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BCCP
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THE BRUSH CREEK BULLETIN Volume
12, Issue 2
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BCCP
4743 Troost
Suite 200
Kansas City, MO
64110-1727
Ph: 816-523-2991
Fax: 816-523-2281
THE BRUSH CREEK BULLETIN
Volume 12, Issue 2
April / May / June 2010
TROOST BRIDGE REPLACEMENT OVER BRUSH CREEK BEGINS
Project Advances Brush Creek Flood Control & Beautification Initiative
Construction to replace the Troost Bridge over Brush Creek has begun, prompting the closure of Troost Avenue from Emanuel Cleaver Boulevard to Volker Boulevard from the end of June until May 2011.
The project is a $13 million capital improvement that has received $9 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds. It also includes construction of a pedestrian bridge, improvements to Troost Avenue and Volker Boulevard, updating and separation of the combined storm and sanitary sewer in that area and channel improvements to Brush Creek. Construction will be completed in 2012.
Construction has begun on replacing the Troost Bridge over Brush Creek.
This is the design of the new bridge, which willl open next spring.This project is just one part of the improvements in and around the Green Impact Zone. Troost will also be getting Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) service later this year.
For complete information on construction and street closures in this area, visit Brush Creek Community Partners' website www.bccp.org.
SAINT LUKE'S OPENS WOMEN'S CENTER
From left to right: Julie Quirin, chief executive officer, Saint Luke's Hospital;
Tom Wagstaff, chairman, Saint Luke's Health System board; Ellen Hockaday:
Julia Irene Kauffman; G. Richard Hastings, president and chief executive
officer of Saint Luke's Health System; and Tracy Stevens, M.D., medical director,
Saint Luke's Muriel I. Kauffman Women's Heart Center.At a June 1 ribbon cutting ceremony community leaders, hospital executives and members of the hospital's board and medical staff were on hand to officially open the Women's Center at Saint Luke's Hospital, comprised of two adjacent facilities - the Ellen Hockaday Center for Women's Care and the Muriel I. Kauffman Women's Heart Center. Centralized services in the $25 million hospital expansion include screening mammography, women's heart health screenings and education, a high-risk maternal/fetal medicine clinic, and The Women's Shoppe with health products for women of all ages.
LARGEST GIFT TO ROCKHURST TO SPUR NEW CONSTRUCTION
Rendering of planned Rockhurst Campus enhancements
including a new academic building and residence hall.A new academic building is the focal point of the campus master plan, which also will include new student residential space. Before these projects can begin, a parking garage must be constructed to replace spaces lost to accommodate the new structures. The garage will feature mixed-use space on the ground floor intended to bring new businesses and services to the community around Rockhurst.
UMKC LIBRARY ROBOT GOES TO WORK
The University of Missouri-Kansas City Miller Nichols Library has introduced the book robot - also known as an automated high-density storage and retrieval system (ASRS)- which is a central feature making all the other plans for the library's expansion possible. Fully implemented, the system will hold about 80 percent of the library's collection, creating new spaces for individual and group study areas, collaborative learning, presentations, areas for events and meetings and an expanded cafe. Items stored in the robot's various-sized shelving and storage bins take up only about one-seventh of the floor space used by conventional open-stacked shelving.
RESEARCH TO REVOLUTIONIZE ELECTRIC MOTORS AND GENERATORS
BEING CONDUCTED IN THE BRUSH CREEK CORRIDORThe company producing a breakthrough technology that could decrease household energy costs by 30 percent moved to the Green Impact Zone in April. QM Power Inc.'s Clean Technology & Innovation Labs have opened at 4747 Troost, in the University of Missouri-Kansas City Innovation Center.
QM Power is considered the developer of the world's most efficient motor, generator and actuator technology. Its relocation from Boston to the UMKC campus fosters collaboration on research and development of energy efficient technology between the company and UMKC's School of Computing and Engineering (SCE).
QM Power, which moved to UMKC’s Innovation Center in April is
commercializing low-cost, high performance technologies to
increase power density, reliability, efficiency and cost-effectiveness.By collaborating to develop energy-efficient technology, SCE and QM Power hope to enrich the Green Impact Zone, create jobs, improve national security, dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save consumers more than $10 billion in annual energy costs.
QM Power is a six-person company employing three SCE alumni with plans to hire an additional 20 employees by the beginning of 2011. QM Power's Co-Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer P. J. Piper says that by 2013 the company will likely grow to 100 employees.
Along with creating several highly-skilled, high-salaried jobs, QM Power plans to boost the Green Impact Zone by collaborating with the University of Missouri, corporate development partners, government agencies, national research labs, suppliers and customers, and provides SCE faculty and students with research experience.
GREEN IMPACT ZONE IN CORRIDOR AMONG AREAS FOR USE
OF $20 MILLION IN WEATHERIZATION FUNDSAs many as half the 2,500 homes in the Green Impact Zone may be weatherized as a result of the $20 million U.S. Department of Energy Grant awarded to Kansas City. The city's application was one of 25 out of 175 submitted for Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants.
EnergyWorks KC is an innovative partnership to transform the energy retrofit market in six areas of Kansas City in which marketing, energy auditing, financing and building retrofit services will be offered to commercial, institutional, public and residential building owners through a one-stop-shop operated by the Metropolitan Energy Center (MEC).
Attic insulation is an important part of home weatherization.In addition to the city - led by the City Manager's Office of Environmental Quality - and MEC, other partners include Kansas City Power & Light, Missouri Gas Energy, Missouri Department of Natural Resources, the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce and the Mid-America Regional Council. Several financial institutions will be involved in providing capital resources needed to make energy efficiency and conservation investments.
