26 March 2024
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (WDAF) – The Kansas City Royals released commitments to the Crossroads Saturday, the neighborhood the team has chosen for its stadium location.
One of them includes opportunities for locally owned businesses to lease space within the stadium.
Kansas City Royals Vice President Brooks Sherman and Chief Commercial and Community Impact Officer Sarah Tourville were in the Crossroads on Monday. meeting individually with businesses that would be displaced if the Royals built a downtown stadium surrounding the old Kansas City Star building.
Mercy Seat Tattoo owner Chet Duvenci had his meeting with the team last week.
“There was no hard numbers. No real offers. I showed up to the meeting kind of wondering what they were going to offer for us, since they are trying to move into our neighborhood and move us out. They had a lot of general statements but no specifics,” Duvenci said.
The Crossroads Community Association says it has been working with the team to obtain specific and measurable commitments. It hopes to have both sides sign those commitments by the day of the special election on April 2.
The Royals outlined some of those yet-to-be-fully agreed-upon commitments over the weekend, including support for small businesses and entrepreneurs, construction mitigation programs, traffic management, support of public art and forming a Crossroads Community Improvement District.
“The key point is protecting the small businesses that are affected both directly in the footprint of the stadium here and during construction and all the other impacts,” David Johnson, Crossroads Community Association Board Member, said.
The Royals also say they’ll provide opportunities for locally owned businesses to lease space within the stadium and surrounding development at reduced lease pricing.
The CCA says it wants a firm number of at least 20% of available space. Like the Crossroads Community Association, the tattoo parlor says it’s waiting to see that commitment in ink.
“We have not been offered any space inside the baseball stadium. If they are offering 20% of space to local businesses, we have not been made aware of that whatsoever. I’ve never seen a tattoo shop inside a stadium, but maybe it would be great,” Duvenci smiled.