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MO Hives KC Swarms to Fruition with First Urban Bee Farm
MO Hives KC broke ground on the area’s first urban bee farm April 25, 2020, on vacant property owned by Community Builders of Kansas City (CBKC), at 5030 Wabash. Across the street from the thriving Blue Hills Community Garden, the bee farm is the first of many the organization intends to build in its mission to engage urban residents in creating pollinator habitats using previously vacant and/or blighted land to support the community’s health and wellness.
“We are starting a movement here,” said Dr. Marion Spence Pierson, a pediatrician with special interest in education and urban community service and MO Hives KC co-founder. “We got some energy from Detroit Hives’ founders, Timothy Paule and Nicole Lindsay. They were motivated by a passion for bee conservation and education as well as urban revitalization to start transforming their city’s abandoned lots into urban bee farms in 2017. I went to visit with them last fall and then they came to Kansas City, all to see how we could extend what they started here.”
MO Hives has been busy creating partnerships with entities including the Kansas City Public Schools, area charter schools such as African-Centered Prep, the Kansas City (Region 5) chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE); and two NSBE, Jr., chapters founded by the Jackson County (MO) Chapter of The Links, Incorporated, an international volunteer organization of professional women of color. Area leaders such as Rep. Barbara Washington, former Sen. Shalonn “Kiki” Curls and Brian Reeves, avid bee keeper and co-founder of MO Hives KC, were introduced to Detroit Hives leaders Paule and Lindsay.
“We want to bring a diverse set of voices to this conversation,” Pierson added. “We want people to know that you can get into this field of knowledge, get training and have a level of expertise that is needed.” Beekeeping (or apiculture) on a global level is a $10 billion market involving industries from food and beverage to pharmaceuticals and touches STEM education sectors from entomology to agricultural-related engineering.
MO Hives KC’s mission encompasses what it calls its “hive five” goals encompassing education about bees and other healthy pollinators, beautification, economics, food security and the sciences. Those goals and more were introduced at the April groundbreaking where volunteers planted native wild flowers and saplings, prepped the bee hive setting and learned how they could create bee-friendly plantings in their own backyards.
“This is a community development movement, too,” said Pierson. “Pollinators are essential to food production. If you help nurture healthy pollinators you help grow produce and if you do that in your neighborhood, you help your community.”
Charity Begins at Home, and at CBKC
On a stiflingly hot day in July Elizabeth Schultz, Community Builders of Kansas City director of strategic initiatives and community outreach, was at the monthly Town Fork Creek neighborhood meeting at Covenant Presbyterian Church. Legal Aid of Western Missouri was speaking to the group about how to deal with decaying and abandoned houses. Residents of Town Fork Creek, who work diligently to keep the neighborhood clean and safe, expressed concerns about the high number of problem houses in their area but didn’t have a formally compiled list to be reported for potential code violations.
Legal Aid was working from an outdated list of more than 200 addresses so Schultz stepped in to help, and out of that meeting CBKC’s Neighborhood Improvement Initiative was born. Schultz and the CBKC team developed a strategy to methodically deal with the problem houses, advocate for the neighborhoods and serve as their liaison with City of Kansas City, Missouri Code Enforcement, Legal Aid and rehabbers.
First, Schultz tours the neighborhood to identify problem houses and catalog them as needing short-term help (such as lawn care assistance), long-term rehabilitation or demolition. She then prioritizes a short list of the most urgent problems and presents it at monthly neighborhood meetings to get feedback from the community. After the final short list is confirmed, Schultz attends ride-alongs with the neighborhood president, Legal Aid, and a potential rehabilitation agent to identify which houses are possible rehabs and which need to be demolished. She works with the neighborhood president to form a housing committee and educate its members on how to address the problem houses with either Legal Aid or Code Enforcement.
So far, four neighborhood meetings have occurred and as a result, 30 blocks have been evaluated finding 55 houses in extreme need of improvement, 18 properties eligible for legal action under the Affordable Housing Act and three homes intended for demolition. With a plan to identify and prioritize 10 blocks in the neighborhood each month, the goal is to complete an analysis of all 120 blocks for Town Fork Creek in 12 months and to begin assisting the neighborhood with applications for funding single-family housing improvement projects.
Feedback on the program has been overwhelmingly positive. “It’s great that CBKC has started this initiative and, with the neighborhoods and the City doing their part and all of us working together, we can make a huge improvement in our community,” said Becky Forrest, Town Fork Creek neighborhood president.
The Neighborhood Improvement Initiative is in conjunction with Adopt-a-Neighborhood, a collaborative project between Legal Aid of Western Missouri, private law firms and east side neighborhoods in Kansas City. It will be an ongoing service CBKC provides for the neighborhoods it serves.
Fueling a Minority Accelerator
Community Builders of Kansas City strives to empower and engage with the community, which includes spurring entrepreneurial advancement. Opportunity Hub of Kansas City (OHUB.KC)’s mission is to drive shared prosperity and new multi-generational wealth creation by building authentic inclusive innovation, entrepreneurship & investment ecosystems in communities of color. This alignment of strategic goals has made CBKC and OHUB.KC natural partners. OHUB.KC convenes its entrepreneurship support programming at 5008 Prospect and holds many of its 3rd Fridays Entrepreneurship Series in donated space at The Shops on Blue Parkway.
