@thomasfriestad.bsky.social
Development reporter covering who's building what, for whom and at what cost, with the Kansas City Business Journal. NoVA native turned Midwesterner by way of Mizzou J-School. Catch me running, reading, traveling, playing Smash or (re)watching Survivor.
Five months ago, KC asked private donors to pledge another $21M for Blunt Luminary Park (for $50M total) before considering ~$65M more in bonds (for $90M total). Private pledges since totaled $1.75M, renewing council scrutiny over the park's path forward.
www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/n...
Come this summer, KC may be home to the largest known distribution centers by sq. ft. both above -and- below ground.
www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/n...
A KC REIT is buying Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun as part of a $342 million portfolio transaction with Six Flags.
www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/n...
KC advances a plan to save $664,000 on debt it backs that supported developing the Power & Light District.
www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/n...
Big changes are coming to Children's Mercy's main hospital campus, including a potential 20-story tower.
www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/n...
An open records request for the Unified Government's cost-benefit analysis, commissioned to gauge local impacts from the Chiefs' stadium project, yielded just a two-page "benefits analysis" spreadsheet. Economists have questions.
www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/n...
"Not asking you to click on any link, just subscribe to a real news organization with real journalists doing firsthand, fact-based reporting."
A.G. Sulzberger, publisher of The New York Times, urging people to support "original reporting" wherever they find it.
www.niemanlab.org/2026/03/new-...
One entity with Bicknell ties acquired Hotel Kansas City from another at a foreclosure sale this afternoon. TBD what this will mean in terms of payments EB-5 investors say are owed.
www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/n...
A historic KC hotel faces a foreclosure sale as foreign investors say they're still owed millions of dollars.
www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/n...
A Northland incentive battle may be brewing over a federal VA clinic. One developer seeks tax breaks so its site can be competitive with at least one other possibility.
www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/n...
The historic Peck's Plaza building at 11th and Main could sell for a 74-unit apartment conversion.
www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/n...
Dignitaries who've hobnobbed at the posh InterContinental Kansas City at the Plaza have ranged from business travelers to then-aspiring presidential candidate Ronald Reagan.
Soon to check in at the 371-room hotel now could be a court-appointed receiver.
www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/n...
INBOX: the police chief of Quakertown, Pa., led a group of plainclothes officers to disrupt a peaceful high school student sidewalk protest yesterday.
They threw an underage girl to the ground, choked her, and disconnected all calls to the detention center where she and others are currently held.
A historic Financial District building soon will reopen with 17 lofts and ground-floor commercial space, marking a milestone conversion for the family developer involved.
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Concerned about ICE's $45 billion plan to convert warehouses into immigration detention centers? This is what they'll look like inside. From ICE's plan for the Social Circle, GA facility. Each little dot: a person. www.socialcirclega.gov/home/showpub...
Insightful look by KCBJ’s Ellen Cagle into why pricey homes are getting torn down in Hallbrook of all places.
www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/n...
Foreclosure sale was scheduled this afternoon -- the fifth known attempt since Jan. 2025 -- but got continued again.
Kansas City is grappling with an affordable housing shortage.
The Kansas City Council passed an ordinance Feb. 5, rolling back portions of its energy code to loosen insulation requirements, relax energy performance targets and remove certain testing mandates for new residential construction.
Breaking News: Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, was arrested in Britain on suspicion of misconduct in public office over his links to Jeffrey Epstein, the BBC said.
Here's what "confidential client" confirmed it is building a Northland data center on nearly 500 acres bought by Google more than two years ago (the answer will SHOCK you).
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Should officials look to backfill Truman Sports Complex with data centers once the Chiefs and Royals (eventually) leave, or shoot for something more, like thousands of new housing units? "Ambition is the only option," Mayor Lucas says.
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Wild that some journalism powers-that-be would sooner hire AI rewriters than more, better writers, period. This next "pivot to video" will mean embarrassing contextual errors from novices plugging in isolated facts devoid of deeper meaning.
J-School grads continue to inspire hope for better!
Century II has lost money through much of its history, even after a city ordinance designated a transient guest tax to fund it.
Yaaaay! The special ‘Muppet Show’ revival drew almost 8 million viewers over an eight-day window. We’re wiggling our arms, Kermit style, in triumph.
“…in one incident, Lewandowski fired a U.S. Coast Guard pilot after Noem's blanket was left behind on a plane, according to people familiar with the incident.”
Here's why construction workers were holding up "Shame on Port KC" signs outside City Hall on Wednesday.
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Construction activity is underway for real at Parade Park Homes after more than two dozen reported fires in vacant former co-op buildings.
www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/n...
