KC breaks ground on new affordable apartments off Troost named for neighborhood pastor

A new affordable housing development will transform a Beacon Hill corner where thousands were called to pray for decades.

Kansas City officials and developers staged a groundbreaking of the upcoming Mabion supportive housing development at 2732 Forest Ave., one block east of Troost Avenue, on Thursday. The Mabion will offer 57 units of affordable housing with one to three bedrooms, including 11 units set aside for families struggling with homelessness.

The Mabion will feature community rooms and outdoor green space for residents. On-site services will include health care, mental health services, job training, transportation assistance, recreation activities and life skills training. Affordable housing developers The Nash Group and The Vecino Group, social services agency SAVE Inc, and ministry Bethlehem Kingdom Center partnered to make the project a reality.

The Mabion will take the place of the Bethlehem Kingdom Center’s former home, also known as the Kansas City Prayer Dome. The ministry, founded by Ray and Opal Mabion in 1984 as the Bethlehem Christian Assembly, has since moved to Raytown.

“This is a major milestone for our church, but even more so for the broader community,” Bethlehem Kingdom Pastor Ray Mabion II said in a statement. The church secured the land for the Mabion and is a co-owner and partner. “Our vision is that we aren’t simply a place of worship, we are here to help build up people. This development will allow us to do just that in a most impactful way for those in our community that are in need.”

According to the construction bid, units will be for residents living at or under 60% of the area median income, which in Kansas City is $43,320 for one person, and $61,860 for a family of four, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Ed Lowndes, executive director of the Housing Authority of Kansas City, said a portion of the units will be dedicated to families with very low incomes using housing vouchers.

The $19.3 million project is funded through a mix of sources, including tax credits from the Missouri Housing Development Commission, federal housing funds administered from both the state and the city, Kansas City’s Housing Trust Fund and bank loans.

The project is one of several affordable housing developments that have sprouted along the Troost corridor in recent years.

“I always tell my mom, who lives off of Blue Ridge — and by the way, I love every part of Kansas City the same, so I love that neighborhood too — but sometimes I say, because I’ve got these kids now, I’d love for you to move just a little bit closer,” Mayor Quinton Lucas said at the groundbreaking. “This allows us that opportunity.”

It also allows the opportunity to be closer to the renewal on Troost, better public transit and other new developments in Kansas City, he said.

“And a little bit closer to being the Kansas City that we want: one where everybody has opportunity, where there is access to affordable and attainable housing for people of all ages and, more than anything, where we are able to support a community thriving — thriving to its fullest extent in decades,” Lucas said.

Mayor Lucas posted on social media on Thursday afternoon that the project marks more than 2,500 units in the works out of the city’s Housing Trust Fund.

Jordan Gibson, mission ambassador for The Vecino Group, emphasized the transit-oriented nature of the Mabion development, ensuring residents have easy access to jobs, health care and services. The project is within walking distance of several bus lines, including the Troost Max route.

Social services agency SAVE, Inc. will help provide on-site services at the Mabion. CEO Patrick McLaughlin said the project will provide affordable housing in the heart of Kansas City, where it can be difficult to find.

“There is so much strength in the neighborhood: pride, resilience, connectedness, and that’s exactly what these new neighbors are going to need,” he said.

The Mabion is expected to be completed in early 2026.