Block & Co. looks to Ruskin community for commercial development input 

South KC Perspective

By John Sharp

A standing room only crowd of area residents attended a community engagement meeting April 23 organized by 5th District-at-Large City Councilman Darrell Curls to voice their opinions on what type of retail and other commercial development they want in the Hickman Mills area.

The meeting at the Community America Credit Union facility at Blue Ridge Blvd. and Longview Rd. to gather community input about desired commercial development in the area was a welcome change from the standard procedure of developers deciding what type of development they are proposing with little or no community input.

Normally community members only have an opportunity to voice their support or opposition to a proposed development as part of the city’s zoning process after developers have already decided what they plan to do.

In the Hickman Mills community many residents feel that has too often resulted in more liquor stores or gas stations, leading Curls to pass a temporary moratorium on issuing city permits for such facilities.

Curls said at the meeting that he was very pleasantly surprised that Block & Company, Inc., Realtors, the commercial real estate company that manages the Ruskin Shopping Center that has had several vacancies and area residents feel definitely needs sprucing up and the site on the southeast corner of I-435 and Bannister Rd. containing many long vacant commercial buildings next to Hardee’s and Wendy’s restaurants, approached him seeking community input.

“We really want to get this going,” David Block, company president, said at the meeting, noting he hoped to meet again in about 6o days.  “Give us a name,” of a retailer, Block said, “and we’ll contact them.”

Block can be reached at dblock@blockandco.com. 

Many residents at the meeting expressed their desire to have sit down family restaurants with good food and reasonable prices instead of just fast food restaurants and noted their disappointment in having to drive to Lee’s Summit or the state line corridor or even as far away as Johnson County, Kansas, to shop for many necessities.

Besides sit down restaurants, residents frequently mentioned the need for area child care facilities, coffee shops, event spaces, fitness centers, hardware and office supply stores and urgent care facilities to bring needed services and jobs to the area. 

It also was mentioned that any major development should recognize the area’s rich history as the site of the three frontier wagon train trails to the American west.