30 as a last resort line of credit. The building will also hold a community room, a community garden, offices for Friends of JCDS and a public art gallery for the Emerging Artists program, a work program JCDS runs for adults with disabilities.

🍽️ MORE THAN 20 NEIGHBORS ARE TRYING TO SAVE MEALS ON WHEELS IN THE NORTHLAND BEFORE OCTOBER 31​

The Northland Shepherd's Center in Gladstone has served seniors in Clay and Platte counties for 35 years, running meals, groceries, a food pantry, activities and Meals on Wheels delivery. It closes October 31. A coalition of more than 20 residents has formed to keep some version of it going, possibly at a smaller scale or in a different location. Robert Adams is the one who explains why it matters. He started coming after losing his wife, made friends there, then became a Meals on Wheels driver, and describes the job as laying eyes on people as much as dropping off food. The parent Shepherd's Center organization is expected to keep Meals on Wheels running for Northland seniors, but what that looks like after October has not been confirmed.

🏡 VETERANS COMMUNITY PROJECT CUT THE RIBBON ON A WELCOME CENTER BUILT AS A WALK IN FRONT DOOR FOR VETERANS​
VCP cut the ribbon Wednesday, September 2 at 8825 Troost Avenue, completing Phase II of its Veterans Navigation Campus. The building cost about $2 million and was paid for entirely with private donations, according to CEO and co-founder Bryan Meyer. A veteran can walk in without an appointment and reach a mental health counselor, a job coach and a financial expert in one stop, a process executive director Chris Admire says used to take weeks or months. VCP serves roughly 1,000 veterans a year in Kansas City and expects the expansion to lift that by 20 percent.

🏈 TRAVIS KELCE IS TOMMY HILFIGER'S NEW GLOBAL BRAND AMBASSADOR​
Kelce fronts the Fall 2026 "Only in New York" campaign, shot at the Plaza Hotel by photographer Lachlan Bailey. The cast includes Gigi Hadid, JISOO, Peggy Gou, Frances Tiafoe, Carmelo Anthony, and Tommy and Dee Hilfiger. The collection theme is Prep Made Current, built on cable knit sweaters, rugby shirts, wool pea coats and the brand's varsity jacket. Kelce appears with his dog, who he says crushed it.

What you might have missed last week

• A massive 335-acre arts and entertainment district is being proposed near 175th Street and I-35, with a 15,000-seat indoor concert venue at the center of it all.
• Kansas City, Kansas, will celebrate its first-ever Black Restaurant Week from Sept. 7–13, leading into 913 Day, with 11 Black-owned restaurants across Wyandotte County taking part.

🏢 DEVELOPMENT SCENE

A SHAWNEE SHOPPING CENTER THAT SAT EMPTY FOR A DECADE IS WEEKS FROM A GROCERY STORE, AFTER TWO MISSED DEADLINES

Shawnee approved a $113 million plan to remake the old Westbrooke Shopping Center at 75th and Quivira in 2017, along with a community improvement district and tax increment financing. Then it defaulted. The center sat mostly empty for a decade.

Who picked it up. The City Council approved a restated redevelopment agreement in 2024, handing the project to developer PJ Guastello and Westbrooke Partners. Guastello is candid about what he inherited: "This development was in default from a previous developer. We came in, looked at the project, thought if we could get the incentives that were originally offered, that we could get it off the ground." He is equally blunt about what the delay cost: "There (were) high expectations ten years ago when they put this together, and then it sat for so long. It got stale. People got upset."

Two deadlines, both missed. The 2024 agreement set a completion deadline of Jan. 26, 2026. In January the developer asked for more time, and the city extended it to July 31, 2026. That date has passed too. Guastello now says the operators put the grocery weeks away, with a ribbon-cutting being coordinated with the City Council and the Chamber of Commerce.

