Demographia

CITY ON A HILL

After decades of decline, core cities in developing nation urban areas are experiencing a renaissance of development, both commercial and residential. This series provides information on this trend.

Kansas City:
Redevelopment & Infill Leader

Kansas City, Missouri has emerged as one of the most spectacular US examples of the urban development renaissance. Kansas City emerged as one of the nation's largest cities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and, as a result, developed a substantial stock of large commercial buildings from that era. During the 20th century, many of these buildings were abandoned or fell into disuse.

During the 1990s, the large majority of remaining buildings in the area to the north and west of downtown were redeveloped into lofts, row houses (town houses) and offices. Few buildings remain to be developed in the 40-50 city blocks that comprise River Market, the Garment District and Quality Hill.

Recently, the renaissance has spread to areas south of downtown between the largely vacant "Power and Light" redevelopment project and newly refurbished Union Station. The Power and Light redevelopment project has been largely dormant for approximately 30 years.

Further to the south, many large, old single family houses have been or are in the process of being refurbished. Many of these, like the formerly vacant commercial buildings to the north, had been abandoned and boarded up. Within the last 18 months a new commercial center, including a "Costco" and "Home Depot" have opened in the area.

The extent of redevelopment in Kansas City appears to be greater than that of any other urban area of similar size and is competitive with that of Seattle and Minneapolis as of 2001. Among US cities, only much larger Chicago and New York have considerably more redevelopment than Kansas City. Kansas City's new central city development is considerably greater than that of cities claiming substantial light rail development impacts, such as Dallas, St. Louis and Salt Lake City.

2001.08.04

(c) 2001 www.demographia.com --- Wendell Cox Consultancy --- Permission granted to use with attribution.
Demographia is "pro-choice" with respect to urban development.
People should have the freedom to live and work where and how they like.

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