Porked Projects

He's on his way out while Famous Dave's, a national barbecue chain, is going in the Cordish development — an announcement that should have prompted mass suicides among Kansas City's economic-development officials.

Edwards tells me that he doesn't like to look back. He's pleased with the new location's visibility from Interstate 35 and its proximity to Ponak's and other restaurants.

Still, Edwards was happy where he was. "I would never leave downtown if I didn't have to," he says.

The sad part is how the city let things get all the way to "have to."

Copaken White & Blitt plans to put an office building on Edwards' block once he's gone. In its infinite wisdom, the TIF Commission agreed to pay $48 million of Copaken's construction costs in spite of a downtown office vacancy rate of 22 percent.

Jon Copaken, who strikes me as being pretty stand-up, for a rich guy, tells me that a new building is meant to appeal to a tenant looking to make a statement with a stand-alone building. "You kind of have to deal with marketing existing space but also provide opportunities for people who want to create something new," he says.

It seems insane to me to subsidize the construction of new office space when the city has trouble filling what's already available. But then, I wouldn't have sent away Danny Edwards, either.