Why a grocery store is the headline. Johnson County isn't a place people associate with food access problems. Melissa Sabin, who lives next door, put it plainly: "Especially as a single mom to a disabled son, I would just love to not have to pack up our wheelchair and then have to drive to a grocery store." She has noticed the change at a site she once considered an eyesore: "They have absolutely made progress, which is exciting."

What's actually going in. The anchor is El Mercado Fresco (Fresh Market of Shawnee) — deli, bakery and fresh produce — in the former Dillons building at 7405 Quivira. It was already hiring as of Aug. 31. A liquor store, golf simulator, nail salon and restaurants are planned for the rest of the center.

What still isn't settled. "Weeks away" is the developer's characterization, not a date on a calendar, and this project has run past two of them already. The value of the CID and TIF has never been made public, and the developer who defaulted has never been named.

Source: KSHB 41, Elyse Schoenig (8/31) · El Mercado Fresco Shawnee​

Business Scene

Now Open

• 🛒THE MERRIAM TRADER JOE'S OPENED WEDNESDAY, AND PEOPLE LINED UP BEFORE SUNRISE​
  We told you it was coming. It's here. Store #821 opened at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 2 at 8700 Shawnee Mission Pkwy. — a compact 9,498 square feet with 50-plus employees, and the first grocery store to open inside Merriam city limits since Hen House closed in 2018. Shoppers were queued up before the sun came up.
  ​Source: KCTV5 (9/2) · Trader Joe's store page​
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• 🍕 A NEW MISSION PIZZERIA WILL SEND A PIE TO THE BAR NEXT DOOR IF YOU SCAN A QR CODE​
  ​Pizza Tascio opened Monday, Aug. 31 at 5422 Johnson Drive, right next to Sully's Pub — and the two are wired together. Sit at Sully's, scan the code on the table, and New York-style slices come from next door without you leaving the barstool. It's the same arrangement Sully's already runs with WingStand. Open 11 a.m.–9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, until 10 on Friday and Saturday. Try the "red Tascio" — Dinapoli sauce, mozzarella, ricotta, pepperoni, basil and hot honey. Third Johnson County store for the St. Joseph brand, after Olathe in August.
  ​Source: Johnson County Post (9/1)​
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• 👗 VERONICA BEARD OPENED ON THE PLAZA THURSDAY — THE THIRD BRAND THIS YEAR TO PICK IT FOR A KC DEBUT
  ​The contemporary label opened its first Kansas City metro store at 10 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 3, at 4747 Broadway Blvd. Founded in 2010 by sisters-in-law Veronica Miele Beard and Veronica Swanson Beard, it started as a rack of dickey jackets. Hours are 10–7 Monday through Saturday, noon–6 Sunday. The number worth noting: this is the third national brand this year to choose the Plaza for its first KC location, after Reformation and Mersea — leasing momentum arriving in the same season as a $1.49 billion redevelopment bond package.
  ​Source: Country Club Plaza​
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• 🍸 THE GOOD KARMA COFFEE TEAM OPENED A MEZCAL BAR AT MARTINI CORNER
  Social House is open at 325 E. 31st St. #107, from the crew behind Good Karma Coffee — the same people, moving from morning coffee to late-night mezcal. The Pitch's first impression went to the Oaxacan O'Fashioned, a $15 mezcal Old Fashioned you can order with applewood smoke. That makes two new bars at Martini Corner inside a week, after The Daiquiri District took the old Barrio Taqueria space.
  ​Source: The Pitch (9/2) · @socialhouse.bar​
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Coming Soon

