Will KC’s Pennway Point ever be more than a Ferris Wheel? Weeds, lawsuits appear
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Pennway Point was to open in 2023 but now appears stalled, with overgrown weeds on site
- Developers face legal actions with two unpaid bills
- Ferris wheel and minigolf opened in 2023, but broader project lacks clear timeline.
In the development world, there are renderings and then there’s reality.
When it comes to Kansas City’s Pennway Point — a still-unfinished, 6-acre entertainment district near Union Station whose Kansas City developer, 3D Development, Inc., originally said it would likely open in 2023 — the architectural renderings have always been eye-popping.
They show a collection of 100-year-old buildings, located beneath Interstate 35 at 2485 Jefferson St., transformed into bars and restaurants. There’d be music, beach volleyball and Lumi, a museum like no other in Kansas City, featuring some 70 restored neon signs from the city’s past. Towering above it all to the south: a 150-foot-tall Ferris wheel, glowing in multi-colored lights, with a minigolf course below.
The Ferris wheel and minigolf opened in December 2023, erected and run by ICON Experiences of Maryland, which leases their space from the developer.
Money woes: Behind schedule, over budget
The reality for the rest of the project: After early construction, partially rehabbing buildings, then delays, then more promising construction, the site currently lies still.
No heavy equipment is to be found at the site. None has been seen for weeks going on months. Weeds, standing as much as three feet high, have spouted from the gravel. A 4-foot-tall weed tree has grown through the concrete in one open building.
The surface of the steel post holding the Lumi sign, hoisted atop of its perch one year ago, has further oxidized. This year, two legal actions have also been taken against the developer for unpaid bills, one of which is has been reconciled, the other not.
The Star reached out to Pennway Point’s developer, Vince Bryant, founder of 3D Development, to discuss the project’s prospects and timeline.
The Star also contacted DAVINCI KC, the master leasing agent for the project and whose partners include Bryant, David Passantino and David J. Belfonte. Belfonte is also listed with the office of the Missouri Secretary of State as the registered agent of Safranda MO LLC, the company that Jackson County records show paid $2.75 million in 2021 for the Pennway Point property.
In an emailed statement, Bryant conceded that the project has run into headwinds, but they are “working to right the ship,” feeling credit should be given for the adaptive reuse of early 1900s industrial buildings and looking to turn “a brown/gray site into a vibrant green parkland.”
“Most developers,” Bryant said, “would have bull dozed this site and started from scratch.” He did not indicate when construction would resume.
“We are behind schedule, over budget and have been challenged to raise the remaining funds to finish the common area and put the next round of tenants into the project,” Bryant said.
He noted that 3D Development has raised $9 million from investors that has been put toward the project, with $2 million more to raise to finish what he called “the Landlord/Developer responsibilities.” Tenant openings, he said, would require funding by the interested tenants. Some $2.5 million, Bryant said, was also spent on infrastructure improvements that include placing new electric, gas, storm and sanitary lines underground.
“This total cost,” Bryant said, “in additional to overall cost overruns on the project to date, caused us to have over $1 million in liabilities,” leaving some vendors underpaid. He said 70% of those liabilities have been reconciled. More than a dozen vendors, he said, have been fully paid and a half dozen, “we are still working through the process.”
“These factors,” the developer said, “have stopped our construction until we can pay all the remaining liabilities and fund the future improvements.”
Bryant, in part, concluded, “This is a very challenging project and, like most, it is delayed and over budget. We are working to right the ship and complete the concept, bringing the full project to life which we believe is a unique offering for the city.”
He said interest in the project among food and beverage operators continues to be strong.
Lumi neon museum
Nick Vedros still believes in that vision. A prominent Kansas City photographer, he founded the Lumi Neon Museum that is to be a unique feature of Pennway Point.
“I absolutely believe in Vince Bryant,” Vedros said this week. “I know it’s going to happen, and I know it’s going to happen this year.”
Vedros spoke as he revealed yet another restored neon sign, a 10-foot-tall, 11-foot-wide Kitty Clover Potato Chips sign from 1935. It will potentially be on display among dozens of restored and historic neon signs that include the I-70 Drive-In, the 4-Acre Motel, Cascone’s Grill, Davey’s Uptown Rambler’s Club, Sears, Greyhound, Town Topic Hamburgers, Kuluva’s department store, the Capri Motel and many others.
Vedros, aware that the project was originally projected to open two years ago, said he spoke to Bryant earlier in the year about the pace of the project.
“First of all, as you know, any delays make me crazy,” Vedros said. “It’s just my personality. . . .So Vince was supposed to restart the project in April, on April 1. He sent everybody a nice schedule.
“Well, anyway, we go to lunch. He tells me for sure it’s going to happen. . .then, he says, we’re going to have to push it back to August, August 1. And, of course, that’s a four month delay. . . .So, I don’t know what the new schedule is. I don’t have that. But he assures me, we are what, three weeks away?”
Now less than two.
