KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Kansas City, Missouri, nonprofit and a grocery company filed a civil lawsuit in Jackson County Court after the failure of an eastside grocery store.
The lawsuit was filed by Midtown Grocers, LLC and Community Builders of Kansas City against the City of Kansas City, Missouri.
At issue are the reasons for the closure of the Sun Fresh Grocery store at Linwood Boulevard and Prospect Avenue, leaving the area once again in a food desert.
The lawsuit states "this case is about the City’s gross breaches of duty, its application of blatant double-standards, and its intentional misconduct including, without
limitation, racial discrimination, in enabling rampant criminal misconduct at – and otherwise neglecting – its own commercial property, thereby undermining and ultimately
forcing the permanent closure of the full-service grocery store business that one of the nation’s most successful, African-American-led not-for-profit organizations had agreed to
take on, with purely charitable motives, in order to ensure the availability of fresh produce and other healthy food items for a critically important, critically underserved community
within Kansas City’s urban core."
The 128-page lawsuit includes the recent history of the store, including a store that operated at the site unitil 2007.
That left the neighborhood around the shopping center in a food desert, with no convenient options for fresh and healthy foods.
The Kansas City Council in June 2016 voted unanimously for the shopping center development project. The suit states the city invested $17 million to redevelop the shopping center.
Lipari Brothers opened the new Sun Fresh store in June 2018.
Not long after the store opened two people were shot inside the store, including a 15-year-old clerk.
Eventually, the Lipari Brothers got out of the business and Community Builders and Midtown Grocers took over.
One important point for new operators was the city's obligation in the lease to manage the shopping center in a "first class manner."
That was important to the new group because the shopping center was in "a heavily trafficked, urban area."
The lawsuit also claims the center did well at first, but business dropped off significantly in the second half of 2022.
Crime increased through the years in and around the store, according to the suit.
The crimes included possession of weapons, including guns and knives, fighting, drug use, prostitution and other illegal activities.
The store closed on August 12, 2025, and the suit claims Community Builders and Midtown Grocers have suffered damages that exceed $5 million.
In a request to a response from the city, Spokeswoman Sherae Honneycutt says the City will vigorously defend its interests in response to these claims.
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