Proposed Westside entertainment district — with Ferris wheel — one step closer in KC

Plans for an entertainment district showcasing a Ferris wheel in Kansas City’s West Side took another step forward this week.

A full proposal for Pennway Point, a vision dreamed up by 3D Development, has yet to go before City Council. The local developer hopes to bring a new venue to the southeast corner of the Westside North neighborhood in 2023, despite some concerns from those who live in the area.

The City Plan Commission on Tuesday approved a request by the developer to vacate a part of Jefferson Street, near the north side of West 25th Street between Interstate 35 and West Pennway, so that the area can be redeveloped, mainly as future parking.

The mixed-use “family-friendly” development would include restaurants, bars, a dog park, a neon museum, mini golf and sand volleyball, Vince Bryant, with 3D Development, told the commission.

The proposed 170-foot climate-controlled Ferris wheel would be similar to the observation wheel in St. Louis, which opened in 2019.

“This isn’t another Power and Light District,” Bryant said. “This is recreation-based entertainment.”

The property is currently the Carter-Waters industrial site, a series of old buildings that sit on Jefferson Street, north of West 25th Street, nestled between Broadway Boulevard and I-35.

“It’s just really been an unsightly three-acre site right in the middle of downtown,” Bryant said, likening the former construction and materials handling site to a junk yard.

The developer’s vision for the space includes extensive landscaping to “green up” the area with the help of about 55 trees.

The site will also include about 400 parking spaces, including under the I-35 bridge.

During public testimony, Richard Hernandez, president of the Westside Neighborhood Association, said he was concerned that the development will only make parking and traffic in the area more difficult to navigate.

“The encroachment on the neighborhood is getting to be too much,” he said.

Bryant said his team conducted a traffic study and found “minor impact” to the roadway. That study will be included in future proposals to the commission.