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Last to know, first to go: ‘Out of touch’ ballpark plan leaves Crossroads small biz owners feeling betrayed
Unlike many of her Crossroads neighbors — hoping to draw in crowds of football fans still riding high from Kansas City’s Super Bowl win — Jill Cockson’s business wasn’t open during Wednesday’s Chiefs victory parade.
Candidly, jersey-clad sports enthusiasts aren’t really within her typical customer profile, the James Beard-nominated owner of Chartreuse Saloon said, and she has no interest in catering her business to them.
Small businesses along Grand Boulevard that would be demolished to make way for the Royals’ East Crossroads ballpark; photo by Austin Barnes, Startland News
“We fit into this neighborhood for a reason,” said Cockson, whose space at 16th and Oak streets offers an inclusivity-driven bar and billiard/game room. “We provide a safe haven from Westport, from Power & Light. People come to this neighborhood for a specific experience.”
That experience would be upended by a newly announced proposal to reshape the Crossroads into a mecca for Kansas City baseball fans, she said, and her business — faced with a literal wrecking ball — would be forced to relocate or close entirely.
Officials from the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday unveiled plans to develop a nearly 18-acre footprint in the East Crossroads, anchoring a $2 billion ballpark district from the former Kansas City Star building site at 1601 McGee St.
Stretching from Truman Road south to 17th Street and Grand Boulevard east to Locust Street, the development would encompass more than just the massive, long-vacant newspaper facility — ultimately requiring the departure of as many as two dozen businesses and organizations before construction fully gets under way.
The project aligns with the coming South Loop park effort that is expected to cap I-670 and physically reconnect the Crossroads neighborhood to downtown, specifically the Power & Light District — a point touted by the Royals and supporters of the site selection.
“If you peel back the layers of what’s really going on, it’s rich guys doing rich guy stuff,” Cockson said, offering sharp criticism of the plan and the Royals’ behind-the-scenes maneuvers so far — namely not opening a direct dialogue with tenant business owners who would be displaced, and instead targeting eager-to-sell landlords.
RELATED: Who wins and who loses with Royals ballpark plan
Among those impacted by demolition for the ballpark’s footprint: Cockson’s Chartreuse Saloon and such neighborhood staples as The Pairing wine bar and grocery, The Harlow urban wedding and event venue, and Kobi Q Korean BBQ, along with newcomer Green Dirt on Oak — a renovated three-level restaurant, bar and creamery set to open in March — and even the popular Church of the Resurrection, which is in the midst of its own expansion in the neighborhood.
Click here to read the Church of the Resurrection’s statement on the Royals’ site selection.
“This whole project is completely out of touch. We’re talking square peg, round hole,” said Cockson, who also developed Swordfish Tom’s in the Crossroads, as well as Drastic Measures, a two-time James Beard Award finalist in Shawnee, Anna’s Place in Omaha, and The Other Room in Lincoln, where she was a James Beard nominee for cocktails.
“The East Crossroads — and the Crossroads in general — has been built up and brought back by a lot of people who have been very passionate about maintaining a sense of authentic, unique, interesting, creative Kansas City businesses,” she said.
Many small business owners, including Cockson, were lured to the neighborhood by property owners for that reason, she said, noting they’ve developed concepts specifically to fit a Crossroads target market while remaining aligned with their own personal values.
“To put something like [the ballpark district] here would not only not benefit us because these businesses are not calibrated for that target clientele, but it would also deter our existing clientele from coming to the neighborhood,” Cockson said.
“Baseball people are not it for us.”
‘Crossroads is always changing’
A couple blocks away from the proposed ballpark site, entrepreneur Steve Revare is excited by the concept of an expanded downtown footprint bringing change to the Crossroads — even if the ripple effect from incorporating a baseball club and its fans into a neighborhood largely defined by the arts and its popular First Friday events is not yet fully known, he said.
Steve Revare, Tom’s Town Distilling Co.; photo by Tommy Felts, Startland News
“The complexion of the arts district will change a little bit, and we have to think long and hard about if that’ll be a positive or negative change to what’s existing here now,” said Revare, co-owner of Tom’s Town Distilling Co. “I mean, the empty Star building isn’t doing anything for the Crossroads now — so revamping it into something that could bring more people downtown would be great.”
The Royals’ site selection for its 34,000-plus seat stadium is a compelling move for the team and city, he added, emphasizing the opportunities it presents for the Crossroads and local business owners.
“It’s a positive development that we’re getting downtown baseball — a downtown stadium that will help the team, help Jackson County, help increase density downtown and in the Crossroads,” Revare said.
“The Crossroads is always changing,” he continued. “It’s changed a lot since we’ve been down here the past eight years. Development tends to make it too expensive for artists to stay, but it also leads to a different kind of vibrancy in the city. And that’s really valuable too.”
This is going to be awesome!!! Can’t wait! 