KCK officials question if, when Indian Springs replacement will happen amid delays
Negotiations are ongoing in a local developer’s plans to revitalize the site of a former Kansas City, Kansas, shopping mall. But some local officials expressed concerns over how long it has taken to get that project moving — and are questioning its viability.
Eastside Innovation, the developer trying to bring a billion-dollar, mixed-use development to the site where Indian Springs Mall once stood, has reached an impasse with the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and KCK over a key sticking point.
Parties have disagreed about how much the property, 90 acres off State Avenue and Interstate 635, should sell for. They are also assessing whether a newly proposed exhibit on energy generation and use could qualify the project for Kansas sales tax and revenue, or STAR, bonds.
The Unified Government wants to sell the land, which it said it has put more than $25 million into, for $6 million dollars. Erik Murray of Eastside Innovation and Oak Impact Group has previously told The Star that he wants to buy the land for closer to $1 million. Murray, a KCK native, is also running for U.S. Senate this year.
That difference has kept the groups from finalizing a development agreement to move the project forward and eventually begin construction.
Back in 2024, the Unified Government granted Murray and his co-developer, Jonathan Arnold of Arnold Development Group, a request for proposal to revitalize the former mall site into Midtown Station, a development that would include 2,000 apartments, a grocery store, hotel, retail space and a solar micro grid to produce electricity.
If completed, Midtown Station would sit near a transit center that the developers want to use to establish a transportation hub connecting people throughout the area.
Members of the government’s Economic Development and Finance committee heard an update on the project during a Monday evening public meeting. Committee members were scheduled to vote to either allow city staff to continue to negotiate toward a finalized development agreement, or, call the project quits altogether.
The committee ultimately decided not to take formal action and to revisit the matter later this year, hopefully with clarity on whether the project qualifies for STAR bond funding and on whether the parties can reach an agreement on the land’s sale price.
The Unified Government has long struggled to find someone to build something at the site where the mall once stood. Projects previously pitched at that site have fallen through.
When Eastside pitched the plan to officials two years ago, it said the project would cost $700 million. That number has increased to more than $1 billion amid inflation and changes in the scope of the project.
Should the project move forward, Eastside plans to break construction into five phases. The first would include 65,000 square-feet of retail space, more than 600 units of housing and 30,000 square feet of gathering space.
