“In a perfect world, economic development and transit are partnered up, but in Kansas City, for some reason, we’ve gone in different directions, which is not very sound philosophically,” said Frank White III, vice president of RideKC Development Corporation.
RideKC Development Corporation is on a mission to change that.
White and Brien Starner, president of RideKC Development Corporation, were the featured speakers at the April meeting of CCIM Kansas City. They are seeking to partner with developers who will create development around transit.
RideKC Development Corporation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization created in February 2018 by the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority (KCATA), which oversees it.
RideKC Development Corporation is tasked with creating a sustainable cycle of re-investment and equitable growth in the Kansas City region so that transportation facilitates better development, and development facilitates better transportation.
RideKC Development Corporation covers seven counties in Kansas and Missouri pursuant to the bi-state compact creating KCATA and approved by Congress in 1966.
“We’ve got a very large footprint that we serve. But what they did not give us was taxing authority,” said White.
KCATA has had the authority to undertake economic development for nearly 55 years. But, it was the streetcar that spurred KCATA to create an economic development company when KCATA saw the organic development propelled by the streetcar, White said.
“The question was what if we could control that development? Also some of the policy goals-–access to opportunity, access to health, access to jobs, access to workforce—and kind of steer that policy goal toward good, sound business practices,” said White.
RideKC Development Corporation has several different economic development tools and powers it can use, provided there is a transit or transportation component to a project, said White. These tools and powers include crossing jurisdictions, bonding authority, giving tax exemptions on construction materials on the property, eminent domain and land assembly.
“We can even build roads and bridges if we saw fit to do so. Anything that moves people, goods or services we can do,” White said.
White said what makes RideKC Development Corporation different is that its decisions are driven by data.
“We’re trying to get access, accessibility, but in the end, it’s got to make good strategic and financial sense,” said White.
White said linking development to transit access strengthens the region, but to do so, we must have a very strong central city.
“You’ve got to work it inside out, not outside in. And we’ve been doing that wrong,” he said.
White said RideKC Development Corporation wants to control corridors within the city.
“Main Street, Prospect, Troost and east-west. It’s ours. . . . We’re in the process of acquiring multiple properties on Prospect to save for redevelopment because people are coming,” said White.
White said RideKC Development Corporation currently is working on potential projects totaling nearly $1 billion, with half of that amount destined for the east side of Kansas City, where it traditionally has been a challenge to get private capital investment.
“What we can do is de-risk development,” White said.
RideKC Development Corporation encourages developers to bring their development ideas. The corporation can help facilitate development.
“Our job isn’t to tell you where the growth ought to go, but we are as an agency, when you make an application with us, going to say are you meeting our public policy objectives,” said Starner.
“People think we [KCATA] own a lot of real estate. We really don’t. We have lots of easements, but we don’t own a lot of good real estate. So we’re really at the point where probably 95 to 98 percent of what Frank and I are going to work on is going to be driven by the private sector proposals on frequent transit network corridors,” Starner said.
“If you’re not tying development to moving people, you’re not going to win. If we don’t tie this region together and connect it in a way, we’re going to lose the ability to compete regionally to other areas that have these things that 30 to 35 years ago had the foresight to do it,” said White.
Feature photo of Frank White III, credit: MWM KC | Marcia Charney.