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Construction has resumed on the new American Royal facility in Kansas City, Kansas, with the exhibition hall and barns expected to open to the public in September.
American Royal Association President Jackie McClaskey said construction restarted after a lengthy funding process that included finalizing a development agreement with the Unified Government in January and securing approval of a bond ordinance to sell bonds.
"We were able to restart construction in late March, early April," McClaskey said. "It had been a long, long road to get to that stage, but we got there. And it was really exciting, and the interest of the bonds was tremendous."
The $155 million STAR Bond project — a combination of state and local support through sales tax revenue generated within the district — is one of several in western Wyandotte County.
The project also includes “well over $200 million” from private sources.
The new facility will span 1 million square feet.
McClaskey said the project faced delays not from opposition, but from working through the details of public funding.
"We've never really had people stand up and say, ‘We don't support the project,'" she said. "It's all about working through the detail of what that public funding component looked like."
Once open, the new facility will mark the first time the American Royal has hosted events in a building it owns.
The current West Bottoms location is owned by Kansas City, Missouri.
McClaskey said the organization plans to maintain a Missouri presence even after the move.
Events planned for the new exhibition hall and barns this fall include a youth horse show, a cutting horse show, the American Royal World Series BBQ and a three-week livestock show.
Remaining construction — arenas, a learning engagement center and offices — must be completed by late 2028 or early 2029 at the latest.
McClaskey said the new facility will open year-round opportunities for events.
"It allows us to start attracting folks who want to host events here year-round," McClaskey said. "We're going to attract a lot of people from around the county and around the world to activities in this location.”
McClaskey also noted the broader development activity in the area.
"There's a lot of activity around the Chiefs, Mattel, the recent opening of Homefield, Margaritaville," McClaskey said. "We have a lot of respect for our history in the West Bottoms.”
While the new facility takes shape, the Royal KC Draft Horse Show is taking place this weekend in the West Bottoms, with competitions scheduled Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings.
Teams from across the country and Canada are competing in the event, which features Percherons, Belgians, Shires and Clydesdales.
Lane Soendker, co-superintendent of the Royal KC Draft Horse Show, said the event returned to Kansas City last year for the first time in 25 years.
"We wanted to kind of have a central location here for these people here in Kansas City to be able to enjoy these big gentle giants," Soendker said.
Soendker and his parents wanted to see the shows continue, so they brought them back under the name Royal KC Draft Horse Show.
They now pay the American Royal a fee to host the event in their West Bottoms location.
"We brought it back here to Kansas City," Soendker said.
It takes between $70,000 and $80,000 to pull off this weekend’s show — and a lot of sponsors.
The Soendkers are still seeking sponsors.
The show also features events like youth classes and farm team riding classes.
The top five competitors from each breed will return in October for the Classic Series Finals championship, an event nearly five times as expensive to pull off.
"It's a whole production, so you need a lot of space," Soendker said.
The new American Royal facility will offer twice as much usable space as the current one.
Soendker said his family is looking forward to eventually moving the show to the new facility.
"Yeah, we're very excited for the new facility,” Soendker said. “Not exactly sure when, but when we get over there, it's going to be great.”
Until that time comes, the show must go on.
More information, including tickets for the horse show, can be found here.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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