West Bottoms Neighborhood Infrastructure Financing

A legacy industrial neighborhood once anchored by the Kansas City stockyards, West Bottoms faced longstanding challenges – including fragmented ownership, vacant and deteriorating historic buildings, and inadequate infrastructure — that discouraged investment and adaptation. A private developer proposed a comprehensive plan to redevelop multiple turn-of-the-century brick warehouses and vacant parcels into 1,200 mixed-income homes and over 170,000 square feet of commercial space. Delivering this transformation required close public-private collaboration to fund critical infrastructure upgrades across the 26-acre site.

HR&A completed a rigorous analysis assessing the project’s potential to catalyze wider neighborhood transformation while quantifying its economic and fiscal impacts. Our work demonstrated that public investment in infrastructure would generate a compelling return for Kansas City—supporting long-term resilience, economic activity, housing options, and fiscal strength – while enabling SomeraRoad to deliver a financially viable project. HR&A then designed a feasible public financing and incentive package, driven by value capture, to help fund infrastructure improvements, public realm upgrades, and on-site affordable housing. Our work secured crucial staff support for the rezoning and incentives package, positioning this catalytic project to move forward and spark the long-awaited revitalization of the West Bottoms neighborhood, breaking ground in 2024. 

• KC’s West Bottoms will be transformed with $527M project. See what’s happening — The Kansas City Star
• $527M West Bottoms redevelopment starts infrastructure work [RENDERINGS] — Kansas city business journal