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Longtime asset to community needs an angel now
By STEVE PENNThe Kansas City Star
The oldest community development corporation in Kansas City is in financial turmoil.
And if the Black Economic Union of Greater Kansas City can’t find a partner, get an injection of cash or receive help from the city, the agency faces the real possibility of folding.
On May 7, two once-prized assets — two buildings that house the Full Employment Council and the Urban League of Greater Kansas City — were sold on the Jackson County Courthouse steps. The Black Economic Union was way behind on its loan payments, and the property went into foreclosure.
Amid the uncertainty, the Full Employment Council found an angel investor in the form of Great Plains Energy Inc. to provide $1.2 million to purchase the property. Now, instead of that lease money being paid to the Black Economic Union, it goes to the city’s Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority, which agreed to take possession of the property and lease it back to the Full Employment Council.
Those lease payments had represented a major portion of the Black Economic Union’s revenue. And while the move by Great Plains Energy may have kept the Full Employment Council in its current location, the loss of cash flow puts the Black Economic Union on shaky ground.
Not even the president of the nonprofit is sure it will survive. And that’s a shame.
The Black Economic Union’s roots are deep in this community. The agency was founded in 1968 by Jim Brown of Cleveland Browns fame and Curtis McClinton, a former Kansas City Chief. The agency is the oldest community development corporation in the city, and its mission has been to initiate activity and serve as a catalyst toward community development in the 18th and Vine Jazz District.
I recently interviewed Chester Thompson Jr., president of the Black Economic Union. It’s easy to sympathize with Thompson’s plight. He’s been on the job for only two years and inherited many of the agency’s problems.
Thompson wants the public to know that the Black Economic Union tried its best to hold on to the two buildings. Before the sale, Thompson contends, he had a deal in place that would have provided a loan of $400,000 to save the property.
“We had received through the Downtown Minority Council the funds we needed to make the agreement,” Thompson said. “Then we heard that FEC would not renew their lease if BEU got the property back.”
Thompson obviously was disappointed with the way the deal went down.
“It puts us in a very desperate situation,” Thompson said. “It puts us in tremendous turmoil.”
Thompson isn’t giving up without a fight. He’s had talks with a potential partner.
“If we’re ever going to get this community developed, we’ve got to bring in some partners,” he said. “We are at a point where we must have somebody partnering with us.”
You can’t ignore the good work that the Black Economic Union has done in the area any more than you can ignore the bad decisions the agency made in the past.
That said, it would still be a major setback for the area if the Black Economic Union were to fold its tent. It has been a formidable challenge to jump-start redevelopment in and around the jazz district. If the Black Economic Union can’t survive, that district will fall even further behind.
Someone stepped forward to assist the Full Employment Council. We all will watch to see if someone does the same for the Black Economic Union.