For nearly half a century, General Motors operated an assembly plant on Kansas City’s southeast side. From the plant’s opening in 1929 until its closure in 1988, more than 8.2 million vehicles rolled off the line in Kansas City’s historic Leeds neighborhood.  

After its closure, the former GM plant was demolished and the site sat largely dormant for the past three decades. Then, in 2023, Union Pacific Railroad purchased the property with the intent to turn it into a rail-served industrial park.  

Olsson partnered with UPRR and Kansas City-area government and economic development partners to reimagine the site.

UPRR was interested in the site for many reasons. Its Kansas City location is equidistant to both coasts and sits along major rail and vehicular corridors. The site’s existing infrastructure included a railyard and two bridges. And it was already connected to public utilities and zoned for heavy industrial use.

Despite these built-in advantages, the site needed work. Here are the four principles we used to give this land new life:

1. Invest in early due diligence to define what is fixed.

As we do with any brownfield site, we layered investigations to identify immovable constraints and modifiable conditions. For instance, while the plant was demolished decades ago, its underground footings remained and needed to be inspected to identify any demolition needs.  The existing public infrastructure also dated to the early 1900s, so we worked in the field to verify the location of water and sewer lines.

2. Frame planning based on fixed constraints.

Right away, we defined existing rail crossings, limited vertical clearance, and tight driveway spacing. We didn’t treat these constraints as late-stage design challenges.

3. Preserve flexibility when future users are not yet identified.

Throughout the process, we maintained the ability to serve different customers and configurations by reserving corridors and avoiding premature optimization. We also worked closely with Kansas City-area governmental and economic development partners to better understand future opportunities and needs.

4. Manage risk and control costs by phasing development.

We made early design decisions that supported both near-term development and long-term site evolution. The results were outstanding. Today, the Leeds Industrial Park is a shovel-ready location featuring build-to-suit warehouse and manufacturing opportunities for high-volume rail users.