KANSAS CITY, MO. — Kansas City, Missouri, leaders will decide on Thursday whether to spend $399,000 to remediate blight at the Robandee Shopping Center on Bannister Road.
Neighbors say the area needs improvement. Graffiti, trash, and a burned building — a vacant shopping mall — have been bothering them for years.
"It's not something good to look at or to have in your area,” said Jude Hersh, whose mechanical shop is right across the street from the mall.
“We consider it a dangerous building,” said councilmember Darrell Curls, who proposed the ordinance that he says could change that. “If nothing else, the owner will say, ‘Hey, look, they are trying to do something. If I want to keep my property, I’m going to have to try to maintain it.’”
Curls says the city would not purchase the property. Instead, it would work with the Planned Industrial Expansion Authority (PIEA), which would take steps to obtain it.
He says there's a possibility PIEA would repay the city for the expense.
“It’s going to eliminate the burned-out structure. It’s going to reduce street racing and other challenges we currently face,” KCMO Mayor Quinton Lucas said.
It’s a challenge KSHB has been following for years.
In 2019, neighbors said they felt forgotten.
“We’ve got to get rid of this crumbling building out here,” one neighbor said at the time.
In 2022, residents continued to complain about illegal dumping. Now, they say little has changed since then.
“Our dream is that the owner of the property will actually do right by the community,” Lucas said.
The Texas-based company Commodity Express LLC owns the lot. We reached out for a comment but did not hear back.
City leaders say they’ve been trying to work with the owner.
“If the owner comes forward and is willing to redevelop the property and work with us, then we’d be willing to work with him as well,” Curls added.
The city’s initial plan was to spend up to $1 million, but that number decreased.
“The million was just a number we thought we could come up with to ensure we had enough funding. We revised the amount after the property was appraised at about $460,000,” Curls said.
For now, neighbors remain optimistic.
“That’s a promising thing. I’m sure it will be good for the neighborhood,” Hersh said.
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KSHB 41 reporter Fernanda Silva covers stories in the Northland. She also focuses on issues surrounding immigration. Share your story idea with Fernanda.
