Kansas City Council approves Whole Foods complex near UMKC

After years of discussions with city and neighborhood leaders, VanTrust Real Estate won City Council approval Thursday for its Whole Foods project at 51st and Oak streets.

“The developer has worked very well with the neighborhood,” Councilman Jim Glover said. “There have been issues, but they have been solved.”

Other council members said the project, right across from the University of Missouri-Kansas City campus, will be a great addition to the Brookside area and for the students.

The complex includes a Whole Foods grocery, a 170-unit apartment structure on top of the grocery, a student health center and a parking garage. It’s planned for a 2.84-acre site on 51st Street between Oak Street and Brookside Boulevard.

Negotiations since 2012 have revolved around parking concerns and access from Brookside Boulevard across the Trolley Trail and the status of the Kansas City Young Matrons clubhouse on part of the property. The clubhouse will be lifted off its foundation in mid-August and moved south to a new site on the UMKC campus at 52nd and Cherry.

At the council’s planning and zoning committee meeting this week, neighborhood leaders praised VanTrust for its outreach and extensive communication and work to resolve questions and problems.

The upscale grocery and six levels of market-rate apartments on top of it are expected to open in early 2018. Grocery customers will have access to some surface parking and also to spaces in the parking garage.

This story was originally published June 18, 2015 at 4:20 PM with the headline "Kansas City Council approves Whole Foods complex near UMKC."