American Royal president: New HQ in KCK means people 'won't take our history for granted'

KANSAS CITY, KS. (March 15, 2023) Construction trailers will arrive at the site of the American Royal Association's new headquarters in Kansas City, Kansas, in the next few weeks.

The 124-year-old organization awaits a final approval on March 30 from the Unified Government of Kansas City, Kansas/Wyandotte County Commission before it completes the public planning process. Its new headquarters will be at 11645 American Royal Way, at the intersection of State Avenue and 118th Street.

It wants to begin vertical construction in the fall.

On Monday evening, the UG's Planning Committee gave unanimous approval to rezone the 127-acre site. The decision allows the organization to remove a hotel it proposed in a previous iteration of the project.

American Royal President Jackie McClaskey previously said she anticipated that developers from nearby properties would build their own hotel, so that component became unnecessary in the organization's plans.

American Royal now plans to build a one-level arena for livestock shows, equine events and rodeos. The facility will include a large barn and an approximately 400,000-square-foot exhibition space. There would be three arenas — two indoor and one outdoor — as well as an education and welcome center for food and agricultural education.

Previous plans made the outdoor arena a seasonal feature, but recent versions show that it's now a key, year-round piece of the development. It would allow American Royal to have three working arenas at the same time.

"What's going to set us apart from other facilities across the nation is the integration of education beyond just the facility itself," McClaskey said in a recent interview. "We want to catch both intentional and unintentional learners throughout our events and activities, in addition to the building. We exist to champion food and agriculture, but our mission is to be the nation's leader for food and agricultural education events and engagement."

JE Dunn Construction will do the project's construction and is under a design-build contract. Kansas City's Multistudio will be the lead designer.

An earlier estimate of the project suggested it would cost $250 million. In the fall, American Royal met an $80 million fundraising goal, and it plans to seek $80 million in sales tax revenue, or STAR, bonds. Last April, the organization received a $3 million grant from Kansas' Building a Stronger Economy (BASE) program to help with some infrastructure costs.

American Royal also is considering the addition of surrounding festival grounds, which could host outdoor concerts, RV space, barbecue events and more. That component would be built in a future phase on 77 acres west of 118th Street.

For now, the idea is conceptual, McClaskey said, but the organization wants to take advantage of that acreage eventually.

Construction on the three-arena facility will take about two years, so McClaskey said the organization will celebrate its 125th anniversary in the West Bottoms, which has been its home from the beginning.

She called the move to Kansas City, Kansas, an emotional transition.

"If there was 127 acres available for us in the West Bottoms to build on here, of course we'd do it, but we just don't have the space," McClaskey said. "But we plan to bring the West Bottoms and honor it wherever we go.

The organization wants to keep some elements of the original facility, like exterior red brick and an emphasis on the agriculture industry, especially cattle.

"It made Kansas City what it is today. If it's not for the stockyards, Kansas City is not the place that we know and love," she said.

But the new facility will bring opportunities, too.

"We're actually going to tell some of those stories better there in the new home than we probably even do today," she said. "Maybe over time, everybody in the West Bottoms has sort of taken our history for granted. And now we're just going to make a really conscious effort to tell the story over and over again to remind and encourage people to to celebrate another 125 years of Kansas City tradition."