New housing, public market will transform huge industrial site in Northeast KC

Kansas City officials formally launched on Wednesday what the mayor calls perhaps the most important project the city is working on today — an ambitious redevelopment of a hulking industrial site in the Historic Northeast.

Dubbed the Historic Northeast Lofts, the project promises to transform portions of the former Hardesty Federal Complex into affordable housing with on-site amenities like transit access, child care, health and recreational facilities and a 30,000-square foot public market filled with local businesses.

Jonathan Arnold of Arnold Development Group, which is leading the project in the Lykins neighborhood off Independence Avenue, said the development will help bring Northeast residents access to services and needs instead of isolating them.

Another planned perk? An energy efficiency system that includes a 3.9-megawatt solar panel array, which means residents will save money on their electric bills that they can use toward other financial needs, Arnold said.

“I think this is a national news story,” David Cozad, an administrator with the Environmental Protection Agency, said Wednesday.

The Historic Northeast Lofts will have 389 housing units, including 328 units for those making 30 to 80% of the area median income, which in the Kansas City area is $26,750 through $71,300 for a family of two.

Crispin Rea, City Councilmember for the Fourth District At-Large, grew up a few minutes away from the site. He knew it as a large, blighted industrial area, one that you only walked or drove past, and said it was hard to imagine the site ever being used again.

Now, Rea says, calling the project just “transformational” doesn’t do it justice and that it will bring needed economic development to the neighborhood.

The site has seen various uses over the years and has been known as the Kansas City Record Depot, the Kansas City Quartermaster Depot and the Hardesty Federal Complex. The U.S. Army once used the site as a depot, including through World War II, to store clothing, laundry supplies, ink, petroleum products and other chemicals, according to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

The site has been associated with environmental contamination, with work done since on clean up, and the site has sat vacant for years.

City support for the project includes tax increment financing, Housing Trust Fund dollars and brownfield revolving loan funds, according to a news release.

The developers previously announced the plans for a public market on the site that would be more than twice as large as the Lenexa Public Market. It’s expected to feature restaurant stalls and retail tenants on the main floor with event and coworking space up top.