![]() “We're just excited to possibly get a kitchen space in this area so we're not driving almost an hour away,” McEnroe says, “because that makes it difficult to keep up with demand.”Īs with any brand new building, this one’s still got kinks to be ironed out. Jill McEnroe, who owns Frannie Franks Coffee Cakes, makes her baked goods in a commercial kitchen space in Independence, Missouri, and then trucks them across the border to sell in the Public Market. KCUR 89.3 Frannie Franks Coffee Cakes owner Jill McEnroe, left, and Alejandra de la Fuente, owner of Red Kitchen Tamales, were among the first vendors to open for business in City Center.Ĭity officials hope to attract more vendors and entrepreneurs like de la Fuente to set up shop in City Center. ![]() At the government’s new digs, though, “there are people walking around in the public space, which is so gratifying.” “A few months ago, when Pokémon Go was a big deal, we left City Hall after a meeting one evening and there were people in the parking lot, and we were kind of afraid actually because there was never anyone at City Hall before,” says Mayor Boehm. “Honestly, west Lenexa is in a much better place today than it would have been 20 years ago, had we started this project at that time,” he says.ĭespite the fact the new collection of buildings are surrounded on all sides by as-yet undeveloped fields of dirt or grass, residents are making the most of their new civic center. “Because the council was committed to what we were doing, and because they didn't choose to take the easy way out and just abandon this vision, we were able to continue to think about and work on making this the special place that it is today,” says Yocham. Lenexa, like the rest of the country, was greatly affected by the Great Recession in 2008, and a half-built, multi-story parking garage was torn down in 2012 after a developer went bankrupt. The city paid out more than $600,000 in legal fees in 2005 when they split with former developer the Haile Group. The achievement, though, didn’t come without challenges. ![]() “Their visions, we implement and they embrace,” he says. “Since 1991 - well before the visioning process - we've not had an elected official removed from office by the voters,” Boehm says. KCUR 89.3 Why spend tens of millions of dollars on a new city center? "For a community - a progressive suburban community - that Lenexa has become, just really didn't fit what we need to project," says Mayor Michael Boehm. ![]()
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