On this episode of Banking on KC, Kate Marshall, founder and CEO of the Plaza District Council, joins host Kelly Scanlon to discuss how the organization is bringing together diverse stakeholders to create a shared vision for Kansas City’s historic Plaza area, ensuring it remains a thriving hub for residents, businesses and cultural institutions.
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Country Club Bank – Member FDIC
Kate Marshall
Kelly Scanlon: Welcome to Banking on KC. I'm your host, Kelly Scanlon. Thank you for joining us. On this episode, we're gonna be discussing Kansas City's Plaza District, not just the shopping center, but the parks, cultural anchors, and neighborhoods that are also a part of it. The Plaza District Council is a nonprofit that's bringing people together to shape a more connected, vibrant district, and right now is a really.
Pivotal moment in the history of the plaza. We've got new ownership, investing in safety and design, and the streetcars coming soon. That'll be bringing thousands of new writers to the area and just many, many other things going on. So we've invited Kate Marshall, the founder, and CEO of the Plaza District Council to talk with us about the rule of the council in shaping the future of the plaza.
So Kate, welcome and let's just start with what. PDC is and why this district-wide lens matters as opposed to just the narrow entertainment district.
Kate Marshall: Well, thank you Kelly, and thank you so much for having me. I moved back to the Plaza about 10 years ago and I realized this is the beautiful place that I've always loved.
When I first moved to Kansas City, I lived right here on the plaza, and my second. Period of being a resident here looked, felt a little different. We were at the tail end of the ownership by the Tubman and Mercer companies, and it was looking a little dogeared and the stores weren't quite as robust and the stores started closing and my neighbors were, were telling me the plazas in bad shape and it's dying.
And I was saying, no, no, no, no. The pause is fine. Plaza's not going anywhere, but it caused me to kind of go out and take a closer look, and I started to see that yes, indeed, maybe the plaza wasn't doing as well as it had been in the past. So I started actually having conversations with stakeholders, neighbors and developers, and people who really cared about the plaza, along with discovering about the same time that.
The area that most people think of as the Plaza includes about 15 hotels and 20 high rises, and loose Park and Tyce Park and the Nelson and all these great cultural, the St. Luke's Hospital and the universities. But we also sort of think of the Plaza as a country club plaza. And there's actually some very clear delineations.
In fact, this new shopping center property that's just been purchased by the owners, it's not new at all, is about 15 retail blocks, and that's the century old historic part of the Country Club Plaza that is actually distinct from. The rest of what we all love and call the plaza. So when I realized that there was a lot more ownership involved, it made me think perhaps we could have a collective voice that could speak as a group for how we want this district to grow and change and evolve in this particularly critical period in its history.
What's. Kind of interesting is that the Nichols family sold their interest in the plaza in 1998. And honestly, in more than a generation now, there hasn't been one single entity that had an eye out for the whole district. And that was really a big impetus for creating an organization that would think more cohesively about the whole area.
Sure.
Kelly Scanlon: Would it be fair to say that you play a similar or incomparable role to what the Downtown Council plays for downtown Kansas City?
Kate Marshall: Exactly. So like the downtown council, which stretches across, I can't remember, I think it's 22 neighborhoods in a large area that most of us are fairly familiar with.
Plaza District Council goes from state line to the PEO and from 43rd to 55th Street, so just south of Blues Park, that's approximately three square miles. It's also the bottom half of the Midtown Plaza area Plan, which is a city planning designation, if you will, for areas of the city that they plan in groups.
And it just sort of seemed like a, an appropriate. Amount of space for one group to be kind of advocating and convening around and making recommendations for looking after. It includes the cultural institutions, as I said, the universities, the hospital, and lots of wonderful neighborhoods.
Kelly Scanlon: You've been in existence now for about three years.
You, you are, um. The founder and now currently the CEO. So what was the first thing you went about doing? You talk about the collaboration and involvement of stakeholders, whether it's residents, retailers, you know, the hospital admins, whatever it happens to be. So developers talk to us about. What you prioritized right off the bat.
Kate Marshall: I think probably the most important piece was to get folks to start talking to each other, sharing their concerns out loud, having a better understanding of what. What we have the opportunity to make an impact on what's a little beyond us, what belongs to somebody else? What's somebody else's property?
