NorthPoint Development will continue its $135 million transformation of the former Bannister Federal Complex with a second warehouse and manufacturing building in south Kansas City.
The Riverside-based developer is preparing to break ground on the 438,000-square-foot second industrial building in its Blue River Commerce Center, on 229 acres where environmental remediation recently was completed at the northeast corner of Bannister Road and Troost Avenue.
Tied for the largest of seven buildings planned at the center, Blue River 2 will supplement the 242,353-square-foot Blue River 1 building, on which NorthPoint already has started construction along Troost.
By the end of 2021, NorthPoint expects Blue River 1 and most of Blue River 2 to be leased and fully operational, Brent Miles, the company’s chief marketing officer and a founding partner, said during a Monday meeting of the Port Authority of Kansas City’s development committee.
Concurrently with the second building, NorthPoint will build an approximately 5,000-square-foot workforce training and development center, to be leased to a nonprofit or educational institution. This center, Miles said, is expected to open in late 2021 or early 2022.
Port KC’s development committee recommended issuing $25 million in bonds to finance construction costs for Blue River 2. On Dec. 21, the authority’s full board could approve the issuance.
Fully built from west to east, Blue River Commerce Center is planned to house 2.6 million square feet of Class A industrial space, capable of supporting 1,500 new jobs.