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Kansas City Power & Light District is a nine-block dining, entertainment, retail, office, and residential district in downtown Kansas City, developed by the Baltimore-based Cordish Companies and opened in stages between 2007 and 2008.12 Built immediately west of the Sprint Center arena (now the T-Mobile Center), it is centered on the open-air Kansas City Live! block and takes its name from the 1931 Power & Light Building, the Art Deco tower a few blocks east.34 Financed through a roughly $850 million public-private partnership backed by $295 million in city bonds, it became downtown’s principal nightlife destination and a flashpoint in long-running debate over the cost of publicly subsidized entertainment districts.25

Boundaries

The district occupies nine city blocks in the heart of downtown Kansas City, Missouri, bounded approximately by 12th Street to the north, Grand Boulevard to the east, Interstate 670 to the south, and Baltimore Avenue to the west.1 It sits directly west of the T-Mobile Center and a short walk from the Crossroads Arts District to the south and the Quality Hill neighborhood to the west.

[!note] Earlier vault notes recorded the western edge at Wyandotte Street and the southern edge at 14th Street; Wikipedia gives Baltimore Avenue and Interstate 670. of the precise official footprint.1

History

By the early 2000s downtown Kansas City had endured decades of decline as postwar suburban growth pulled residents, commerce, and nightlife away from the urban core. City leadership responded with a coordinated downtown-revival program, of which the Power & Light District was the entertainment anchor. It was conceived alongside the Sprint Center arena (opened October 2007 at 13th and Grand), and developed in the same period as other revival projects including the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts (opened 2011) and, later, the KC Streetcar (opened 2016).3

Construction ran from roughly 2005 through 2008. The first tenant opened in November 2007, and the open-air Kansas City Live! block followed in April 2008.1 The district won the Urban Land Institute’s Award for Excellence in 2009 for its impact on downtown revitalization.1

Development & financing

The Cordish Companies, a Baltimore-based national developer, built the district as part of its portfolio of branded urban entertainment destinations, which also includes Power Plant Live! in Baltimore and Fourth Street Live! in Louisville.4 In Kansas City the firm provided private capital for construction and operations while the City of Kansas City issued roughly $295 million in municipal bonds in 2006 to fund public infrastructure, within a total project cost reported at about $850 million.12

The bonds were meant to be repaid through tax-increment financing (TIF) tied to the new tax revenue the district generated. Those revenues fell short of projections, and the city has instead drawn on its general fund and refinanced the debt to keep up with payments.15 The resulting gap has made the district a recurring subject in debate over the public cost of subsidized entertainment districts, and a frequently cited case study in municipal development finance.5 of exact annual shortfall figures and current outstanding debt.

Kansas City Live! & venues

The district’s centerpiece is Kansas City Live!, a single block built around a partially enclosed courtyard concert venue ringed by two floors of bars and restaurants, with large video screens for live music, sports broadcasts, and special events.1 It hosted “American Idol” auditions in 2008.1

Surrounding blocks mix national and local tenants across dining, nightlife, retail, and offices. Anchor venues include the restored Midland Theatre (about 3,500 capacity, reopened September 2008), the Alamo Drafthouse Mainstreet Cinema, and the H&R Block world headquarters (opened October 2006).1 The Hilton President Kansas City hotel, reopened January 2006, sits within the district.1

As downtown’s main nightlife hub, the district draws heavy game-day crowds for the Chiefs and Royals, and was a gathering point during the Chiefs’ Super Bowl runs. The 2024 Chiefs Super Bowl victory celebration route ran through downtown toward Union Station, the site of the February 14, 2024 parade shooting. of the precise parade staging location.

The Power & Light Building (historic)

The district is named for the Power & Light Building, a separate Art Deco landmark a few blocks east at 1330 Baltimore Avenue — not a structure within the district itself.3 Designed by the Kansas City firm Hoit, Price & Barnes and completed in 1931, the 34-story, 481-foot tower was built as the headquarters of the Kansas City Power and Light Company. On completion it ranked among the tallest buildings west of the Mississippi and remained one of Missouri’s tallest habitable structures for decades.3

Its Art Deco detailing culminates in an ornate rooftop lantern with prismatic glass panels lit at sunset, originally backed by colored flood lights that gave the crown a flickering, flame-like glow.3 The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.3 Kansas City Power & Light vacated it in 1991, and after years of dormancy it was converted to residential use beginning around 2014 by NorthPoint Development, reopening as the Power & Light Apartments with roughly 210 units in the tower (plus additional units in adjoining structures) — billed as Missouri’s tallest residential-only building.36

Cultural significance

The Power & Light District became the symbolic centerpiece of downtown Kansas City’s 2000s–2020s revival, drawing nightlife and commerce back to a long-hollowed core and complementing the Sprint Center, the Kauffman Center, and the streetcar.3 It is one node in a broader Kansas City entertainment landscape that also includes Westport, the Crossroads, and the 18th & Vine jazz district.

It is also widely studied as a test of the Cordish branded-district model in a Midwestern market, and as a cautionary example in debates over tax-increment financing for entertainment development — admired for revitalization results while criticized for the public debt it left behind.54

Sources

Footnotes

  1. “Kansas City Power & Light District,” Wikipedia — boundaries, opening timeline, financing ($295M bonds, ~$850M project), anchor venues, Kansas City Live!, ULI award. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_City_Power_%26_Light_District ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11

  2. Public-private partnership and TIF structure — City of Kansas City, Missouri bond issuance and Central Business District TIF. against primary city financing documents. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  3. “Kansas City Power and Light Building,” Wikipedia — 1330 Baltimore Ave, 1931 completion, Hoit, Price & Barnes, 34 stories/481 ft, Art Deco lantern, NRHP (2002), KCP&L departure (1991), NorthPoint residential conversion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_City_Power_and_Light_Building ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  4. The Cordish Companies — Power & Light District portfolio page and comparable districts (Power Plant Live!, Fourth Street Live!). https://www.cordish.com/portfolio/power-and-light-district ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  5. Kansas City Star — coverage of Power & Light District development, debt service, and general-fund subsidies (2005–present). of specific articles and figures. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  6. “History of the Power and Light Building,” powerandlightkc.com / KCUR Art Deco coverage — $70M renovation, 2016 apartment opening, unit count. https://www.powerandlightkc.com/the-historic-power-and-light-building/ ↩

See also

Categories
  • Concept
  • Neighborhood
  • Modern

On the record — ks.city/wiki/neighborhoods/power-and-light-district