Downtown Kansas City, Missouri, is having a good week.
Yesterday, the Downtown Council heralded the demolition of Shoppers Parkade, a seedy parking garage at 11th and Grand. Today, Mayor Mark Funkhouser, City Manager Wayne Cauthen and others swung celebratory sledgehammers (they were painted gold) at a wall of the old Greyhound bus depot at 12th and Holmes.
The wall to which city officials put their sledgehammers did not collapse. "It's a stubborn thing, isn't it?" Councilman Ed Ford remarked as he removed his hard hat.
The city condemned the terminal in 2007 in an effort to force a sale. The property's do-nothing owner, quarry operator and tobacco wholesaler Anthony Barber, purchased the site in 1994, after it failed as a sporting good store. Caked in pigeon poop, the building defined urban blight.
Demolition begins this week. Cauthen says the concrete at the site would be recycled.
Earlier this year, the city council authorized $2.1 million to pay for the remediation. Qualifying as a brownfield, the project received an additional $200,000 in federal stimulus money.
The parcel sits within the East Village redevelopment boundary, but its future use remains unknown. Swope Community Builders has the development rights to the area. If any progress is being made, Swope is keeping it a secret. Swope's original partner in the endeavor, Minneapolis-based Sherman Associates, ended its participation more than a year ago.
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