The City of Sedalia has purchased just under 32 acres of property along Broadway Boulevard east of the Katy Trail overpass to Hancock from the Union Pacific Railroad.

This according to a press release from the City of Sedalia. The City plans to clean the site up and maintain it to facilitate redevelopment.

The main portion of the site bought by the City is the land many remember as "the old Southerland Lumber location." This parcel has been combined with several others so the purchased land ranges from Broadway as the southern border to the rail line as the northern border. The City paid the railroad $636,594.55 and closed on the property Wednesday afternoon.

The City says the property has been an eye sore for years and is overgrown with vegetation and remnants of old structures decades after being idol. While there have been several attempts at redevelopment all have failed because there was no way to effectively subdivide the property. Additionally, redevelopment of part of the land was problematic because of concerns over who would be responsible for maintaining the rest of the land.

The City intends to use its purchase of the property to spur redevelopment. Sedalia will clean the site up and maintain it making it more attractive to developers. Additionally the City is willing to manage the subdivision of the property for varying uses and plans to actively seek out redevelopment areas.

Mayor John Kehde said, "We are pleased to finally get to where we can realistically see new developments take the place of this overgrown eyesore.

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