Sun Fresh closed in Linwood after costs crippled nonprofit, KC leaders say
Sun Fresh Market, a grocery store that strived to improve what city leaders called a food desert in Kansas City’s East Side, closed its Linwood location this week due to persistent crime and security issues, operating costs that outweighed reserves and city investments, and sewage odors that drove customers away, officials claim.
In an online meeting with stakeholders Friday morning, store owners took aim at what they said has been a false narrative in the community that money was poorly invested and mismanaged.
The store closed because of several factors, said Emmet Pierson Jr., CEO of Community Builders Kansas City, the nonprofit which had been running the store since 2022.
“We stepped up to fill a void that no one else was going to fill,” Pierson said on the Friday morning Zoom call. “We, as we often do, take on projects that can’t be done, shouldn’t be done, don’t make sense, and somehow, for 34 years, we’ve been making sense of those. This was just another one of those.”
“We wanted to step up and support the community, protect the jobs, make sure a grocery store was there, all the while, never intending to make a profit, however, not to lose money either,” Pierson said.
That vision was extinguished by the lack of resources to make the operation sustainable, Pierson and others argued Friday.
Kansas City investments in Sun Fresh
After the city spent $17 million to acquire and redevelop the building which housed Sun Fresh, it opened in 2018. Community Builders took over the store in 2022.
The nonprofit has since spent more than $4 million of its own money on the store, according to Pierson.
Kansas City’s Third District Councilwoman Melissa Robinson clarified in the meeting that Community Builders did not receive the $17 million in direct subsidies, but that initial city investment went toward infrastructure to attract potential grocers.
Community Builders got $750,000 from the city in May, out of what Robinson said was around a $1.2 million allocation from the city last November to support Sun Fresh. Robinson said despite recent community concerns about lost taxpayer dollars, the city often subsidizes businesses it sees to be beneficial in public-private partnerships.
But even with the city’s help, Pierson said the $750,000 received this year covered only a fraction of the store’s expenses, which he said exceeded $1.3 million from May through July.
Kiki Curls, a former Missouri state senator, participated in the follow-up meeting with the city following Sun Fresh’s closure. She’s also a board member of the nonprofit Community Builders.
At Friday’s meeting, Curls said closing the store was a difficult but necessary choice due to a lack of timely city investment and the ongoing impact financial losses were having on Community Builders.
“There have been commitments by the city, you know, (that) certainly appeared to be in good faith, (and) for whatever reason, they had not come through,” Curls said.
Neighbors who used to shop at the Sun Fresh said the store’s shelves were frequently missing essential items and that prices at the store were high compared to others a few miles away.
They also had concerns about how the city’s investment didn’t pan out, fearing what affect a food desert could have on their community long-term.
The conversation among city leaders over Zoom Friday eventually shifted toward whether it is possible to reopen a store at the Sun Fresh location in the future, and what it would take to make it happen.
A big part of the fix, officials said, was reducing the kinds of crime and public safety concerns that plagued the area and kept customers from coming back.
Crime, safety concerns
Over the years, customers and employees of Sun Fresh in Linwood were impacted by fights, shoplifting, drug use and prostitution. Teenage shelf stockers had to carry tasers to defend themselves.
“When you have folks that pull down their pants and defecate in front of the door when people are coming in and outside of the store, people then do not come back,” Curls said.
Curls argued since the city is the owner of the Linwood shopping center, Community Builders had little say in how to handle safety outside the store. Community builders had been employing off-duty officers as security guards at $80-90 per hour, but got the cost down to $60 per hour, Pierson said.
Police presence in the area was inconsistent, and more police presence alone wouldn’t solve recurring problems, stakeholders argued.
In addition to security concerns, Sun Fresh spent a significant amount of time and resources working to locate a pungent sewage smell many customers complained about. After replacing vents and bringing in plumbers to help, the store still hasn’t been able to locate where the smell is coming from, one board member said.
Despite other successful projects in Kansas City, Pierson said Community Builders has suffered a reputational hit alongside their financial losses.
Addressing a food desert
The next closest stores to the closed Sun Fresh are Aldi, at 3830 Prospect Avenue, and Happy Food Center, 4019 East 31st Street, both about a four-minute drive away.
Even with other stores relatively close, those stores are not full-service grocers. While Aldi accepts SNAP benefits (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), it does not accept WIC (Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children) at any of its locations.
Robinson said the Linwood community suffers from a food desert, or an area where it is difficult to buy affordable or good quality, fresh food.
While the path forward is not immediately clear, Robinson and other community advocates say they want to make decisions with the food desert in mind.
“We want to make sure that... we can continue to address the issues of the food insecurity in that area as quickly as possible. So ensuring that we put residents first,” Robinson said on Zoom.
During Friday’s meeting, Community Builders board members said there may be a way to continue grocery operations at the Linwood Sun Fresh location. Board member Kenneth Baccus said it would take substantial support to make it happen.
“We stayed a year longer than we should have, and and at this point, unless... something has to totally change for the board to reconsider this matter,” Baccus said.
This story was originally published August 15, 2025 at 3:19 PM.
