More growth: Area gaining needed developments

One or two steps at a time.

This week has brought two modest but welcome steps toward development in areas that need it:

• A 100-bed hotel, geared to families, got city approval in Independence. It’ll be near Bass Pro Shops and could open by next spring.

• A retail/office development was announced for the corner of Adams Dairy Parkway and R.D. Mize Road in Blue Springs. Assuming the city gives its approval, construction could start this fall.

The area along Adams Dairy never fulfilled its initial promise as an office park, but this is exactly the sort of project that is in keeping with that idea. The key point is that office jobs tend to be better for the local economy than retail jobs. Both are needed, but the area needs to attract every office job – not to mention manufacturing jobs – that it can.