Objectives of EnergyWorks KC include:
The Green Impact Zone is a 150-square block area in the Brush Creek Corridor east of Troost Avenue. It has been identified as a national model for targeting resources to reverse decades of decline and
abandonment by creating jobs, improving energy efficiency and
building neighborhood capacity.
PARTNER UPDATES
Kathleen Collins, president of the Kansas City Art Institute since 1996, will retire as of June 30, 2011. At the time of her retirement, Collins will have served as president of the college for 15 years, longer than any other president in the Art Institute's 125-year history. Collins, a founding member of the Brush Creek Community Partners Board of Directors, cites the creation of the H&R Block Artspace at 16 East 43rd Street, the development of the Jannes Library and Learning Center, and the Dodge Painting Building as enhancements to the campus and community of which she is particularly proud. A national search will be conducted to identify Collins' replacement.
Midwest Research Institute (MRI) has been awarded a U.S. Department of Defense contract to provide chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive support services considered vital to national defense against chemical and biological warfare and terrorism. MRI's contract is one of multiple awards made with an aggregate value of $485 million. Through this contract, MRI will provide project management as well as research, development, acquisition, and sustainment support services.
The University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Pharmacy has received the largest gift in the school's 125 year history. Robert Sperry, a Kansas City-area resident whose family has longtime ties to the local pharmacy profession has made an estate gift commitment of an amount not publicly disclosed to create an endowed chair in geriatric pharmacotherapy and to support Pharmacy School students through the UMKC Pharmacy Foundation.
Saint Luke's Health System and Cardiovascular Consultants have formalized a partnership that integrates the care delivered by Cardiovascular Consultants' 37 cardiologists at Saint Luke's four metropolitan hospitals and outlying regional facilities. The new entity is called Saint Luke's Cardiovascular Consultants. Saint Luke's Mid America Heart and Vascular Institute opened in 1982 as the nation's first dedicated heart hospital and is renowned for its research, innovation, quality and world class care. This partnership is designed to provide a seamlessly integrated continuum of care that ensures clinical excellence.Swope Health Services has announced the selection of a site for a new clinic at 8821 Troost Avenue to serve patients in south Kansas City. Developed in partnership with the City of Kansas City and the Local Investment Commission, The Swope Health South Clinic is expected to open in August.
Hogan Preparatory Academy has been honored as the recipient of a 2010 College Board Inspiration Award and a check for $25,000. The College Board annually presents Inspiration Awards to three secondary schools around the nation, recognizing those that have made great strides in improving the academic environment for all students and raising aspirations and preparedness for higher education. At Hogan, 98 percent of the students are African American, and 80 percent come from low-income families. All 2009 graduates have been accepted to college; most will be the first in their families to go to college.
Father Matt Ruhl, S.J., pastor of St. Francis Xavier Church for more than eight years, left the parish in May. Before his next assignment, he is using a leave to raise funds to reduce poverty by riding a bike more than 5,000 miles across the country. Rev. John Vowell, S.J., currently the rector of the Rockhurst University Jesuit Community and a Kansas City native, will be installed as the church's pastor on August 1.
The Rev. Paul Thomas Rock begins duties as pastor of Second Presbyterian Church in mid-August. Rock has been an associate pastor at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York City. The Rev. John Ross has served as Second's interim senior pastor for the last 14 months, appointed to lead the church with the departure of the Rev. Edward Thompson as pastor in the fall of 2008 after 13 years in Kansas City.
KCP&L has received the Business Philanthropist of the Year at the 26th annual Philanthropy Awards Luncheon hosted by Nonprofit Connect. In 2009, KCP&L employees gave more than 10,000 volunteer hours, including service on more than 115
organizations' Boards of Directors. In addition, the employees donated $1 million to the United Way campaign - a KCP&L company record. Over the past six years, KCP&L has given approximately $12 million in charitable support to more than 300 agencies throughout its service territory.
DEVELOPMENT ATTORNEY JOHN CROSSLEY
IMPRESSED WITH BCCP’S DEVELOPMENT EFFORTSWorking on redevelopment projects is nothing new for Brush Creek Community Partners' board member John Crossley, but he's always impressed with BCCP's ability to influence redevelopment.
Crossley, a partner at law firm Husch Blackwell Sanders LLP, practices in the areas of land use development, financing and hospitality. He often sees projects that aren't as successful as they could be because the right people are not involved in a consistent effort to keep the project on track.
John CrossleyHe doesn't see that problem in his work with the BCCP board. "I like the fact that Brush Creek Partners is a coordinated effort with a high degree of participation among business leaders," he says. "It's working for targeted development."
Crossley replaced Husch Blackwell Sanders partner Maurice Watson on the BCCP board two years ago. He says that his firm wants to be involved in redevelopment efforts like BCCP. He brings significant experience with redevelopment projects including work with H & R Block on the south side of downtown and J.E. Dunn on the east side of downtown. Crossley also was involved in the formation of the Plaza Transportation Development District, which collects sales tax and issues bonds for transportation projects such as a parking garage at 47th and Pennsylvania.
Recently, he's been working on wind and renewable energy projects in western Kansas. That environmental focus parallels BCCP's own involvement with the Green Impact Zone, which Crossley calls "outstanding."
In addition to serving on the board, Crossley is donating his services to help Brush Creek Community Partners explore formation of a community improvement district similar to those developed downtown and on Main Street. "The goal would be to provide streetscape, security, and a safer and cleaner environment," he says. "We need to bring together other stakeholders to be able to provide stable funding."
Keeping Brush Creek Community Partners going during a recession is a challenge, Crossley says, but he believes the group is up to the effort, staying involved and motivated. He says he and other board members need to focus on continuing to generate support from members and the community.
"There are lots of good ideas in this group," he says. "Really smart people come to our meetings. It's critical that we continue raising money to carry on the great work that's been started."