KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County. He got an exclusive sneak peek inside the new Independence Municipal Commons as part of his beat. Share your story idea with Tod.
—
It’s been nearly two years since the city of Independence bought the former GEHA building on East Jackson Drive near Little Blue Parkway, with plans to move in last spring.
Despite some delays, building renovations are nearly complete, and Independence, which is consolidating its city workforce at the Independence Municipal Commons, expects to open the building to the public no later than early February 2026.
“It’s a very nice building,” said Independence Deputy Director of Municipal Services Rich Kemple. “I think our citizens and our employees deserve a nice building to do business out of, so I’m really excited about it. The city’s employees are very excited about it, and we hope the citizens are as well.”
As the KSHB 41 News reporter covering Independence, I got an exclusive tour of the building Wednesday with Kemple.
City Council chambers will move from City Hall to the new building, dubbed the Independence Municipal Commons, early next year.
They’ll occupy the first floor along with the Independence Utilities Center and Independence Power and Light administration, which is moving from its current location east of Missouri 291 and south of East 23rd Street.
“One of the problems we wanted to remove from our residents and people trying to do business with us is having to run back and forth between a utility building and City Hall to accomplish the things they need for licensing and stuff,” Kemple said.
Community Development offices will be on the second floor. That’s where the public can get building permits, business licenses and food-handler permits, among other services.
The new building will also house the City Clerk’s Office, Independence Health Department, the City Manager’s Office, the Parks and Recreation Department, and other core city services — engineering, IT/tech services and communications.
“It’s going to be awesome,” Independence resident Jo McFall said, “especially for the elderly people.”
McFall dropped by the current Independence Utilities Center on Wednesday to drop off a payment, but she’s excited for the Independence Municipal Commons to open.
It’s closer to her house, but she said her biggest issue with current city facilities is the lackluster parking options.
“The parking is so bad, and GEHA has a lot of parking spaces,” McFall said.
It’s a much more accessible building — ringed by flat, wide parking lots — and without the quirky, modular 1970s design of the existing City Hall, which opened in 1973.
“This building was built in the early 2000s, so it was built with ADA compliance in mind,” Kemple said. “Whereas City Hall was built in the '70s, and those ideas of accessibility were in their infancy at that point.”
The building, located just north of Interstate 70, is also much more accessible for non-residents who do business with the city.
Some city departments have already moved to the new building, a process that will continue into early next year.
As for the old City Hall, the Independence City Council approved a letter of intent to begin negotiations with Mid-Continent Public Library — which is considering building its new headquarters at the site, just east of the Historic Independence Square.
The GEHA building’s price tag — Independence paid $20 million for the property, including $9.15 million for the more than 95,000-square-foot building with additional funds for renovation and site-improvement costs, according to the Kansas City Business Journal — caused a bit of a stir.
But city officials said structural repairs and renovations at the existing City Hall, which was built in 1973 just east of Historic Independence Square and was no longer ADA compliant, would cost twice as much as moving into the Landmark Building — another name for the former GEHA building, which was constructed in 2001 and last renovated in 2020.
Independence will consolidate city council chambers, municipal services like business permitting and the city clerk’s office, and Independence Utilities Center operations at the new Independence Municipal Commons, 20201 E. Jackson Drive.
The utility center currently operates from a building at 17221 E. 23rd St. South, which city officials hoped to backfill with a new Independence Police Headquarters.
It’s unclear what will happen with that building after voters rejected a $130-million general-obligation bond for public safety and the city-operated Jackson County Regional Animal Shelter, but Independence residents will be able to make utility payments and conduct all other city business at the new Independence Municipal Commons.
Voters approved one of three bond questions in April 2025, authorizing $55 million for road and bridge improvements.
—
