These Kansas City school buildings sat vacant for years. Now there are plans for them

Some Kansas City school buildings that closed years ago are finally getting new futures, after sitting empty, with boarded-up windows, peeling paint, and at times, attracting vandalism.

Kansas City Public Schools spends nearly $1 million a year to maintain vacant schools — some of which shut down in 2010 when the district closed almost half of its buildings to address dwindling enrollment. Since then, the district has sold 20 school sites for reuse, transformed into affordable senior housing, charter schools, a community center and a co-working space, for example.

And the district has recently sold schools or put them under contract to take on new lives:

▪ The former Ladd Elementary School site, at 3640 Benton Blvd., was sold to a local company planning to build apartments and commercial space for Black-owned businesses.

▪ The site of the demolished Greenwood Elementary School, at 3711 E. 27th St., is slated to become a three-story, mixed-income apartment building for seniors.

▪ The Urban Neighborhood Initiative is proposing to buy the former Wendell Phillips school site, at 2433 Vine St., and convert it into a mixed-use building offering health care services, arts and science programs for youth, recreational spaces, a culinary classroom and more.

▪ KCPS and the city are seeking a developer to transform the DeLano School site, at 3708 E. Linwood Blvd., to provide housing and services to youth facing homelessness.

Five other shuttered school sites are still awaiting sales.

Closing and repurposing schools can be an emotional process. The buildings, filled with generational memories, have defined Kansas City neighborhoods and helped hold them together.

“Every school building tells a story about our history, our shared history as a community,” said Elizabeth Rosin, owner of a historic preservation consulting firm in Kansas City. “Losing a building that was a cultural touchstone for a neighborhood erases a big part of that story. And we don’t want vacant buildings creating blight, so they do provide an opportunity for reuse and changing to meet the new needs of the community.”

But getting such projects done is no easy feat. Some of the properties have seen developers and their proposals come and go, often due to struggles securing financing and public assistance. Some schools have been bound by property deed restrictions, or have been deemed too large or too far gone for redevelopment. And developers must meet historic preservation requirements to secure needed tax credits.

Community buy-in also can make or break a project. Over the past decade, the Kansas City district has gained national recognition for engaging residents in its work to repurpose schools, plus prioritizing projects that could help revitalize neighborhoods and fill community needs. The district has previously axed plans that were unpopular with residents, such as converting a Waldo school into a Walmart grocery store.

In more recent years, KCPS has required developers to sign benefit agreements, promising to support neighborhoods and meet residents’ demands, such as providing affordable housing or space for community members to meet. As part of the benefit agreement for the Ladd school site, for example, the developer has promised to dedicate at least 10% of housing units to KCPS teachers, who would receive discounts on rent and security deposits.

Meanwhile, the district is considering closing and consolidating as many as a dozen schools with low enrollment in the coming years. Officials say the district could save costs on maintaining under-enrolled buildings and dedicate more money to expanding programs, modernizing classrooms and ensuring students have access to the same resources districtwide.

It comes on the heels of the district finally regaining full state accreditation earlier this year after two decades. Interim Superintendent Jennifer Collier will lead the work as Superintendent Mark Bedell resigns next month for the top position in a Maryland district.

“It’s so emotional for people to have schools close. Because they love their schools. And I don’t blame them. But it’s very difficult to operate a small school now. You can’t offer all of the full services students need,” said Coyla Lockhart, a former teacher and neighbor of the vacant Bryant school, 319 Westover Road. “The district should do something with schools that close right away. They should have a plan.”

Selling and repurposing schools

Former Kansas City school board member Ajia Morris lives four blocks away from the old Ladd school, a fixture in the East Side’s Oak Park neighborhood. She drives past the classic red brick school, built in 1912 and closed in 2010, almost every day as it sits vacant.

Over the years, a handful of proposals to rehabilitate the property either failed or were rejected, mainly due to inadequate financing, The Star previously reported.

Now, the old school will become the first project Morris’ development company, LocalCode Kansas City, will undertake. In March, the district sold the school for $300,000, KCPS spokeswoman Elle Moxley said.

Morris said she plans to create a $25 million “oasis of Black excellence,” with mixed-use commercial space on the first floor for Black-owned businesses, such as those offering health, wellness and beauty services, a restaurant and cafe, as well as an event space. And there would be apartments on the top two floors.

While the project will at first be funded by national investors, Morris said she plans to “sell it back to the community” by offering ownership opportunities for neighbors to invest and purchase equity shares.

“We started LocalCode because there aren’t too many commercial development companies that focus on giving back to the community,” she said. “That’s the premise, to build wealth and well-being in communities through local leadership and redevelopment.”

Under the benefit agreement with the district, the developer would be required to provide the neighborhood association with access to the building to host its meetings. The developer agreed to make 10% of the apartment units affordable housing; another 10% would go to KCPS teachers, who would receive rent discounts; and it would assist neighbors with home rehab needs.