Entertainment district
The vision for Pennway Point is to create a broad entertainment district to include restaurant, bars, music, yard games, beach volleyball and winter skating. The old Funkhouser Machinery Co. building is planned to be a 30,000-square-foot indoor/outdoor venue called Talegate Park with a Beef & Bottle restaurant, bars, two kitchen kiosks, an indoor/outdoor beer garden and a mezzanine Funk House club with VIP seating.
The former 6,000-square-foot Pennway Oil Building , with its wood-barreled roof, is to become Barrel Hall featuring a Boulevard Brewery bar and tasting experience, a Chef J. BBQ, a whiskey bar and Würstl (a Viennese sausage stand).
Vedros concedes that even his certainty about the project has wavered as time has passed.
“Of course confidence goes back and forth,” he said. “There are times when I go, ‘Gosh, is this thing going to happen?’ I go, ‘If it doesn’t, I’ve made a lot of promises to a lot of people, and it’s going to be really hurtful to me.’ I’d have to figure out what I would do if I had to do something else with another entity.
“So I have waffled, but I’m back. I’m back on the upswing because of my recent conversation with him (Bryant). So August is really going to tell me a lot. I’ve really got to show some faith in Vince.”
The developer has built and leased a number of successful projects. They include the renovation of the 10-story Thomas Corrigan Building built in 1921 at 1828 Walnut St. into the Corrigan Station office and restaurant complex. Another is the renovation of the 1921 Meriden Creamery Co. building, 2100 Central St., into The Creamery event space.
In 2017, Bryant also spearheaded the $12 million purchase of The Kansas City Star’s former headquarters at 1729 Grand Blvd. His intention for what he is calling Grand Place has been to recreate it as $95 million mixed-used development.
Seven year later, that project remains under construction.
Lawsuit and mechanic’s lien
The developer this year has faced two legal actions.
The first is a mechanic’s lien, filed in January by Pro Electric L.C. of Kansas City, Kansas, against Pennway Point, Safranda and 3D Development for $198,816 in electrical work at the site.
“It has not been paid,” Richard Barchak, Pro Electric’s president and CEO, told the Star Thursday. “They were supposed to make payments. And it hasn’t happened. And I don’t really have a good explanation for why.”
James Freeman, Pro Electric’s attorney with the firm Swanson Bernard, said the developer has so far made a partial payment, but $150,000 is still outstanding.
“PE was partially paid roughly 25% of its lien claim late this spring,” Freeman said in an email, “but subsequently has had minimal intermittent email communication from Vince Bryant of vague promises of future payment and remobilization of the project.”
Pro Electric, he said, has done no recent work on Pennway Point.
The second legal action was a suit filed in February by Metro Public Safety & Security LLC of Gladstone against Erik Wullschleger, as a partner of 3D Development, for some $34,000. It represented money still owed on about nine months of patrols and security work that Metro’s attorney, Michael Hufft of Hufft & Maginn, said the company conducted at 3D Development properties that included ones on Broadway Boulevard, Walnut Street, The Creamery, Grand Place and Pennway Point.
Hufft said 3D Development has been making payments since the suit was filed.
“We’re waiting for the final checks to clear right now,” Hufft said Thursday.
No work, no people, no complaints
When major work will commence again remains unclear, even to neighbors.
The Westside Neighborhood Association, which includes the area around Pennway Point, was originally against the project when it was first proposed.
Although Pennway Point contains light-industrial buildings beneath an I-35 overpass, it also borders the residential neighborhood around Sacred Heart-Guadalupe Parish.
“When you go just a few blocks west and south,” said Virginia Bellis, the association’s president, “it’s all small, bungalow-type homes, family homes, a lot of kids. There’s Guadalupe School and Sacred Heart Church.”
The neighborhood, she said, was initially concerned that a busy entertainment district might bring excessive traffic, noise, crowds and people drinking in an area where the nearby Boulevard Brewing Company already runs tours and a beer hall at 2534 Madison Ave.
But since the Ferris wheel and minigolf opened last year, Bellis said, she has heard nothing.
“I really don’t know anything about the Pennway Point project,” she said. “I haven’t heard much since the initial opening. I haven’t heard anything about any new developments for the beer hall, or the restaurant or the neon museum. It’s been very quiet. The owners don’t really communicate with the neighborhood association.”
What work the developers had already done, Bellis said, looked to be improving the site.
“Honestly, I can say that I wish them well,” Bellis said. “And I think most people wish them well. Their site has much improved from what it was.”
Because the site is unfinished, noise, crowds or drinking have not been problems.
“I would have no reason to reach out to them, because they’ve really not done anything,” Bellis said. “There have been no neighborhood complaints.”
Prior to hearing from Bryant, The Star also reached out to Kansas City City Councilman Crispin Rea, whose 4th District includes Pennway Point, to inquire if he was privy to information as to when construction might recommence.
“I have contacted the developer to better understand the reasons for delay,” Rea responded, while looking toward June 2026. “It is an exciting and important project and I am hopeful that it will be completed by the World Cup.”
This story was originally published July 21, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