Last May, OHUB began a journey in Kansas City to strengthen the inclusive innovation, entrepreneurship and investment ecosystem that was being built by and for communities of color. OHUB introduced its proven playbook for inclusive entrepreneurship ecosystem building. Since that time, OHUB.KC has made an enormous impact in our community including:
- 1600+ attendees at 3rd Friday’s
- $750M in VC funding has visited KCMO
- 400+ pitches at the 18th & Vine ABC Sharktank official casting call
- 188 applicants to our entrepreneurship support programming
- 102 participants in the CEO of My Life Ideation and Design Thinking Masterclass
- 62 startups in the six month startup bootcamp
- 12 participants in the NewMe pre-accelerator and recipient of $5,000 non-dilutive grants
- 5 participants in the KC.UP Accelerator
- $250K in founder friendly capital invested in five accelerator startups
- Attraction of 2 high growth startups to open a KCMO office
Hundreds participated in OHUB.KC Demo Day virtually on March 27. A new virtual coding school in collaboration between OHUB, Morehouse College, Momentum Learning and KC Global Design Group was announced. Virtual classes start in May. Persons interested in gaining the skills to work as a software developer are encouraged to apply here.
Know someone interested in tech and high growth entrepreneurship? Encourage them to check out OHUB.KC at https://linktr.ee/ohubkc.
Introducing The Rochester on Blue Parkway: First Market-Rate Apartment Complex East of Prospect in Decades
Community Builders of Kansas City (CBKC) is pleased to announce its new development, The Rochester on Blue Parkway, a $12.6 million active living, intergenerational multi-family development with 64 units. Beginning construction on CBKC’s Blue Parkway campus in the fourth quarter of this year, The Rochester will be the first market-rate apartment complex east of the Prospect in decades.
The Rochester on Blue Parkway will feature in-demand finishes and amenities including stainless steel appliances, solid-surface countertops, in-unit washer and dryer, an indoor/outdoor rooftop deck, fitness center, package pick-up room, community meeting space as well as landscaped front and back yard spaces furnished for grilling and gathering around the fire pit. Rates will be in the range of $985 to $1,275 for the one-bedroom/one bath, one-bedroom plus den/one bath and two-bedroom/two-bathroom units. There also will be a penthouse two-bedroom executive suite. The Rochester offers an option for those who want to upgrade their living accommodations and stay in the Blue Parkway community.
The Rochester continues the development of the mixed-used campus that already includes banking, health services, community service organizations, shopping and offices. The project is the first in a number of planned strategic developments CBKC has underway all along the Swope/Blue Parkway corridor.
“CBKC is changing the landscape of Kansas City’s east side with meaningful projects that matter to the community,” said former Missouri senator Shalonn “Kiki” Curls. “The Rochester is just the beginning of the improvements to come.”
The property was named after R. (Rochester) Charles (Chuck) Gatson, the visionary founder of CBKC who grew up east of Troost and invested his career in service to the education, training and capacity building of individuals and communities in need. Gatson received numerous leadership recognitions including the James A. Johnson Fellowship from the Fannie Mae Foundation, awarded to leaders in affordable housing and community development. He died in 2014.
Straub Construction serves as general contractor. Hufft is providing project design. CBKC is working with several partners to finalize the project’s capital stack.
Becoming Ruthless at the Guardian Summit
At The Guardian Summit in March in New Orleans, Community Builders of Kansas City’s Emmet Pierson, Jr., was on hand to explore investment opportunities in entrepreneurship, economic mobility and policy in order to close the racial wealth gap and design more inclusive economies for communities of color.
Along with more than 100 leaders and executives, Pierson attended sessions on improving and accelerating communities by being “ruthless” guardians of wealth, power, economy, education, technology and more, delivered by national leaders of foundations, funds and advocacy non-profits.
“I was honored to participate and want to thank The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation for sponsoring the event which enabled me to attend,” said Pierson. “CBKC strives to level the playing field in our community every day so the ideas presented at the summit were both empowering and inspiring. We are and will continue to be even more ruthless guardians of our community.”
The summit was presented by Camelback Ventures, which aims to create a more diverse social innovation ecosystem that leverages the genius of all people. It identifies local leaders with promising ideas and empowers them to enact change within their communities through initiatives that provide coaching, capital, connections, community and curriculum.
CBKC Learns From Masters in Urban Development in Washington D.C.
While attending the JPMorgan Chase & Co. PRO Neighborhood $100,000 grant award ceremony that Community Builders of Kansas City was awarded last year, CBKC participated in the October PRO Neighborhood Peer Learning Session in Washington D.C. CBKC’s Emmet Pierson, Jr., president and CEO and Shannon Hesterberg, director of real estate development, attended, taking from the session best practices for building collaborative partnerships and advancing our work.
While in DC, CBKC took the opportunity to learn first-hand practices from two of the largest community development corporations in the country. Pierson and Hesterberg toured the Residences at St. Elizabeth’s East, a 252-unit, affordable housing redevelopment project with tiered pricing based on annual income. This large-scale redevelopment project far exceeds the typical number of affordable housing units constructed in a single project in Kansas City.
Joined by Stanley Jackson, president and CEO of Anacostia Economic Development Corporation (AEDC), and John LaPorta, Flaherty and Collins project executive. The team toured the site just days before it was set to be complete, gaining cutting edge insights on new models in urban development.
Pierson and Hesterberg also toured Columbia Heights, a community development project by the Development Corporation of Columbia Heights that created 1,000 affordable housing units and replaced an empty parking lot and dilapidated building with businesses such as Target, Best Buy and Bed, Bath & Beyond.
“In touring these massive projects and talking with prominent organizations, we were able to gain an understanding of how CBKC can become a significant participant in large-scale projects,” said Pierson. “In addition, we studied how to develop projects that generate sustained income and ensure that income stays within our community, keeping the spin within. We plan to implement these concepts in future projects.”