• 🍩 DONUTOLOGY IS LEAVING WESTPORT FOR CROWN CENTER​
  The made-to-order donut shop is moving to 2450 Grand Blvd., Suite 121, into the space Einstein Bros Bagels used to hold. Soft opening is planned for late September, with a full 10-year anniversary celebration in mid-October — founder Andrew Cameron, a KC-area native, timed the move to the milestone. Dirty sodas and a donut milkshake join the menu. Westport stays open until Crown Center is ready, and no closing date has been set for it.
  ​Source: KSHB 41 (9/1)​
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• 🧸 TOYS "R" US IS COMING BACK TO THE NORTHLAND LATER THIS MONTH
  ​The store lands at 7240 NW 86th Place in Zona Rosa, next to Bath & Body Works. Toys "R" Us closed all of its original U.S. stores in June 2018 after filing for Chapter 11. Geoffrey the Giraffe may turn up.
  ​Source: KCS reporting (9/3)​
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• 🍛AN INDIAN RESTAURANT FINISHING DISHES WITH 24K GOLD IS TAKING THE OLD ANOTHER BROKEN EGG SPACE IN OVERLAND PARK​
  ​Jala Indian Cuisine is going into 13386 Metcalf Ave. in the Shoppes at Deer Creek Woods, off 135th and Metcalf. The menu runs classic — goat biryani, chana masala, chicken tandoori — alongside lobster tail butter masala, garlic truffle paneer tikka, and a run of dishes finished with edible 24K gold. This is only the second Jala anywhere, and the first outside Florida. CEO Jeffrey Soloman on picking OP: "We believe Overland Park is one of those growing communities, and the people here are amazing." Jala is Sanskrit for water, and the build-out leans nature-heavy with a large patio. ⚠️ Target is late September, if renovations hold — not a hard date. Hours will be 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.
  ​Source: Johnson County Post (9/2) · Jala Indian Cuisine​
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• 🍖LORETTA JEAN'S IS COOKING IN A STRAWBERRY HILL BACKYARD SUNDAY WHILE ITS REAL RESTAURANT GETS BUILT​
  The team takes over the backyard at Hillsiders in Strawberry Hill on Sunday, Sept. 6 starting at 3 p.m. — grill staples plus vegetarian options, laid back and deliberately nostalgic. The pop-ups are groundwork: Loretta Jean's is building toward a brick-and-mortar in the garment district, in the former Seiden's Furs Building. No opening date announced for the permanent room yet.
  ​Source: The Pitch (9/3) · Hillsiders​
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Closing

• 🥗UNFORKED LEFT CROWN CENTER BECAUSE OF THE ROYALS STADIUM
  ​This is the first business to say out loud that the ballpark cost it something. Unforked announced Monday and closed effective Tuesday, Sept. 1. The company was offered a new two-year lease and turned it down. From its own statement: "With the anticipated construction and development surrounding the Royals' future stadium project and the uncertainty regarding how that construction could impact access, traffic, and business at Crown Center, we felt that committing to another two years was not the right decision for our business at this time." Westwood and Overland Park stay open. Note the symmetry — Crown Center loses one restaurant to stadium uncertainty and gains Donutology in the same week.
  ​Source: FOX4 (8/31)​

Growing

• 🍚 THE KC-FOUNDED HAWAIIAN BROS IS AT 83 RESTAURANTS, WITH NEARLY 300 MORE COMMITTED​
  The chain that started in the Kansas City metro just opened in Indianapolis, putting it at 83 restaurants across 14 states. The number underneath that is the real one: nearly 300 additional restaurants are already under development agreements across 18 states, much of it driven by franchisees who run large multi-unit portfolios. A brand plenty of people here eat at every week is most of the way to being a national chain.Source: Startland News (9/1)​

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​Milestones

• 🥬 KANBE'S MARKETS TURNS TEN AND IS SERVING A $200 DINNER INSIDE THE WAREHOUSE WHERE THE PRODUCE GETS SORTED​
  The nonprofit that stocks fresh produce in corner stores across the metro marks ten years with Plate and Pallet on Sept. 10 — a plated dinner staged inside its working warehouse, built around the journey food takes before it reaches a plate. Pallets and forklifts, then courses. Food and beverage partners include Katie Liu Sung, Jeffrey Workman, Nichole Taylor, Sergio Cazares and Loren Murrell. Tickets are $200. Most people in Kansas City have eaten Kanbe's produce without ever knowing the name.
  ​Source: Kanbe's Markets · The Pitch (9/3)​

