The Port Authority of Kansas City has voted to sever its ties to a local company that intends to sell one of its warehouses to the federal government, for the purpose of turning it into an immigrant detention center.
The board of commissioners of Port KC approved a resolution unanimously on Monday to terminate and refrain from any negotiations with Platform Ventures, the Kansas City company that owns the warehouse in south Kansas City.
At Monday’s meeting, Port KC CEO Jon Stephens said the agency is doing what it can to discourage and disallow the transfer or sale of the warehouse. He said the site was intended to bring manufacturing and logistics jobs to the area.
“Those should not be utilized for any other purpose, including the purpose that has been stated and has been publicly reported,” Stephens said.
The move comes nearly a month after federal agents with the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement toured the warehouse, at 14901 Botts Road, as part of nationwide plans to open up large-scale detention centers to hold migrants.
“We do think that a type of use that has been discussed and rumored — that is not part of industrial or logistics — would have a chilling effect on current operations of private businesses, and would certainly pose a challenge to future job attraction to the site,” Stephens said.
‘Inconsistent with the intended industrial use’
The Washington Post reported in late December that the Trump administration plans to renovate industrial warehouses across the U.S. and use them as immigrant detention centers. The administration is eyeing Kansas City as a location, the Post reported.
ICE and DHS agents toured the warehouse on Jan. 15, where they were confronted by Jackson County Legislator Manny Abarca IV, who joined the tour.
“This is one of the biggest warehouses I've ever seen in my entire life,” Abarca said after the tour. “It's huge, so it's going to be very damaging to a whole lot of people.”
That same day, Kansas City Council members passed a five-year moratorium on any approvals or permits for nonmunicipal detention facilities, targeting the administration’s reported plans, though it is not clear such a move could stop the sale. And reports of a possible detention center for immigrants has caused anger and outcry from many in Kansas City ever since.
Platform Ventures has provided little to no public comment since news of their plan broke. The Kansas City Star published a statement from owners earlier this month that said the company was approached in October 2025 “with an unsolicited offer to purchase a vacant, industrial warehouse currently owned by an investment vehicle managed by PV at the former Richards-Gebaur Air Force Base.”
“PV has a fiduciary duty to evaluate every sale or lease proposal involving this facility, as we do for all properties in our portfolio,” the statement said. “In this case, all negotiations are complete. PV does not question prospective buyers on their intent after close, and we will not engage in public conversations involving speculation over future uses.”
On Friday, the Beacon reported that Platform Ventures went behind the Port’s back to strike a deal with the federal government.
No representative for the company attended Monday’s Port KC meeting.
According to Port KC, Platform Ventures currently owns or controls 195 acres of property near the site, and the company constructed multiple industrial buildings in the area. Port KC also owns more land south of that area, which it calls 49 Crossing.
Port KC said Platform Ventures expressed interest in purchasing an additional 305 acres of land in the 49 Crossing area “for purposes of additional industrial development.” Port KC said it learned that Platform Ventures intended to sell the warehouse at 14901 Botts Road to the federal government during those negotiations.
“That sale is inconsistent with the intended industrial use that was represented to Port KC, and which would have benefited the public good through increased tax revenues to the relevant taxing jurisdiction, the creation of new jobs, and the remediation of blight,” Port KC said in the agenda packet for Monday’s board meeting. “The sale of land that might be used … in a manner that is inconsistent with Port KC’s statutory mission and community expectations is not in the public interest.”
The Port KC board initially planned to discuss severing ties with Platform Ventures at the end of January. About a hundred people attended that virtual board meeting — many more than is normal for the agency — but commissioners voted to end the meeting before discussion due to technical difficulties.
Port KC, an economic development agency that can grant tax abatements, borrow money, condemn property, and set up special taxing districts without city council or voter approval, entered into a 20-year development agreement with Platform Ventures in 2022 to build industrial buildings on the site of the former Richards-Gebaur Air Force Base. That includes the warehouse the company is likely to sell to the federal government, which was built in 2023.
The plan was meant to bring logistics and manufacturing jobs to the area, near Grandview and Missouri Route 150. The deal with Port KC gave Platform Ventures a 95% property tax break until 2032, according to the Beacon.
If the warehouse is sold to the federal government, it would not generate property taxes. That means taxing jurisdictions, like public schools and public libraries, would not receive the revenue the site would normally generate.
