After years-long fight with neighbors, DoorDash moves its KC convenience store
DashMart, a DoorDash-owned convenience store, moved its Kansas City location last month amid years-long fight with neighbors and a legal battle with the city.
The 24-hour delivery only concept moved to the Manheim Park neighborhood on the intersection of Troost Avenue and Brush Creek Boulevard. Now drivers go to the former Dollar Tree building at 4601 Troost to pick up orders to bring to customers. The DoorDash website says the DashMart locations stock “fresh groceries, household essentials, and more.”
The DashMart was previously located in the Longfellow neighborhood. In late 2024, a city inspector issued two city code violations that threatened to displace the Longfellow operation. The inspector said there was not enough parking at the location and that there wasn’t space for delivery trucks.
Holmes Street residents said for the past three years, DoorDash drivers blocked driveways, increased traffic, played loud music and caused fender benders. Neighbors had met with KCPD, their city council member and DoorDash representatives from New York before the dispute ended up in court.
DoorDash spokesperson Parker Dorrough said in an emailed statement, “In close coordination with the city and after receiving feedback from the neighborhood, we have found a more suitable location for our Kansas City DashMart site. We look forward to resolving any outstanding legal questions and continuing to serve the Kansas City community.”
Kansas City spokesperson Sherae Honeycutt declined to comment on pending litigation.
Legal controversy
A lack of parking space for DoorDash drivers and semi trucks were the issues raised by the city’s code inspector.
In February, despite DoorDash’s legal attempts, the municipal Board of Zoning Adjustment upheld the code violations. On March 28, the food delivery giant filed a request for a temporary restraining order against the city board, stating the zoning violations were “arbitrary, capricious, unreasonable, unlawful, invalid and unenforceable.”
DoorDash requested the court overturn the BZA’s upholding of the code violation and block the enforcement of the code violations, in addition to covering DoorDash’s legal fees.
Since then, the restraining order hearing has been delayed twice because “both parties have been actively and diligently working toward a mutually agreeable resolution,” according to a court document filed by DoorDash’s attorney.
On July 14, DoorDash filed initial paperwork with the city to open a DashMart at 4601 Troost.
A case management hearing is scheduled for January .
The neighborhood’s reaction
About six drivers picked up taped-shut paper bags of groceries from the DashMart’s small waiting room over about 30 minutes midday Tuesday.
One smoked next to his car while waiting for his order to be fulfilled. The driver asked to remain anonymous to protect his other job, and said he has picked up orders from both the Longfellow and Manheim Park locations.
“I like this one,” he said.
In this man’s experience, the Troost location is larger and quicker with order fulfillment than the Longfellow location. In Longfellow, DoorDash drivers reported up to two-hour waits to pick up an order, frustrating both drivers and customers.
In Longfellow, Jacquie Lamer saw the last DashMart truck pull out Nov. 12. For the last two years, the Holmes Street resident rallied her neighbors to oppose the DashMart.
“We’re all appreciating a more normal and much quieter and cleaner neighborhood,” Lamer said.
Curtis Wright, president of the Historic Manheim Park Association, said he didn’t know the DashMart was coming to his neighborhood until the business arrived.
Wright lives with his family nearby, and said he has not seen any “crazy activity” in the DashMart’s first month. But he said when the weather warms up, “it might be a whole different story.”
The controversial DashMart moved to the east side of Troost, Kansas City’s historic racial dividing line. The area has previously seen less public and government investment than other areas of the city..
“Challenging businesses,” Wright said, can “seep into already divested communities. So I would hate for this to be a problem.”
Comparing the sites
The new DashMart location has about 20 parking spaces while the old one had only three parking spaces, according to Jackson County property records and a November 2024 city inspection.
On average, 11,500 vehicles drove down the stretch of Troost near the new DashMart each day in 2024, compared to the old DashMart’s 885 vehicles a day on Holmes, according to Missouri Department of Transportation data.
The Manheim Park structure is almost 9,000 square feet and was built in 2014, according to Jackson County property records. The Longfellow location took up 8,300 square feet of a larger building, constructed in 1965.
