Victory for a more vibrant downtown Kansas City

Bringing 900 federal workers to an office building next to Union Station is a solid and needed step to pump renewed life into downtown Kansas City.

The addition of General Services Administration employees will boost activity and interest in the core. More people will use the proposed streetcar line just outside the station, eat at nearby restaurants and enjoy other amenities such as those at Crown Center.

The move to Two Pershing Square is another vote of confidence in the redevelopment potential of the two-mile streetcar starter line. GSA workers will be able to hop on the free streetcars during the day, while nearby bus lines and a bicycle rental station also could boost transit use.

Still, the GSAs decision was not the perfect ending that many downtown boosters had hoped for a few years ago: the construction of a new building for the federal office inside the freeway loop.

But federal cutbacks scuttled that idea, and GSA officials eventually took what they said was the best and most affordable lease deal for taxpayers.

That decision will place the GSA near the Internal Revenue Services 3,000-employee facility across the street to the south. Two Pershing Square also is next door to Union Station, which in recent years has revitalized itself with the addition of several new employers, including the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce.

The GSAs move should put pressure on city parks officials to carry through with plans to reshape the listless Washington Square Park, which is east of Two Pershing Square and north of Crown Center. The city for too long has ignored the parks potential to be a lively gathering place for thousands of people who work within a few blocks.

Even with the GSA victory, downtown still faces many challenges. It has lost thousands of jobs to the Country Club Plaza and the suburbs in recent years. Ambitious plans to add hotels, housing and office buildings have been stuck in neutral, although recent movement appears promising as more projects get off the drawing boards.

The GSA workers expect to be in their new home by early 2015, just months before the streetcar is expected to begin operating. Thats a bit of good timing for all working to build a brighter future for downtown.

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Victory for a more vibrant downtown Kansas City