Kansas City, Missouri will soon be home to a new Wonderscope Children's Museum, and that could bring an array of developments to the south part of town.
READ MORE: Wonderscopeto build new $12M children's museum in south KC
"First what happens is you see residential developments build up," said Alex Owens, a realtor with Kristin Malfer & Associates, ReeceNichols Leawood. "If you are moving there you are going to want to have stuff to do. Then we see the shopping centers. You need places to grocery shop. Not only are we going to see residential development pop-up, but we will also have to see the commercial developments alongside of it. They go hand-in-hand."
Owens said recently she's seen an uptick in the number of people interested in buying homes near the old Bannister Shopping Mall area.
"You don't want all of your money in one place in the city," explained Owens. "If that area starts to go downhill then the whole economy can collapse. The great thing about here in this city is that we are seeing such an expansion of the city. We've already seen the expansions south and west on the Kansas side in Lenexa, Olathe, even to Gardner. Now we're seeing that on the Missouri side."
Kansas City Councilman Scott Taylor helped bring the border hop to fruition.
"From the community standpoint, we have done so much and working with the surrounding neighborhoods in Red Bridge, that everyone is very excited about the potential of this project and the fact that it will bring other restaurants and small businesses in that want to be located near where this is going," said the councilman.
And that could help restore South Kansas city's economy to its former glory.
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Terra Hall can be reached at terra.hall@kshb.com.
