Red Bridge Shopping Center gets more public incentives

In 2008, the owners of the Red Bridge Shopping Center wanted to spruce up the south Kansas City retail outlet. The J.C. Nichols development opened in 1965 but has since fallen on hard times.

City leaders cooperated, approving a half-cent sales-tax increase on goods purchased at the shopping center at Red Bridge Road and Holmes. The CID would direct the extra half-cent to the S Management Group, owners of the property, in order to improve the old shopping strip.

But whatever improvements were to be made haven’t been apparent or they haven’t lasted. Vacancy in the shopping center veers between 50 and 72 percent. Some business owners complain about leaky roofs.

Another developer, Lane4 Property Group, is poised to take over the operation with a new plan to make Red Bridge Shopping Center attractive again.

South Kansas City residents and leaders packed Kansas City, Missouri, City Council chambers on Wednesday when the Planning, Zoning and Economic Development Committee took up Lane4’s proposal. The committee, chaired by south Kansas City Councilman Scott Taylor, passed the measure. It passed the full City Council on Thursday.

“This is how a project should go,” Taylor tells The Pitch, “with strong neighborhood leadership and support.”

The already-incentivized project is due to receive two more to fix the blight that was never sufficiently fixed from the 2008 CID. Lane4’s $10.5 million plan includes getting another half-cent increase on Red Bridge purchases for itself, as well as a 25-year property-tax abatement from the Planned Industrial Expansion Authority.

In order to qualify for a PIEA tax abatement, which involved a 100 percent property-tax abatement for 10 years and then 50 percent for the following 15 years, a property must be deemed blighted.

Scott Belke, a local consultant often called upon to find blight, was hired to make such a determination at Red Bridge Shopping Center. His conclusion: The shopping center is blighted.

He knows because he took pictures, which he then published in his blight report.

In one instance, there’s eroding asphalt in an entrance to the shopping Center, which gives way to puddles.

Then there’s a poorly maintained parking stop.

There’s another parking lot feature that might need some paint.

There are some cracks in a brick wall.

Part of a roof is caving in.

A bit of trash.

Some guy is hanging around out back.

Some of these problems require attention. Others can be fixed with a bag of concrete, a bucket of paint or a call to 911.

It’s a laudable goal to fix up Red Bridge Shopping Center, given that south Kansas City residents can and often do bypass the center to shop in Leawood or other places nearby. 

But what was going on for the last seven years while the shopping center was receiving public assistance?