The developer has a plan to sell the rock to help pay for itsremoval, says Pete Vegelahn, COO of Jabez. "There's this large knobof rock that we're going to take out, and sell as aggregate, andthen we'll have a developable piece of property," he tellsGlobeSt.com. "It'll cost us about the same, the profit margin isnot tremendous. It's basically a break-even. But we think this willwork, and we plan to take this to other areas as a prototype."Jabez is actually made up of four companies that will do all thework, including construction manager Vegelahn Construction LLC,excavating and utility contractor Team Excavating, Kenny MackTrucking and rock seller Hillside Materials LLC.

Single-family homes will dot the property, mostly cottage andbungalow types, Vegelahn says. The commercial portion of thedevelopment will include 184,600 sf of retail which includes a50,000-sf market, along with 13 pad sites. Also on the site will bea three-story, 39,000-sf office building. He says though theproperty is now vacant, there is demand. "You can get from here toDowntown Kansas City in about 18 minutes, as opposed to the 40minutes it would take from the far west residential area of Lee'sSummit," Vegelahn says. "It's busy there, you get about 45,000 carsa day going by."

He says the city is working through a new urban redevelopmentdistrict policy. Councilman Terry Riley, who represents thedistrict where the land is, has been publicly supportive of theproject. He did not return a call by GlobeSt.com. No rush, though,as the rock removal will take four years. "If everything isapproved, we're slated to come online in 2012 with the commercial,and the residential after that, from 2012 to 2016," he says.