Which buildings will be demolished for new Royals stadium? What renderings show

Hallmark officials say they are displacing their own offices to make way for a new Royals stadium in Crown Center, leaving the mainstay Kansas City company to find a new headquarters when its current site is demolished.

The Royals, Hallmark and government officials made a splashy announcement Wednesday morning, proposing a new stadium in the middle of Crown Center alongside broader investment and development.

“We just told our employees that the Hallmark building will be coming down, and we’ve got to now go to work and try to figure out where we will stay,” Don Hall, Jr., executive chairman of Hallmark Cards, told reporters on Wednesday. “But we are going to be committed to Crown Center.”

Hall called locating the stadium on Hallmark’s headquarters site “the best option.”

An early, concept rendering shows the stadium replacing the Hallmark corporate building off Pershing and Gillham roads and at least much of immediately adjacent structures to the west, off Grand Boulevard, that are owned by Hallmark or its real estate arm.

But the renderings are not final site plans, which would show exactly what would get built or knocked down and where.

And it remains unclear what would happen to some existing Crown Center amenities — including the Kaleidoscope children’s art center, the Sealife aquarium and Legoland — based on the renderings.

“Plans are underway, so we don’t have any specifics to share at this point,” a Crown Center spokesperson told The Star. “That said, one of the primary reasons that Crown Center was selected by the Royals is because of the legacy and purpose of Crown Center; they want to maintain and build upon the history of the complex.”

The renderings do show the existing “zigzag” office building on the northeast side of Crown Center remaining. Also shown are the nearby ice skating pavilion and the shopping mall on the other side of Grand Boulevard.

Also shown in the rendering: the Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic church, located off the proposed stadium’s south side. A small building next to the church is not shown, however.

The office building at 2405 Grand Boulevard, which includes Panera Bread and The Star’s offices, are shown in the rendering, and the existing Crown Center square with fountains and multi-colored tables are shown as they are today.

What’s not shown on the renderings: any development on existing surface parking lots in Crown Center, or anything at Washington Square Park on the other side of Pershing Road, which was previously considered a stadium site contender.

But that doesn’t mean there won’t be any new development in those areas, and early renderings are not the final word.

In fact, Royals majority owner John Sherman said Wednesday that the plan includes bringing Washington Square Park into an expanded mixed-use ballpark district, suggesting there could be new development there.

While the renderings released on Wednesday offer an early concept, further details about what exactly will stay, what will be changed and what will be demolished in and around Crown Center are to be announced.

This story was originally published April 22, 2026 at 5:22 PM.