Et tu, Edgemoor? Turns out developer had its own robo call about KCI ‘misinformation’

Edgemoor wasn’t happy about it. Neither was Kansas City Mayor Sly James. They spoke out in recent days about an anonymous robo call effort making the rounds in Kansas City that said the chosen developer of a single terminal at KCI wasn’t cut out for the job.

But Edgemoor last week didn’t say anything about its own robo call effort. On Monday, Edgemoor Infrastructure & Real Estate managing director Geoffrey Stricker acknowledged that the company funded its own robo call initiative.

“It was supportive of the airport project and focused on (ensuring) citizens are aware of the misinformation campaign,” Stricker said in an email to The Star on Monday.

Edgemoor, which emerged as the winner of a procurement process last year for the $1 billion KCI single terminal project that Kansas City voters later approved, is locked into at-times contentious negotiations with labor unions, minority contractors and City Hall over the particulars of a project agreement with the city. The Kansas City Council already flicked away an earlier version of the memorandum of understanding, declaring its terms and minority hiring goals insufficient.

Edgemoor’s robo calls point out that 75 percent of Kansas City voters approved the single terminal concept last November and says a small group is trying to undermine the Maryland-based developer’s opportunity to build what it’s calling the “new Gateway to Kansas City.”

The call asks listeners to contact council members and urge them to support Edgemoor in its efforts to reach a memorandum of understanding. The request to call council members is the only similarity to the anti-Edgemoor robo calls.

In the anti-Edgemoor calls, listeners are told that Edgemoor’s financing plan is obscured, that the firm was being cheap in various terms of the memorandum of understanding and demanding a $30 million advanced payment. Edgemoor said none of that is true.

But at least Edgemoor signed its name to its robo calls. The origins of the anti-Edgemoor variety are still cloaked in secrecy.

This story was originally published January 22, 2018 at 4:12 PM with the headline "Et tu, Edgemoor? Turns out developer had its own robo call about KCI ‘misinformation’."