Power & Light Entertainment District

Like many large cities, Kansas City, Missouri, has been struggling for years to reinvigorate their downtown area. They expanded the Convention Center, encouraged new residential development in condos and lofts, constructed a new arena named The Sprint Center, have a huge Performing Arts Center under construction, and have developed an entertainment area called the "Power & Light Entertainment District" (because it's located in the shadow of the Kansas City Power & Light Building).

The city has been fairly successful in getting people back downtown. The Convention Center is busy, the new condos and lofts are selling, the Sprint Center has been very successful in selling out numerous big-name concerts and sporting events, and the Performing Arts Center is creating quite a stir, but the talk-of-the-town is the new downtown "Power & Light District Entertainment".

We have not been to downtown Kansas City, Missouri, for some time, but a nephew from Indiana, Chris Walton, and his wife, Suzanne, recently stopped by to spend a couple of days with us, which gave us an excuse (or a reason) to go check out the new "Power & Light Entertainment District". I was truly awed by this new area even though it is still under development and not all of the venues are open yet.

The Entertainment Center is a large open plaza surrounded by shops and restaurants with an open-air stage at one end. It is located across the street from the Sprint Center and only a couple of blocks from the Performing Arts Center and the Convention Center. The shops appear to be nice upscale shops which should be attractive to a lot of people and the restaurants run the gamut from finger food to delicious-sounding full scale menus in very attractive, well decorated surroundings.
















While we were there, a musical group was setting up and obviously preparing to perform on the open-air stage. From the sound of the speaker system, the quality and volume will enable the audience to hear perfectly in the back row . . . maybe even a block down the street.



We browsed the menus posted beside the entrance to several restaurants and decided to have lunch at the local micro-brewery. Carole and I are pictured on the left below. Carole had a 16 oz glass of German-style beer and I couldn't resist the sampler . . . a glass of all six of the beers made in the micro-brewery. Chris and Suzanne are pictured on the right below discussing the very large selection of items on the menu.

















We all enjoyed a great lunch as well as some fine brews.


The Kansas City Royals and the Kansas City Chiefs have both been losers for several years now, but I think Kansas City has hit a home run AND scored a touchdown with the new "Power & Light Entertainment District". This will certainly attract people back downtown along with the Sprint Center and the new Performing Arts Center.

Finally . . . a real revitalization of downtown Kansas City, Missouri!