Worth Knowing

• 🍜 THERE IS A VIETNAMESE FOOD HUB IN GLADSTONE AND MOST OF KANSAS CITY DOES NOT KNOW IT EXISTS
  Little Saigon Plaza, off North Oak Trafficway in Gladstone, holds a cluster of Vietnamese restaurants and shops that almost nobody outside the Northland has on their map. Food creator Nancy Le (@eatswithnancy) found it through family up there and started posting it; her reel pulled thousands of views and a comment section full of people saying they had no idea. PHO TUOI is one of her stops, known for pho and a spicy Vietnamese chili oil. Wendy Ho is a new owner at San's Sandwiches inside the plaza, serving banh mi on toasted bread: "I want to make people try and experiment with new food and culture of Vietnam." ⚠️ Check hours before you go — the plaza is privately owned and some shops close on weekdays.
  ​Source: KSHB 41 (8/31) · City of Gladstone​

🏐 SPORTS SCENE

KU CUT 11,000 SEATS FOR ITS GATEWAY DISTRICT REBUILD, AND ITS AD PUTS THE COST AT ABOUT $1 MILLION A GAME

David Booth Memorial Stadium opens Friday listed at 32,000 — eleven thousand fewer seats than normal, and the smallest capacity KU has played in front of since 1927, when a sellout was 35,000. Athletic Director Travis Goff priced the gap plainly: "probably $1 million difference" per home game.

Why the seats are gone. The east side of the stadium is being rebuilt as part of the Gateway District, a mixed-use project with a hotel, retail and residence halls that KCUR describes as approaching $1 billion. The east side alone runs $220 million, with $80 million financed by bonds backed by KU and the City of Lawrence. The work spans two years and three phases — lower bowl, upper bowl, then hotel, retail and parking. Goff says it is on time and on budget, with every part of the stadium finished by August 2027 and the hotel and residence halls continuing after that.

What Friday actually looks like. Fans on the east side get temporary toilets and concession stands, no access to the visiting team's locker room and no Wi-Fi — details from the developer's contract KCUR obtained under the Kansas Open Records Act.

The number behind the number. KU Athletics projects a $13 million deficit this year, on top of a $16 million deficit last year. For the second year running the university is diverting $16 million from academics to subsidize athletics, and is drawing on a $50 million line of credit the athletic board approved in April. Goff says there is a chance to reach the black next year.

The home opener against Long Island University was not sold out as of midweek. The bigger test comes the following week, when the Border War with Missouri resumes.

Source: KCUR (9/3)​

REAL ESTATE SCENE

​SPONSORED BY MOVING TO KC​

🎯 REAL ESTATE SCENE

​SPONSORED BY MOVING TO KC​

Spacious Thousand Oaks Home with Luxury Finishes

13559 Terrace Park Dr is a stunning 1.5-story home in Parkville’s Thousand Oaks community, offering 4 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, and 4,470 square feet of living space. The home features soaring vaulted ceilings, exposed beams, wide-plank hardwood floors, and abundant natural light. The gourmet kitchen includes high-end appliances, custom cabinetry, crown molding, and an oversized island, while the main-level primary suite adds convenience.

The finished walkout lower level offers flexible living space and a non-conforming bedroom perfect for guests or a private suite. Outside, enjoy a screened-in porch with fireplace, expansive composite deck, and a private backyard backing to wooded greenspace. Residents also have access to pools, trails, tennis courts, playgrounds, and clubhouse amenities.

🏡 Property Overview

Price: $800,000

Address: 13559 Terrace Park Dr, Parkville, MO 64152

Bedrooms: 4

Bathrooms: 5

Square Footage: 4,470 sq ft

📞 Ready to see it in person?
​Take a closer look at the details, and let’s get your tour scheduled!​

Listing Provided by: Kyle Talbot with KW KANSAS CITY METRO

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