Video: Nonprofit wants to bring coworking, craft fairs and farmers markets to Troost

Nonprofit group Troost Market Collective hopes to revitalize a section of Troost Avenue — from 31st to Linwood — bringing a coworking space, art collective and maker spaces, as well as regular festivals and farmers markets.

While other developers are busy building residential and retail space along the Troost corridor, Troost Market Collective co-founders Katie Mabry Van Dieren and Crissy Dastrup want to be the region’s community builders, they said.

“We’re hoping that the collective is an awesome catalyst for the corridor, bringing resources for creative entrepreneurs,” said Mabry Van Dieren, who is also the founder of indie craft fair Strawberry Swing. “What I’ve been hearing is everyone is getting priced out of the Crossroads Arts District, and we don’t like anything like that to ever happen on Troost. We want to bring affordable awesome-ness.”

In Kansas City, when most people think of Troost Avenue, they think of a dividing line separating the haves from the have-nots.

It wasn’t always that way. Until the mid-1900s, the corridor was bustling with activity and entrepreneurship. Discriminatory lending real estate practices brought a stigma to one of Kansas City’s first major commercial shopping districts.

Troost Market Collective is currently searching for potential partners as well as makers, artists and entrepreneurs who might be interested in joining a collective. The development project has been in motion for about a year and is eying completion by spring 2018.

Clemons Real Estate is assembling 11 properties for the effort as part of its Legacy Crossings project at along Troost between 31st and Linwood, said Audrey Navarro, managing partner at the boutique-style real estate firm.

“The exciting part of that corridor, from our perspective, is that a lot of these buildings carry a lot of historical significance to Kansas City,” she said. “And it’s a corridor that still has a lot of large structures intact. … It’s one of the areas that has a lot of density of existing buildings that can be repurposed.

Watch the video below to learn more about the initiative.

To learn more about the developments on Troost, check out the interactive map below.

Check out the rest of Startland’s six-part series on new development on Troost Avenue, a historic racial and economic barrier in Kansas City.

Part I: Transforming Troost
Part II: Troost Coalition
Part III: Wonder lofts
Part IV: Back to Troost
Part V: Food startup Village