In spring 2026, Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) released data that showcases the impact of the KC Streetcar on new construction permits and ensuing development. View their report here and continue reading for a breakdown.
After the completion of the KC Streetcar extension to UMKC in 2025, the system runs 5.7 miles along a single corridor: Main Street from the City Market to UMKC. Data revealed that for both the starter route from City Market to Union station and the UMKC extension, the pace of new construction roughly doubled following transit investment. The development that took place did not drastically change those neighborhoods- rather, MARC found it to be in alignment with other development that was already taking place in those areas.
MARC looked at 10+ years of construction permit data available through Kansas City’s Open Data KC portal. Permits were grouped and classified as residential (single-family, duplex, multi-family) or nonresidential (commercial, civic, industrial). MARC notes that permit activity jumped after the establishment of the downtown Transportation Development District (TDD), a specialized taxing district for the funding, building, and maintenance of public transit infrastructure, in 2012. Permit activity jumped significantly once more after the establishment of the extension TDD in 2017.
In both the original starter route and the subsequent extension, MARC found that new construction projects roughly doubled after the TDD designation, growing from three to six per year for the starter route and from five to eleven for the extension.
Data shows that the starter route, located in the central employment corridor of downtown KC, drew permits focused more on commercial activity and high-density, multi-family housing. The extension, which runs through a more residential and less employment heavy corridor, produced a different mix of permit types that was nonetheless in alignment with development patterns throughout the region. Almost 70% of permits drawn around the starter route were for commercial/high-density, multi-family construction while the extension saw 37% of permits drawn for single-family housing. MARC also notes that the timeline for the starter route and the extension were different, four years for the starter route and eight for the extension, making different types of construction more or less viable.
MARC points out that the value of this data is to show that transit may not create development out of nothing, but it can and does amplify what is already happening in that corridor, be it commercial, industrial, or residential development. Factors like land use, market conditions and policy can have a significant impact on regional growth following transit investment. To read MARC’s report and review the data, visit MARC’s website here.