As the Kansas City Royals tout the possibility of a new downtown ballpark and $1 billion baseball district, some have asked why the team’s presence at Truman Sports Complex, alongside the Kansas City Chiefs, has not spurred comparable redevelopment.

Attendees at a recent Royals community meeting broke into applause after one person asked why no private projects have transpired at the 220-acre sports complex.

Team executives said the Royals have studied multiple concepts over the years, but pointed to a lack of developer appetite for the area other than a few peripheral hotels.

“It has been 52 years. There’s been every opportunity for someone to come in and do something with the property,” Populous Founder Earl Santee, a consultant for the Royals, said at the Dec. 13 meeting.

“That’s not to say that someone won’t, but it’s just much different when you talk about a Downtown site where you have all the bones, all the infrastructure, all the transportation. … It’s a lot easier to make it work in those locations.”

One legacy idea for redevelopment around Truman Sports Complex was a roughly $250 million mixed-use conceptualized in the early 2000s by David Block, president of Block & Co. Inc. Realtors, and leaders with Hunt Midwest, which is owned by late Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt‘s family.

>> Read more in the Kansas City Business Journal.