We started to distinguish that. Oh, like the bridges that go over Brush Creek. Well, those are park assets, which are public property, which means if they're not being kept up, the public can. Say, Hey, can I draw your attention to this problem? And, and you know, as as this happened, they invite me to go raise funds through Piac or find another fund at the city.
And in fact, one of our recent victories is after literally more than three years of asking, we now have funding allocated to repair the sidewalks and, and kind of spruce up the bridge across Brush Creek, right at Warnell Road. Oh, so it's called the Warnell Bridge, but it's. Enters Broadway, and it is the gateway to the plaza.
And in its history, when it was rebuilt after the flood, Miller Nichols wanted very much for it to be a beautiful gateway bridge and not a, a more reduced and less dramatic bridge that is what the city planned on and could afford. So the Nichols family paid the difference to have it be a beautiful bridge.
And here we are, um, you know, 40 years later and it's looking a little shabby. So we're eager to have it. Um. Cleaned up and fixed and repaired and, and fixed the broken sidewalk parts and replace the flower planters and do all the good things. Um, and it's been a collaborative effort. Now we're including the folks who own the Country Club Plaza and our immediate neighbors are engaged in this process.
And it's, um, and it's a parks project. It's gonna be repaired. By Parks and Rec.
Kelly Scanlon: So what are some of the ways that you do bring the stakeholders together?
Kate Marshall: We have regular PDC connection events. We've been doing a number of coffees around the district. We have a lot of them at Maiden Casey, which is on the plaza.
We just had one last week at the new Martin City Tavern, which is in South Plaza actually for that one. The new ownership group came and spoke specifically about what they're doing and when they plan to deliver the master plan to the city and what they're hoping in terms of height. Restrictions and opportunities for them to.
Magnetize this area for important employers and beautiful new housing and all kinds of things that they're interested in. But our next one is October 1st at Plaza Provisions. We've enjoyed, oh gosh, people from 60, 80, a hundred people will come out for these things, and it includes a lot of our immediate neighbors.
People who are interested in the opportunity to do work with and for the Country Club Plaza and other developments that are happening in the area. So it's a very focused, concerned stakeholder group. And then what we bring is a spokesman from parks or a spokesman from the water service department or somebody to come from City Hall sometimes.
We've had the mayor, we've had the city manager, we've had a number of programs about security. We've had KCPD and the new. Prosecutor district attorney named Lisa Johnson has been a speaker. So it's a great opportunity for this community to have a one-on-one opportunity to ask a question of, of either a city official or an elected, or somebody who's actually doing the work of, you know, digging up the street to replace a water Maine.
Kelly Scanlon: With all of this going on, how will you measure progress? You know, um, anecdotally, or, I mean, you're, you're pretty young, still three years old, and you've got a new ownership group, which we'll talk about in just a minute. So you may not have a real big pool of statistics yet, but Anna. Totally. What do you, what do you see as positive indicators?
What will tell you that you're accomplishing the goals you set out to achieve?
Kate Marshall: Broadly, we can assert that the Plaza has been and continues to be a very successful. Revenue producing zone of our city. It's really like a second downtown in Kansas City, and it generates revenue in the form of earnings, taxes, and property taxes and sales taxes really punches way above its weight.
So it's a critically important. Area for Kansas City, Missouri. And what we look to see is are we continuing to attract business to attract residents to attract development? And you can see on the periphery of the actual 15 retail blocks that's owned by these nice people in Dallas, you see hotels going up.
The former John Hancock building is going to be renovated into beautiful condominiums and that's gonna be another nice place for people to live and enjoy the plaza. All within walkable distance, which is one of the key things about this area. It's really one of the most walkable areas in Kansas City, and that's kind of critical.
Kelly Scanlon: It's a good setup for the question. I wanna ask you about the new ownership in 2024. HP Village Management out of Dallas, as you said, acquired the Country Club Plaza. So the entertainment part of it, and Ray Washburn has stepped in as a managing partner. So how. Has this new ownership changed some of the concerns about safety?
