Months after Merc’s closure, KCK could be getting a new downtown grocery store
Just months after Kansas City, Kansas, lost its downtown grocery store, another vendor is announcing plans to take its place.
Wyandotte County’s Economic Development and Finance Committee will consider Monday evening a resolution to approve a letter of intent saying Sante Fe Grocers, LLC, wants to manage and operate a grocery store at 501 Minnesota Avenue.
If successful, the new store would replace The Merc Co+op, a locally owned market that’s connected to the National Co+op Grocers group. A spokesperson with the company announced last summer that the store would close at the end of 2025, just five years after its 2020 opening.
The Merc’s financial sustainability was the main contributing factor to the company’s decision to close that location, that spokesperson said at the time. The decision affected people living in and around downtown KCK who utilized the store, as well as the store’s 12 staff members.
The store cost more than $7 million in public funds and tax credits to construct.
In the months since The Merc closed its doors to the public, the shelves and carts that KCK residents once used during their grocery runs have remained on site. Interior signage indicating the building was a grocery store also stayed up.
“The Unified Government believes that its residents deserve and require access to fresh and healthy foods, and maintaining a full-service grocery store at 501 Minnesota Avenue serves an essential public purpose in an underserved area,” according to committee documents.
If the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and KCK decide to move forward with that declaration of intent, whether that be in committee or by approval of the full board of commissioners, the two parties would begin negotiations on how they would own and operate the store.
The letter of intent from Santa Fe, LLC owner Anthony Estrada proposes that the Unified Government allow the group to operate the grocery store from that location, use all furniture, fixtures and materials currently in the store and have responsibility for hiring and managing the store’s staff.
Estrada estimated that it would cost $571,950 to outfit and redesign the space for use, and his letter asked that the Unified Government chip in $150,000 in demolition, construction or signage costs.
The letter also requests that the Unified Government maintain the building’s needed infrastructure, like roofing, walls, parking areas or utilities, among other items. Any store inventory, media advertising or fees to maintain the inside of the building will be the responsibility of Santa Fe.
“The parties acknowledge that maintaining a full-service grocery store at the Premises serves an essential public purpose in an underserved area,” according to the letter of intent from Santa Fe, LLC. “The definitive documents will incorporate measurable community outcomes and reporting sufficient to demonstrate public benefit.”
The letter outlines an agreement that would continue through April 2029. It also asked that the Unified Government not sell or lease any of its property throughout that time for another grocery store within a defined geographic area that the parties would have to agree on.
It also reads that employees will receive “a minimum starting hourly wage sufficient to provide the necessities and comforts essential to an acceptable standard of living,” and that Estrada would try to recruit and retain employees from KCK, specifically people who live near the store.
