Around the turn of the 21st century, downtown Kansas City, Missouri, faced challenges familiar to many American cities: abandoned buildings and surface parking lots filled 10 core blocks despite multiple redevelopment attempts dating to the 1960s. The downtown residential population was sparse, and some 60,000 downtown office workers made haste for the suburbs at 5 o’clock each weekday.
In 2003, civic leaders selected The Cordish Companies, a Baltimore-based development firm, to take over the redevelopment. Power & Light District opened in 2008 adjacent to the Sprint Center (now T-Mobile Center), which had been completed the year before. Cordish subsequently built three luxury apartment towers of approximately 300 units each—dubbed One Light, Two Light, and Three Light—with a fourth tower of similar size currently under development. All but one of the buildings will overlook a 5.5-acre (2.2 ha) urban park to be built on a deck over a nearby interstate. The company has also converted the historic Midland Office building into Midland Lofts, a 135-unit residential community, and added 15,000 square feet (1,394 sq m) of coworking space at its Two Light tower.
Cordish reports investing more than $1 billion in the downtown. According to Zed Smith, the company’s chief operating officer, the district has also supported or helped fuel approximately $9 billion in additional private and public investment in the central business district, including the arena, the 1,800-seat Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, a streetcar line, the renovation and adaptive reuse of historic offices and warehouses, a new convention hotel, and a convention center expansion.
The number of unique visitors to downtown reached 6 million in 2023, surpassing the pre-pandemic average by 700,000, according to the Downtown Council, a Kansas City advocacy organization. KC Live!, the Power & Light District’s entertainment venue, surrounds an outdoor plaza with two stories of restaurants and bars and has attracted 6 million visitors in the past year; the district overall attracted 18 million.
Perhaps most significantly, downtown Kansas City now has more than 33,000 residents and 122,000 employees, according to the Downtown Council—a substantial increase from earlier decades.
“Kansas City was trying to do something for 40 years, and city leaders wanted an entertainment district because tourism and convention business were dragging,” Smith says. “But developing residential was always a central part of our vision, because we knew that an entertainment district wouldn’t work without increasing the level of downtown density.”
The company has developed similar models in other cities, including Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. In St. Louis, Cordish partnered with the St. Louis Cardinals to develop Ballpark Village, a $400 million district integrated with Busch Stadium. In Arlington, Texas, the firm worked with the municipality and the Texas Rangers on Texas Live!, a $250 million entertainment venue that forms part of a larger $4 billion stadium-anchored development. Cordish and the Rangers recently completed a 300-unit luxury apartment building in that district as well.
The keys to success in these types of projects include establishing a strong public-private partnership to set the stage for development, building a project that authentically reflects the surrounding community, and employing a hospitality-driven operating philosophy to enrich the guest and tenant experience, Smith says.
Setting the stage typically starts with substantial spending on infrastructure, which often involves some political fortitude on the part of city officials. In Kansas City, previous private sector efforts to redevelop the area had failed to get off the ground. City officials chose to try again in part because Cordish committed to invest its own capital in all phases of the project, Smith says. “Just about everywhere we do these developments, there is some risk involved because we’re starting from ground zero in unproven territory,” he says. “But if I’m a mayor or city manager and am going to invest in my downtown, I want to know there’s going to be a return.”
Entertainment First, Then Residential and Other Uses
Cordish’s approach in Kansas City and other cities typically involves developing entertainment venues first to ramp up foot traffic before adding residential, office, and hotel components, Smith says. The rule is not written in stone—seeing market demand for hospitality in Arlington, Cordish developed a Live! by Loews hotel as part of the Texas Live! project in partnership with Loews Hotels. But in general, ensuring the success of the initial phase requires finding a diverse, vibrant mix of local food, beverage and retail operators that appeal to the community as well as to visitors.
Kansas City’s Power & Light District features Bristol Seafood Grill and other community favorites. In St. Louis, Katie’s Pizza & Pasta Osteria was among the local operators that Cordish brought to Ballpark Village. “Local restaurateurs do extremely well in our mixed-use developments because they’ve got name recognition and a reputation of providing a quality food and service experience,” Smith says.
Where possible, Cordish uses historic tax credit funding to restore old but noteworthy buildings, which further fosters authenticity and maintains local flavor. Part of its mission to rejuvenate Kansas City’s downtown included rehabilitating the shuttered Midland Theatre, a 1927 venue for music, movies, plays, dance, and Broadway shows. Additionally, Cordish developed workforce housing units in the nearby Midland Lofts building as part of another renovation effort.
“We continue to see historic renovation opportunities in Kansas City and other markets because these downtowns tend to have a lot of old buildings,” Smith says. “Wherever they make sense, we’ll pursue them.”
Audience Engagement
The last but no less vital piece of successful mixed-used development is the day-to-day management and operations of the various components. With the exception of highly specialized uses, Cordish oversees its projects throughout their entire life to ensure services meet its standards, Smith says. Maintaining an operational role also helps the company project occupancy levels and reduce investment risk in what are often high-stakes situations for municipalities.
In addition, the experience of managing and operating properties helps inform future development phases, reinvestment, and leasing opportunities to keep the properties fresh as competition builds in the surrounding submarkets. Smith notes the strong role of lifestyle choices in where people want to live: “In the Power & Light District, that means the convenience of having a high-quality grocery store, one-of-a-kind experiences, co-working capabilities, and food and beverage within a block of where you live.” Cordish recently added a two-level, 11,000-square-foot (1,022 sq m) Palm Tree Club rooftop restaurant in the Kansas City Power & Light District, developed in partnership with music producer Kygo.
Smith stresses the importance of hiring operations team members who have a hospitality mindset and are committed to cultivating a culture of service, community and fun: “When I’m out in the field and engaging with our team members, I always ask them, ‘Are you having fun?’”
