Ingram's April 2023

From high-visibility sporting events to advanced manufacturing, from high tech to excellence in logistics, the KC region is dramatically raising its national profile.

Royals game across the sprawling lot in the Truman Sports Complex at what is now Kauffman Stadium. n A year later, Kemper Arena open- ed in the West Bottoms, just in time to secure the city’s place in political history as the site of the 1976 Republican National Convention. All were signs of a vibrant com munity poised to claim a place closer to the front of the national stage. More than once, the question has been raised: Will Kansas City ever again see this

Half a century ago, Kansas Citians stepped back from a flurry of big-ticket developments and awarded themselves a round of applause. They had good rea son to: n Kansas City International Air port had just broken the mold in airport design with its easily accessible configu ration of three horseshoe-shaped termi nals when it opened in 1972. n That same year, the Chiefs took the wrappings off Arrowhead Stadium. n The following April saw the first

level of renaissance ininfrastructure? Skip ahead to 2023, and we’re no long- er pondering the future. We’re there. It’s been a hard slog through the first part of the 21st century, but the outlines of progress have been drawn, and we continue to fill in the details. In 2007, the Power & Light District opened, creating something Downtown Kansas City lacked for decades—a viable retail and entertainment core. That included the former Sprint Center, now T-Mobile Center, as a major sporting and entertainment venue. Over the past generation, an estimated $7 billion has gone into Downtown revitalization. A big part has been the resurgence of living spaces—thousands of new market-rate apartments that leverage those entertainment assets to create a critical mass of customers for Down town retailers, restaurants, bars, and others. The Kansas City streetcar began service in 2014 on a 2.2-mile run between the River Market and Union Station, and today is smack dab in the middle of a $350 mil lion expansion that will run to the Country Club Plaza and University of Missouri-Kansas City.

BRANCHING OUT | The $350 million extension of the streetcar will connect Downtown to the Country Club Plaza.

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I ngr am ’ s

April 2023

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