The line of customers formed early and kept coming Saturday at the Red Kitchen Tamales food stall in Lenexa City Center’s Public Market. Owner Alejandra de la Fuente paused briefly from serving to reflect on her start-up’s remarkable blossoming over the past year.
“I think it’s amazing,” said de la Fuente. “There are always more and more people coming.”
Red Kitchen Tamales’ success is just one example of the progress at Lenexa City Center, the new heart of the suburb 15 miles from Kansas City. It has sprouted from what was farmland not too long ago, west of Interstate 435 at 87th Street Parkway and Renner Boulevard.
“The unique part for us is creating a Lenexa downtown basically out of a field,” said Keith Copaken of Copaken Brooks, the master developer for the southwest corner of Lenexa City Center. “It’s creating its own destination and its own draw, not just for Lenexa but for all residents of western Johnson County.”
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