You say it's a very walkable area, but there's a lot of concerns about safety and there's concerns about the fact that there were empty storefronts, so, so how are they addressing those concerns? And how are you as the PDC, how are you working with the new management group?
Kate Marshall: Oh, we feel very fortunate. We have a very collegial relationship and they do recognize that our being a conduit to the community that they are serving and they are interested in. Pleasing and attracting and making happy is a very helpful resource to them. They go by the name Village Collection now because they've recognized they have more than Highland Park what looks like they haven't been very active or productive.
It's because they've had first some time getting a great team in place and they've recently had. A man named Chris Herron, who's our senior Vice President of development, and he's moved here actually from Houston. So he's a Kansas City and now as of this summer, and they have a terrific new general manager and Scott Keller and, and they're building a fabulous team right here in Kansas City.
In addition, there's some tremendous talent that flies in and outta Dallas and weighs in on the. Progress and the ideas and the the ways they wanna improve and change their number one issue when they showed up was addressing security. They knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that they couldn't do anything until they addressed that.
And so last spring, they put in a really tremendous security team that has. Already shown tremendous difference to the experience of being on the plaza. Everybody remarks on it. Also, businesses right off the plaza, not everybody realizes the Bowlings restaurant is actually in a building off of, yes, the immediate properties.
But I was talking to the general manager there who said it's been awesome, just this uptick in. The secure feeling and the fact that folks know they're gonna run into trouble if they try to get up to mischief in the plaza. Sort of had them go elsewhere.
Kelly Scanlon: Well, coming off the summer months, first summer as owners.
Now, what can you tell us about incidents on the Plaza? Have they been down dramatically? Yes.
Kate Marshall: Like other entertainment districts in Kansas City, we have. Occasional issues of property crime, stolen autos, people feeling maybe harassed by large groups on a sidewalk that has dropped dramatically for the Plaza District and actually around the city also, we hear about the homicides, which is frightening and awful and makes you think this.
Nothing has changed. But crime has actually had a lot of, um. Positive changes in the statistic, which is really encouraging.
Kelly Scanlon: And so some of the other things that, again, they've spent a, a good deal of their time getting the lay of the land, putting a great team in place and, and addressing the security issues.
But they have done some beautification projects and, and a few other things that are visible after security.
Kate Marshall: They said, let's wash all the windows. Simple stuff. Yes. They've been painting and they're sprucing things up. They're taking such good care. The old medical building, they're actually stripping it back to the original metal because it was chipping.
And so they're going to actually restore and replace and repaint the proper way. So it's not just a constant. Um, they've already started to put up the lights and we're looking forward to the plaza lights again on Thanksgiving night. They absolutely understand this as a property with a soul. A heart and a community that feels it's theirs and they wanna honor that, which is really encouraging to us.
Kelly Scanlon: You know, one of the things we didn't talk about is parking. Some people think that coming to the plaza, you know, it's, it's just so difficult to find a parking space. Also the safety concerns of the garages. So, so what's being done about the parking
Kate Marshall: concerns? Well, again, one of the very first things that the.
That the folks from Dallas did was they recognized that there were too many entrances and exits to some of the garages. They posted security people right at there, at the opening and closing of the various garage openings, and, and that has made a big difference. More broadly, the, the real issue around parking is that folks in Kansas City, from both sides of the state line.
Are more than happy to walk a mile and a half across a big parking lot if they can see where they're going in the distance. You have a great point there. And they are less inclined to do 300 steps if it's just around the corner and up one flight. And we actually have more than enough parking on the plaza, particularly right now as, um, some of our stores are closed and we have a lower number of shoppers on the plaza.
We're not really hurting for parking places. We just can't offer. You're six steps from the front of the store you're going to for every shopper. But as we are about to have a wonderful streetcar and we're gonna have a lot more people arriving on foot, we already do have a very walk friendly neighborhood that comes and you know, arrives at the plaza on foot.
I think that people will start to really realize it's okay.
Kelly Scanlon: You brought up about the lower traffic in terms of shoppers which as I said in the introduction, there has been some exodus of retailers and restaurants on the plaza. How is that being a handled and addressed
Kate Marshall: if you bought a beautiful a hundred year old house from.
