Three Trails Industrial Park makes a mark in south Kansas City

The Three Trails Industrial Park sign — on a semitrailer parked on a bluff above Interstate 49 in south Kansas City — isn’t the only thing that stands out about the new warehouse and industrial park.

The NorthPoint Development project received a fairly rare equity investment, at least in the Kansas City area, through the federal New Markets Tax Credit program. And as part of that financing agreement, NorthPoint made an unusual workforce development donation to the Greater Kansas City Local Initiative Support Corp., better known as LISC.

NorthPoint gave $160,000 to help fund LISC’s Financial Opportunity Centers that provide job training, financial coaching and emergency assistance to area residents. LISC operates four such centers in the metro area and is working to open a fifth.

To get to the point of the LISC gift, NorthPoint stitched a fabric of public and private investment for its speculative industrial development on the former Rockridge Quarry site between Interstates 49 and 435. Access to the project is on Elmwood Avenue off 87th Street.

NorthPoint vice president Brent Miles said the $16 million first phase, a 364,000-square-foot building, will open this quarter with two already announced tenants, Boulevard Brewing Co. and…

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