The Kansas City Royals have their builder. A Mortenson and McCownGordon joint venture takes construction manager at risk on a $1.9 billion ballpark at Crown Center in downtown Kansas City, with JE Dunn working on the surrounding 85-acre, $3 billion mixed-use district.
The site is the hard part
This is an open-air, roughly 1.25 million square foot venue with about 34,000 seats and multiple premium levels, going onto a tight urban footprint rather than a suburban parking sea. Kauffman Stadium, which opened in 1973 at 37,903 seats, has the opposite problem and the opposite site. Moving a franchise downtown means every logistics assumption about a ballpark build gets rewritten, from crane placement to concrete delivery windows.
Mortenson’s sports résumé is the reason it’s here: Truist Park at $672 million for the Braves, $202.5 million of work at Progressive Field for the Guardians, plus Allegiant Stadium and Chase Center, and locally the T-Mobile Center and Science City at Union Depot. It’s also building the $1.5 billion Las Vegas Athletics ballpark in a JV with McCarthy Building Cos., and in August 2026 won the $3.8 billion Washington Commanders stadium alongside Clark Construction and Smoot Construction. Three major venue programs running at once is a real capacity question for any builder, and one an owner should be asking about.
McCownGordon is employee-owned and Kansas City-founded, working across commercial, healthcare, education, civic, industrial and sports. Chairman and CEO Ramin Cherafat called the opportunity especially meaningful for a Kansas City company. Parson + Associates, a local community engagement firm, is embedded on the JV team to recruit local trade partners and workers, which on a project of this visibility is a contractual obligation as much as a goodwill gesture. Populous leads design.
The schedule and the money
Groundbreaking is targeted for 2027, with completion for Opening Day 2030, one year before the Royals’ Kauffman Stadium lease with Jackson County expires in 2031. That’s not much float on a 1.25 million square foot venue, and the lease expiry is what will drive the recovery plan when something slips.
Funding is majority private through a Royals partnership with Hallmark Cards, which owns Crown Center, at a stated minimum of $2 billion. Kansas City Council approved a fixed $600 million city contribution and a 30-year lease in August 2026. Missouri’s Show-Me Sports Investment Act, signed in June 2024, authorizes bonds covering up to half of stadium costs plus $50 million in tax credits.
What isn’t settled
No contract value has been disclosed for the JV’s CM-at-risk award. The $1.9 billion is the ballpark program and the $3 billion is the district; neither is the builder’s number. The seat count and square footage are design-stage figures. The 2027 start and 2030 opening are targets, and the state incentive package isn’t clear of the courts: ENR reports the Missouri Supreme Court heard argument in early September on whether opponents of the tax-incentive plan have standing to sue.