Community, landlord want to replace closed Sun Fresh with new grocery store

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - Some residents in southern Kansas City, Missouri, need to find a new grocery store after the Sun Fresh in the Red Bridge Shopping Center closed last week.

“Nobody really wants to live in a neighborhood where they have to make a 20-minute drive to get basic needs for their household,” said John Sharp, President of the South KC Alliance.

The group that owns the vacant Sun Fresh store wants to replace it with another grocery store.

Brandon Buckley, a vice president at LANE4 Property Group, says finding a new grocer is the company’s top priority.

“We’ve really heard from the community and what they want,” said Buckley. “That’s really our sole focus, at this point, is bringing a grocer in.”

Buckley told KCTV5 News that the former Sun Fresh building needs to be remodeled. The company expects that to attract new tenants.

“We really want it to be a fresh, new store,” Buckley said. “We want it to bring in new shoppers who maybe didn’t shop there otherwise.”

While the community wants a grocery store, it may not be possible. The South KC Alliance said it would prefer the building to have a tenant, if a grocer doesn’t want the spot.

“I don’t think anybody wants to close the door and say, ‘No, we don’t want anything but a grocery store,’” Sharp said. “I think a grocery store makes a lot of sense here, but we’d rather have another retail business in here or an office building rather than a vacant building.”

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