Urban pioneers in Kansas City...a place where “Hipster vibe and antique shoppers thrive”
Just west of Kansas City's downtown, nestled neatly at the confluence of the Missouri River and the Kansas River, Kansas City's former industrial and railroad hub now rests. A historical, curious, brick-buildings/urban-artifact, of sorts. The West Bottoms.
To speak to Kansas City's West Bottoms, one might want to include some history relating to Kansas City's stockyards.
The stockyards in Kansas City operated in the West Bottoms between the years 1871 and 1991; facilitating the maturation of a significant KC industry. The Kansas City Live Stock Exchange went on to become one of the largest livestock exchanges in the world.
In 1923, 2,631,808 cattle were received in Kansas City stockyards. The Livestock Exchange Building was the largest livestock exchange building in the world. Built in 1910, the Livestock Exchange Building had 475 offices. The Stockyards Company's headquarters was located in the Livestock Exchange Building. Banks, restaurants, packing house workers, and telegraph offices. It was the largest livestock exchange building in the world. And one of the largest office buildings in Kansas City.
Kansas City stockyards - and the KC cattle business - was Kansas City's first multi-million-dollar-a-year business. In fact, Kansas City stockyards was a multi-million-dollar-a-month industry. A multi-million-dollar-a-day industry. At it's KC-stockyard-peak in the early Twentieth Century, only the stockyards in Chicago surpassed Kansas City stockyards, as per the handling of cattle.
Long before train cars transported cattle to and from Kansas City stockyards, the West Bottoms was referred to as the “French Bottoms”. French trappers and native Americans congregated there for commerce. The Santa Fe Trail; trade with Mexico; western immigration patterns in the United States. Culminating in Kansas City - and the West Bottoms - emerging as a significant receiving point for goods. In a country eager to expand it's footprint to the West. An meeting place for trade, the goods were transported on the Missouri River through the utilization of steamships. Kansas City was known as the "Gateway to the Southwest".
In the early Twentieth Century, Kansas City cattle executives ran their livestock businesses from West Bottoms offices. Today, many of these very same former-livestock executive offices have been repurposed as lofts. Creating an attractive environment for young urban professionals in KC. Office space which had been occupied by cattle industry executives at the turn of the Twentieth Century, now serves young Kansas City entrepreneurs.
Manufacturers still operate businesses in the West Bottoms. Their manufacturing facility might now be on the same block as a haunted house. Located near The Beast. Or The Edge of Hell. Or The Chambers of Edgar Allan Poe. Near an antique shop, down street from a café'. No cattle.
In 1923, the stockyards in the West Bottoms received in excess of 2,500,000 hogs; 350,000 calves; 1,000,000 sheep; 40,000 horses. In 1923, the Kansas City stockyards set a world record for one day’s receipt of cattle: 60,206 head. One hundred years later, no cattle. The Live Cattle Price Per 1 Kilogram - 2.23 USD on March 29, 2020 - is not too relevant. High-speed Internet connection, is relevant.
Each week, as many as 10 trains roar through Kansas City. Together carrying millions of gallons of Bakken crude. Railroad tracks run straight through the center of the West Bottoms. Train engine horns blaring, every single day.
At its peak, 16 railroads converged in the West Bottoms. Today, the West Bottoms is in a repurposing phase - developers, architects, investors, and financing are relevant in conversations. Yet, those overlying train horns which are heard in the West Bottoms, are rather emblematic of the West Bottoms' unique past. An assemblage. The industrial past; a present which includes a fitness center, community rooms, and on-site bike storage.
Drawing upon - and influenced by - the area's industrial past, West Bottoms Flats is transitioning 350,000 square feet of former manufacturing space through a $68 million development project. 265 residential units, 10,000 square feet of ground-level commercial space. Street-level parking. Three historic buildings - the Abernathy Building at 1501 W. Ninth Street; the Wyoming Building at 925 Wyoming Street; the Liberty Building at 912 Liberty Street. Respecting each building's historic industrial character, while drawing upon the Kansas City housing market. And demand. The Bemis Building - 937 Wyoming Street - will be repurposed into a 201-space parking garage.
Where Kansas City stockyards once presided, in 1974, Kemper Arena was built. Today the former site of the stockyards in the West Bottoms - the former site of aforementioned Kemper Arena - is where one will find Hy-Vee Arena in Kansas City. Two levels, 2 basketball courts, and a 350-meter indoor running track.