KANSAS CITY, Mo.– The wait is finally over for those wanting a new Whole Foods market in the metro. The project’s partners met on the steps of the UMKC administrative building Tuesday afternoon where they broke bread to celebrate the new development.
The new Whole Foods will sit between Brookside Boulevard and Oak. The UMKC annex building will be torn down to make room. The Young Matrons historic club house will be move to a new location close by.
The partners say it’s taken nearly six years to get to this point.
The development will be several stories tall and nearly 430,000 square-feet. The market will be on the ground floor, UMKC will take up the second floor, and 170 luxury apartments will fill five more.
“We just love being Kansas City’s University and being here in the heart of the city,” UMKC Chancellor Leo Morton said. “However, that comes with its own set of space and growth issues. So early on we realized that this mixed-use development would be a good way to address the needs and made it a part of UMKC’s long-term master plan.”
The new Whole Foods market is set to open in late 2017.