KC, KCK mayors promote plan to help struggling neighborhoods

Ivanhoe Neighborhood Council Executive Director Margaret May has scrounged, cajoled and pleaded for funds to get new housing built on East 39th Street in Kansas City.

But with a $4 million pre-development fund announced Monday, Ivanhoe and other urban core community development groups in both Kansas City and Kansas City, Kan. may have an easier time getting their projects off the ground.

“We’re very excited about it,” May said of the Catalytic Urban Predevelopment Fund, outlined at a briefing Monday at the Mary Kelly Center on Kansas City’s East Side. “We do a lot of begging.”

The Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) is spearheading the loan fund, with support from the Kauffman Foundation, Hall Family Foundation, Kansas City municipal government and the Unified Government of Wyandotte County.

The money will go for such “soft costs” as architectural drawings, financial and environmental studies, legal fees, market research, community engagement and other pre-development work in low- to moderate-income areas on both sides of the state line.

“This is really challenging and complex work,” LISC executive director Stephen Samuels told dozens of neighborhood advocates at Monday’s announcement.

He said the funding is intended to help worthwhile projects get past the difficult startup phase and cultivate economic markets that have suffered from a vacuum of activity.

Loans will be offered at 4 percent interest for up to three-year terms, and are expected to average about $250,000. Some special project investments, for smaller amounts of money, will be offered at no interest for technical assistance and capacity-building to determine project feasibility.

Steve Weatherford, LISC senior program officer for community lending, said some of the funding is already spoken for, to help with developments in Kansas City’s Northeast neighborhood, Blue Hills and in downtown Kansas City, Kansas.

Future loans are anticipated to help jump-start projects such as grocery stores, housing, community gathering spaces, retail and health facilities.

More information is available from Weatherford at 816-788-6986 or sweatherford@lisc.org.

This story was originally published April 11, 2016 at 11:51 AM with the headline "KC, KCK mayors promote plan to help struggling neighborhoods."