Kansas City Developer Reimagines Vacant Lots as Neighborhood Anchors

Marcus Okonkwo-Reyes has a rule for every project his firm takes on: no development moves forward until the surrounding neighborhood has had at least three separate opportunities to weigh in on what gets built. It's a slower process than most developers would tolerate, but Okonkwo-Reyes said it's the reason his company, Crossroads Renewal Partners, has managed to convert more than a dozen vacant Kansas City lots into occupied, income-generating properties without the community backlash that has derailed other redevelopment efforts in the city.

"Vacant lots don't stay vacant because nobody has money to build on them," Okonkwo-Reyes said, standing on a lot in the Ivanhoe neighborhood that will soon house a mixed-use building with ground-floor retail and apartments above. "They stay vacant because the people who used to live around them got burned by developers who promised things and delivered something else."

Learning From a Failed First Project

Okonkwo-Reyes founded Crossroads Renewal Partners in 2017 after an earlier development project in Kansas City collapsed amid community opposition, an experience he now describes as the most valuable failure of his career. The project, a retail-anchored development he pursued with a previous firm, fell apart after neighborhood residents organized against plans they said were drawn up without any local input.

"I learned the hard way that you can have all the financing lined up and still lose the project if the neighborhood doesn't trust you," he said. That lesson shaped Crossroads Renewal Partners's entire development model, which now includes a formal community advisory process built into every project timeline from the earliest planning stages.

A Different Kind of Return on Investment

Okonkwo-Reyes has structured Crossroads Renewal Partners around a mix of market-rate and income-restricted housing units in most of its developments, a decision that limits short-term profit margins but has made the company attractive to impact-focused investors and city redevelopment incentive programs. The company has completed 14 projects since its founding, ranging from small commercial buildings to a 60-unit mixed-income apartment complex completed in 2025.

"We're not a charity, and I don't pretend to be one," Okonkwo-Reyes said. "But if a project only works financially by pricing out everyone who already lives here, I don't think it actually works."

Scaling Community Input Without Slowing Down Too Much

As Crossroads Renewal Partners has grown to 22 employees, Okonkwo-Reyes has had to formalize a process that started informally, hiring a dedicated community engagement director to manage resident feedback across multiple simultaneous projects. He acknowledged the approach makes projects take longer than competitors who skip community input entirely, sometimes by six months or more.

The company is currently in early planning stages for its largest project to date, a multi-block redevelopment near the Kansas City Historic Northeast neighborhood that would include affordable housing, small business space, and a public gathering area designed with input from a dozen community listening sessions held over the past year.

"Kansas City doesn't need more buildings that just sit there," Okonkwo-Reyes said. "It needs buildings that neighborhoods actually asked for."