An older family that hadn't done much to it in 25, 30 years, you probably have some unmet needs that had like, maybe nobody's changed out the water heater and your plumbing's gotten a little rusty and the lights are all out and look the deck's rotten. So basically that's what these owners are having to do right now and spite of how impatient it makes all of us, and we still see empty storefronts, they can't.
Attract new tenants in a, in a house with a bathroom that doesn't work. So they really have to get all of the subsurface problems addressed, fixed. It's. Big job. It's a job they have to do in collaboration with the city because it's not just their property that needs restoration, but a lot of municipal pieces that, that are tied to them.
So that's really what's taking the time. It's not visible for those of us who are impatiently waiting to see stores open, but we are really grateful it's happening because. We want, we want a plaza that's healthy and vibrant and robust and has places to go to the bathroom.
Kelly Scanlon: You've referenced some of the apartment buildings and there is a new 278 unit lure Plaza apartments project, and that's, they're on 47th Street and it will be converting to residential, correct.
Kate Marshall: That is a block of older buildings that the whole block was partials collected by one family, which is why it's called the Lure Block. And they have turned it over to a developer who is going to put up a 270 plus unit building there behind the Cascade Hotel. And why is that? It's so important to have residents actually living on the plaza.
Well, because, and was surprised that people were aware of this because when we did a survey and asked folks what makes them feel safer. One of the very first things people say is having more people around, having feet on the street, having shoppers and safety in numbers. Yeah. People walk into and from their office or their bank or to the park, you just automatically feel safer.
So it's an area that was designed for density. It was designed for people to live and work and walk and be close. And it makes sense that we'd be continuing to support. Density in the plaza area. There's another apartment building on the other side of Bellevue that, um, lane four has been talking about putting up.
There's the work that Ken Block is talking about that's just north of the plaza behind the John Hancock building, which is that beautiful mid-century modern. Exoskeleton building, but there's a couple of other apartment buildings that are being planned for back there. There's actually lots of opportunity to increase density even in South Plaza.
Um, that will just continue to add to the numbers, the shoppers, the, you know, the opportunity for other amenities, a grocery store or. Even a movie theater or any of the kinds of things that, that you can accommodate. Yeah. In a larger, yeah. There's a blowing alley down here. It would be to have a blown alley.
Kelly Scanlon: I know. But, but you need the people. You need the people. You need the residents here. You talked about the streetcar just a few minutes ago. If it stays on schedule, it's supposed to open on October the 24th. The extension is, it will be on schedule. Okay. So it's gonna have stops at the Plaza Transit Center and at UMKC.
So what opportunities, but also pressure points will that create for circulation, for safety, and just for access across the entire district, not just the entertainment area.
Kate Marshall: It's gonna be fantastic. There are, um, actually four stops in the Plaza District. The UMKC stop the plaza stop. The one that we call the museum Stop, that's gonna be up there at um, 45th Street and another one up at the top at 43rd by ssa.
Everybody is just cannot wait to get on the streetcar here and go to Union Station, go downtown, go to the river market. Go all the way to the riverfront. Um, watch a soccer game. It's gonna be amazing. And similarly, folks are gonna be traveling this way. I can't tell you, I know exactly how it's going to all flush out in terms of are people going to wanna park and ride?
Where are we gonna put those cars? Is it gonna be an issue? Will folks be arriving? And not knowing where to go or not having, you know, we'll find out. Sure. And then we'll accommodate it because that's what we do.
Kelly Scanlon: Right. Right. So you're hiring right now a, a public realm project manager. So what are the first couple of visible things you want that person to be able to deliver?
Kate Marshall: What would really be exciting to have? Another person on board that can start to address some of the big projects. Probably the, the single most important thing that we really wanna be about is Brush Creek. Um, brush Creek is an amazing asset to this community. It is a connective tissue that runs through the whole.
This part of town from Stateline all the way down to the Blue River, into the more industrial section, but improving the health of that little stream, making it beautiful, cleaning it up, getting the trash out and doing a lot of actual infrastructure work that has been long. You know, delayed or, or not done.
That was a Corps of Engineer project in 1992, and then that's when the beautification was done. Water quality was not addressed at that time, but it was very much a very effective flood control project. So we're very grateful that it doesn't flood and now we'd really like to get it cleaned up. So that would be one of the really major initiatives that I am eager to have somebody on staff help me.
