KANSAS CITY, Mo. — An ordinance to proceed with the sale of roughly six acres in the East Village neighborhood of downtown Kansas City, Missouri, will go before the City Council on Thursday.
The Transportation, Infrastructure and Operations Committee passed the ordinance from committee after a brief discussion Wednesday morning.
A spokesperson confirmed to KSHB 41 that Ordinance No. 230260 will appear on the full KCMO City Council agenda at 3 p.m. on Thursday.
The area is among the sites the Kansas City Royals are considering for a new downtown ballpark.
Block 66 LLC, which is connected with VanTrust Real Estate, took over an amended Lease and Acquisition Agreement for roughly six acres of city-owned property that includes multiple lots on the eastern side inside the Downtown Loop in November 2017.
Block 66 already owns another six acres adjacent to the six acres it plans to buy from the city.
The original sale price for the land — $5.4 million — will be discounted $1.2 million based on the city’s unpaid blight remediation contribution written into the lease.
Rich Muller, an executive vice president with VanTrust, told the Transportation, Infrastructure and Operations Committee last week that it hopes to execute the acquisition agreement “irrespective of what happens with downtown baseball.”
Royals spokeswoman Sharita Hutton told KSHB 41 that the land deal “is not connected to the future ballpark district” in an email last week.
The ordinance would allow City Manager Brian Platt to execute the land sale, transferring the deeds to VanTrust.
Muller declined to explain what VanTrust plans to do with the land during last week’s committee meeting.
“We can be in a position to exercise our option, close on the city’s land and demonstrate further with folks that we’re talking to that we’re committed and that we have control and that we can do what we say we’re going to do,” he said.
The original lease, a 10-year agreement signed in April 2017, was with Swope Community Builders and was assigned to Block 66 later that year.
