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KCK Considers Request To Fund Fast-Food Outlets Even As It Seeks To Undo Bad Health

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A company looking to develop three fast-food chain restaurants in Kansas City, Kansas, hopes to tap a newly created economic development fund created recently by the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas.

Wyandotte County, of course, is the same area that consistently shows up at or near the bottom of surveys ranking health outcomes. Unified Government leaders have launched a variety of ambitious initiatives to reverse those metrics, so the question of whether they should help fund the fast-food proposal is of more than economic interest.

The Pitch’s Steve Vockrodt reports that Liberty, Missouri-based Ferguson Properties wants to build a combination Wendy’s and Pizza Hut and a standalone Dunkin’ Donuts on 18th Street Expressway and Metropolitan Avenue in the Argentine neighborhood.

Ferguson has already lined up $2.7 million in loans and federal grants but is looking for another $550,000, according to Vockrodt. That’s where the new $3 million economic development fund comes in.

Ferguson wants to draw on the fund to plug the gap in its financing and one of its lawyersappeared before the UG Economic Development and Finance Committee Monday night to make its case.

Ferguson is the first developer to seek money from the fund, and Vockrodt reports that the request left commissioners debating how best to determine which applicants are worthy of public dollars.

Vockrodt reports that Commissioner Ann Murguia, whose 3rd District includes Argentine, was worried that such a discussion would scare off Ferguson and that rather than developing a policy around a situation the commission should “allow some situations to become pilots and we learn from them as we move along.”

No decision was made Monday night. The proposal comes up for a vote sometime this summer.

Dan Margolies, editor of the Heartland Health Monitor team, is based at KCUR. You can reach him on Twitter @DanMargolies.

Dan Margolies has been a reporter for the Kansas City Business Journal, The Kansas City Star, and KCUR Public Radio. He retired as a reporter in December 2022 after a 37-year journalism career.
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