Concorde Career College looks at moving to St. Joseph Medical Center

Concorde Career College looks to move to south KC

By Jill Draper

The for-profit career college that offers health care training has applied for a special use permit to move “a good portion of their operations” from the midtown area to the St. Joseph Medical Center near State Line Road and I-435. 

Concorde College, now located at 3239 Broadway, hopes to shift its primary facility to some 50,000 square feet of existing space at 930 Carondelet Dr. at the St. Joseph Medical Center when its current lease expires, said Bob Johnson, an attorney with the Polsinelli law firm, during a recent neighborhood Zoom meeting with the Center Planning and Development Council. 

“It’s a pretty straightforward request. In my opinion. it’s a really perfect fit for the location,” Johnson told the council, an umbrella neighborhood organization in south Kansas City. He said the permit request will be heard by the City Planning Commission on September 15 and the Board of Zoning Appeals on October 13. No structural changes to the medical center are planned, and no rezoning is necessary.

 Concorde provides training programs ranging from 8 months to four years or more in areas such as respiratory therapy, dental hygiene, insurance coding and billing, and practical nursing. The programs include hands-on experience in hospitals and medical/dental facilities where students work with doctors, dentists and other healthcare professionals. Undergraduate enrollment for 2018-19 was 606 students.