Move along.
Kelly Scanlon: You're three years old. I mentioned in the introduction that you're a nonprofit, that the Plaza District Council is nonprofit. So how do you sustain what you're doing financially? I mean, you're hiring an employee now. I mean, talk to us about that.
Kate Marshall: Well, we are generously supported by this community Country Club Bank among them.
It's been one of our very first and very generous donors. We have contributions from. Developers and banks and companies that are love the plaza as much as we do. We also have other tiers of contribution from neighbors and stakeholders who come in at various levels to be the charitable support. And as the wind beneath our wings at this point, we have gotten a couple of nice grants from foundations and we will continue to seek that when we can.
We, we solicit piac funding that doesn't come directly to us, but it becomes a. Tool something that we can then go and, and make something happen in the community with that kind of funding.
Kelly Scanlon: So if PDC hits its marks, what will feel different to residents, to visitors, to businesses? Let's just say in five years from now, what, what will it look like?
What will it feel like to those people?
Kate Marshall: A big piece of why. I was compelled to do this was that I saw a lack of cohesive thinking for the whole area. The Nelson is gonna do a beautiful new edition, and UMKC has some exciting new plans and KCR is gonna move and the rep is gonna move and all these exciting things are happening.
The new plaza owners are gonna make exciting changes. Somewhere along in here. We all need to be talking to each other. We have a, a playground going in at Mel Creek Park. What's gonna happen to the tennis courts? How are the folks getting off of the streetcar gonna find their way to the Nelson or into the plaza who's thinking about how all of those pieces fit together?
What I'm really hopeful is that PDC will be this catalyst that is acting. In the background with all of these extraordinary movers and make sure that everybody's talking to each other and working together instead of that kind of classic Kansas City siloed activity. Um, so I hope that it will be evident five years out that something has shifted something different, and in the meantime, our wonderful friends.
Who are the new owners of the Plaza will have made some major inroads, and I'm sure we'll see exciting new stores and some beautiful new buildings and a lot of things that we love, but there's stuff happening all over the district. It's really amazing.
Kelly Scanlon: For people who want to stay up to date with what's going on with what PDC is doing and just other things that are going on here at the Plaza.
Do you have a newsletter or a piece that people can subscribe to
Kate Marshall: And yes, we do. Thanks for asking. Kelly Plaza KC dot org is our website. Can hop on there and sign up for on our mailing list and you'll get about. Once a week, we send out what's happening in the district that will remind you about fun things at the library or at the Nelson or at the Rose Garden.
We also send out a newsletter once a month, which has more kind of, um, development news and stuff that's actually happening and changing and being built, that sort of thing. Um. We do our events monthly, which you can learn about on our website. And then coming up on October 29th, we're doing our first date of the district.
We call it Evolving Vision, where we will share a lot of the actual statistics about how many people live, work, and play in the Plaza District and what we are aspiring to. If you wanna hear about all these exciting new statistics, come to our October 29th event.
Kelly Scanlon: October 29th. Mark it on your calendar, plaza.kc.org.
Go out there and and sign up to stay in the know. And Kate, thank you so much for sharing your vision for the Plaza District and the role of council plays in shaping its future. We really appreciate you being with us today on Banking on KC. Just thrilled to have this opportunity to share with you.
Kate Marshall: Thank you so much.
Joe Close: This is Joe Close, president of Country Club Bank. Thank you to Kate Marshall, founder and CEO of the Plaza District Council for being our guest on this episode of Banking on KC. The Plaza District Council is working to bring together neighbors, businesses, cultural anchors, and new Country Club Plaza ownership to shape the future of one of Kansas City's most historic and vibrant areas.
From addressing safety and beautification to building density with new residential projects, to fostering collaboration among stakeholders, the council is creating a shared vision for how the Plaza area evolves during this pivotal time. At Country Club Bank, we believe strong communities are built through partnerships like these, where civic leaders, nonprofits, and businesses collaborate to create opportunity and improve the quality of life.
Thanks for tuning in this week we're Banking on you, Kansas City. Country Club Bank Member FDIC.