Country Club Plaza

It's a little piece in the, in the size of Israel.

If we take Kansas City, it's like saying the Country Club Plaza.

Or, or a better example would be something in the west, the western part of the city.

It's like Bonner Springs.

You can actually go inside it and climb it to the observation deck.

It is uh a bunch of stairs after an elevator so um you do have to climb a bit and it's not accessible via wheelchair but the grounds themselves are just gorgeous to visit so we we talked about the we talked about kansas city's uh sort of downtown areas separated and into sort of different areas the union station is one area country club plaza is another area this is like uh It's a big open-air sort of outdoor mall-type area.

It's not really a mall.

It's actual streets where cars drive.

You may have heard of Kansas City being a city of fountains.

That's one of their nicknames.

And there are lots of fountains in this Country Club Plaza area.

There's 200 registered fountains total in Kansas City.

You've got everything in between.

I think, you know, in many ways, the future of Kansas City may be dictated in that district that runs from the Country Club Plaza all the way to the southern city limits in Cass County.

Well, let's be honest, Kevin McManus, he's a personal injury guy.

He's not taking that pay cut right now with three kids.

South Lake Town Square was just like just opening.

And so we studied the few that you could study, Holland Park Village, you could study Country Club Plaza, other places around the country that were working and were sort of models for walkable retail or mixed use.

And then just talk to the smartest designers, the smartest retailers, the smartest people in the placemaking business and listen.

And it became pretty obvious that people really liked walkable places, they feel safer.

If you or if we walked through the best shopping center in America, say 10 years from now, what do you think would be noticeably different than maybe the best retail center that we have now today? What do you think some of those differences might be?

The answer is not going to be crazy futuristic.

Because if you look at Highland Park Village, Country Club Plaza, Fifth Avenue, Madison Avenue, et cetera, you know, not that much changes every five or 10 years in the good retail place.

So

Last month, the Kansas City Council approved a plan for a downtown baseball stadium that would receive about $600 million in public funding.

And the Port Authority of Kansas City okayed $1.5 billion in bonds and tax benefits for the owners of the Country Club Plaza to redevelop that neighborhood.

Supporters say the projects will be a boon for the city, but opponents say that's a lot of money going to private interests with little public input.

David Hudnall is a columnist for the Kansas City Star, and he joined KCUR's Steve Kraske to talk about what these deals mean for the city.

And then they were soon engaged.

But she ends up moving into his condo in the Country Club Plaza area, which you know that area very well.

In fact, I would be shocked if I haven't crossed paths with Anastasia or Justin back in the late 90s.

I went to UMKC at around that same time, and I hung out in coffee shops all around Westport at that same time.

And some of our guests are actually planning on extending the time there and spending time as a family, hanging around Kansas City, going to some of the events.

We're right down on the Country Club Plaza, which is a really nice area.

Families can go out, lots of restaurants, shopping, et cetera.

So if you're inclined, we'd love to have you join us.