Morris hopes the project will be completed as early as next year.

Also on Kansas City’s East Side, the former Greenwood school site, in the South Round Top neighborhood, is under contract to be turned into senior apartments. The old school closed in 1997 and was demolished in 2016.

Last fall the district entered into an agreement with Missouri Housing Partners LLC to take over the site, a project that will be made possible with low-income housing tax credits. The developers are planning to build a three-story, 49-unit senior apartment building, with a mix of market rate and affordable units. The proposal says that 15% of apartments could be dedicated toward tenants making 30% or less of the area median income.

And in the Wendell Phillips neighborhood, a former elementary school will get its second chance at being reused.

KCPS closed Wendell Phillips Elementary School and two other schools in 2016. It was then turned into a charter school, which closed in 2019 due to low enrollment.

Now, the Urban Neighborhood Initiative has submitted a proposal to purchase the site and convert it into the Wendell Phillips Accelerator. The mixed-use site could offer several community programs and services, such as mental health care, STEAM-based academic programs for youth, recreational spaces, a culinary classroom with a cafe, as well as other office and commercial space.

“Since the previous school’s closing, the building has sat empty, falling victim to vandalism and disarray,” President and CEO Jamee Rodgers said in an email to The Star.

“We saw a diamond in the rough that needs some love, but could ultimately be an excellent benefit for the community it’s in. Older school buildings deserve to have a second chance to live. … This building will have the opportunity to serve as a hub for the community to gather and receive resources and valuable services.”

Rodgers hopes the organization can close on the sale as early as next month.

“Our focus is to provide spaces, programs, and services that benefit and enrich the lives of all residents on the east side of Kansas City,” Rodgers said. “Our programs are open to the public with hopes that our neighbors will utilize the building to meet their needs. We realize that residents and communities on the east side have been overlooked and underserved for far too long. We could not sit by and watch disinvestment take place.”

‘Identity of a neighborhood’

In Kansas City’s Countryside neighborhood, Lockhart walks out to her backyard and can see the former Bryant school, vacant since it closed in 2009.

Lockhart said she’s planning a community cleanup there this fall, to pick up broken glass, trash and limbs left behind.

“I hate to see properties vacant because no good comes to them,” she said. “The school is right there in my backyard, which is wonderful because I love it. But if it could become a school again, I would love that. I would love for it to be used for something constructive.”

KCPS is holding Bryant for future district use, because deed restrictions limit options for repurposing the building. Moxley said the neighborhood would like it to reopen as an elementary school, which is something officials will consider as part of the long-term restructuring plan.

The district is holding seven closed school sites for future use, Moxley said.

And KCPS is working to market and sell its other vacant properties, each with their own unique challenges.

The former DeLano School on Linwood Boulevard, for example, was built in 1938, designed to be an adaptive environment for students with disabilities.

“That is a really interesting building, and it’ll be very exciting to see it repurposed,” Rosin said, adding that leaders are nominating the site to the National Register of Historic Places.

The district and city have been seeking developers to repurpose the DeLano site into a facility that would provide housing and supportive services to youth facing homelessness. Moxley said some high schoolers in the district need transitional housing. And the site would serve at-risk youth, unaccompanied youth and youth aging out of foster care between the ages of 14 and 22, according to the request for proposals.

Rosin said it’s another example of the district working to ensure that schools are reused in a way that benefits local neighborhoods.

“The district has had to figure out a way to repurpose or dispose of these schools in a way that doesn’t create blight on neighborhoods. And we’ve been very cognizant of doing something that was appropriate and supportive of the neighborhoods where these buildings are located,” Rosin said. “Schools are usually built in the middle of a residential area, and they’re intertwined with the physical and cultural fabric of a community. In some communities, keeping that school building is critical for the identity of a neighborhood.”

And being designated as a historic place on the national register can be crucial to getting needed tax credits and financing — although it also comes with its own challenges, requiring developers to meet preservation requirements. A developer previously backed out of renovating the former Marlborough school, for example, after it was rejected for historic designation. Last spring, though, the district approved the Marlborough Community Coalition’s request to redevelop the site into affordable and mixed-income housing, allowing for possible demolition in case there is not sufficient funding to redevelop the existing building.

The district this summer has been marketing five more closed school sites for sale, offering tours to developers. KCPS still has three former school sites from the 2010 closures that it would like to sell for reuse: Askew, Meservey and Pershing, Moxley said.

And now, it’s likely that the process will start over again in the next several years, as officials evaluate how to consolidate the school system stretched too thin. Plans could include closing and consolidating as many as seven to 12 schools with low enrollment, so the district can spend more money on expanding curriculum, extracurriculars and programs, updating schools and improving academic offerings for all students.

This fall, the school board is expected to hear proposals for how to restructure the system.