Kansas City gives Blue Cross tax break to help move downtown, vacate potential Royals site

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify when Blue KC’s plans to move were announced.

City officials signed off on a tax incentive for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City as the insurance company leaves its headquarters on a site that’s been pitched as a possibility for a new Royals stadium, moving into a new building up the street.

Blue KC, currently located at 2301 Main Street near Union Station, announced in September 2022 its move a mile away into a new, but vacant, tower at 1400 Baltimore Avenue in the downtown loop. Company officials said at the time that Blue KC needed a workplace as its staffing grows and the company evolves, and the new 1400KC fit the bill.

The 18-story, $140 million tower was originally designed for financial firm Waddell & Reed to occupy, but those plans fell apart after Waddell was bought by Australia-based Macquarie Asset Management during construction in 2021. The tower was nonetheless completed.

On Thursday, the Kansas City Council approved a personal property tax break for Blue KC’s move with a value of $1 million for items like furniture and fixtures.

Blue KC’s move will keep 1,150 jobs in downtown Kansas City, relocate 75 jobs and add 50 new jobs with an average salary of $90,000. The company is investing roughly $75 million in the move as it remodels the leased space it will fully occupy in the tower by the spring.

The Blue KC relocation plan also includes a proposed $2.4 million sales tax break that the state would need to approve, but officials have indicated that may be unlikely for timing reasons.

The Kansas City Business Journal reported in August that sports architecture firm Populous is also moving into 1400KC.

The long-term future of the 2301 Main Street building, which Blue Cross owns, is to be determined. The 1980 structure overlooks Washington Square Park, which has been proposed for a future downtown ballpark for the Royals, and the site’s full footprint would be 11.6 acres with the addition of the Blue KC building and its sunken parking lot.

Blue KC’s plans to lease space in the new tower and move its headquarters to the new tower were announced in September 2022, and applications for the project started being filed in 2023. The plans were announced and in the works well before voters rejected a stadium tax in April 2024 for a possible Royals stadium in the Crossroads. The Washington Square Park proposal later emerged in summer 2024.

This story was originally published January 9, 2025 at 5:34 PM.