Momentum 2027 In Motion | Community Strategy Approaches Midway Point in 2025
By INDIA YARBOROUGH
In November, GO Topeka and innovation-and-entrepreneurship partners cut the ribbon on the new Topeka/Shawnee County Business Concierge Office at 715 S. Kansas Ave. The office’s opening is a symbol of the strides being made through Momentum 2027, an economic development plan to unlock growth and opportunity in Shawnee County and Topeka.
With Momentum 2027 approaching its midway point in 2025, the five-year community strategy appears mostly on track for completion. In its first two years the effort has seen progress in key areas like child care, housing, entrepreneurial ecosystem building, recreation and riverfront — just a few of the plan’s 21 strategic initiatives, 11 key objectives and four overarching goals forming a roadmap to Topeka and Shawnee County’s future.
The latest reporting from Momentum 2027’s executive committee — a volunteer group tasked with ensuring the strategy is carried out — shows 18 of the plan’s 21 initiatives are on track, two are moving forward slower than expected and just one is off track.
Michelle Cuevas-Stubblefield, who oversees implementation of Momentum 2027 as the Greater Topeka Partnership’s senior vice president of strategy, isn’t shy about acknowledging the challenges ahead. Still, she’s pleased with the moves being made.
“I am proud of the community’s ownership and efforts to rally around the initiatives, assessing the status quo and then thinking outside the boxto find opportunities and multiple solutions to further the goals,” she said.
Momentum 2027 builds on the community’s previous five-year strategy, Momentum 2022. Both put growth and development of the greater Topeka area in the hands of local leaders eager to create a more prosperous, equitable capital city.
INCREASING CHILD CARE AVAILABILITY
According to Sarah Elsen, executive director of Child Care Aware of Eastern Kansas, Topeka’s child care landscape faces significant challenges.
Elsen and Trina Goss, director of business and talent initiatives for GO Topeka, have been driving Momentum’s “Child Care Task Force” initiative. In 2023, the pair secured more than $3 million in grant funding through Kansas’ Child Care Capacity Accelerator program.
The funding has helped open 431 child care spots in the community, with about 50% serving infants and toddlers.
Higher capacity is on the way, but these new spots account for only a fraction of the more than 5,000 child care openings needed to meet demand from local families. That’s where Family Forward Now comes in.
Launched in spring 2024, Family Forward Now recognizes child care as a workforce issue. The effort encourages employers to become “Champions for Child Care” by adopting “family-friendly and family-forward policies,” and by providing financial support to the Family Forward Fund.
Managed and administered by the Topeka Community Foundation, the fund collects donations used to provide financial assistance to working parents who need help temporarily covering child care costs after exhausting other resources. Maintaining consistent funding is crucial, Goss said, and she hopes more businesses step up to support.
ADDRESSING THE HOUSING SHORTAGE
Child care support and relocation incentives, like those offered through Momentum 2027’s Choose Topeka 2.0 program, are designed to attract talent. But to attract more workforce to Topeka, the city must have adequate housing to meet the needs of both newcomers and current residents.
Two initiatives — “Topeka/Shawnee County Housing Strategies” and “Housing Advocacy Task Force” — seek to address the area’s housing shortage.
The task force works to pinpoint strategies and exert influence to attract more market-rate housing. Initial recommendations included coming up with ways to incentivize development, butefforts to identify what those incentives should be are ongoing.
Meanwhile, the housing strategies coalition is working to grow available housing at multiple income levels. They report updates to the task force but operate independently.
According to Rhiannon Friedman, planning and development director for the City of Topeka, the Reinvestment Housing Incentive District (RHID) program has been a popular tool for assisting developers with infrastructure improvements around housing projects, helping homes stay affordable.
“We have seen an increase in interest from national housing developers who are aware of the demand for attainable housing in Topeka,” Friedman said, “and we’re looking at the potential to pair this program with other state and federal incentives.”
She added there has been strong demand for market-rate and upscale housing and proposals are coming forward for developments across the community. To spur further residential construction, the city’s planning commission has offered amendments to Topeka Development Code to remove unnecessary restrictions and reduce development costs.
Meanwhile, the city’s newly developed land bank is now online and spurring developer interest.
“The land bank has accepted an offer from a local developer who is interested in building attainable housing on an infill lot in an existing residential neighborhood,” Friedman said.
That lot had been sitting vacant until the land bank led to an opportunity. Similar opportunities are likely to be on the horizon.
BUILDING AN ENTREPRENEURIAL ECOSYSTEM
To make the Topeka area more entrepreneur friendly — an initiative called “Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Building” — economic-development agency GO Topeka is pouring resources into strategic partnerships and opportunities for current and future entrepreneurs.
Stephanie Moran, senior vice president of innovation for GO Topeka, recognizes that entrepreneurs and startups seek resources at a few different levels. Some need help launching, some want help scaling and others may be looking for research support or funding.
“It’s really about starting to identify who do we have in the network, who are our resource partners, what services do they provide and how do we build those pathways and ultimately direct people as they come into that ecosystem,” Moran said.
Downtown’s new Business Concierge Office is designed to help offer direction. Its opening marked the next step in efforts to make a comprehensive map of resources available to entrepreneurs, providing a hub for that information to live. Staffed by interns from the Washburn University School of Business, it also helps grow the pool of young people involved in business development.
Omni Circle Group, meanwhile, has become a key player in Topeka’s growing ecosystem, offering programs like Kauffman FastTrac for early-stage entrepreneurs, Emerge Community Business Academy for new and mid-stage entrepreneurs and Growth Lab for scaling entrepreneurs.
“Our role transcends being a resource provider,” said CEO Michael Odupitan. “Omni acts as a connector, collaborator and creator within the ecosystem.”
His organization has worked alongside GO Topeka, engaged with NetWork Kansas and collaborated with the Kansas Department of Commerce with the goal of “creating an inclusive environment where diverse entrepreneurs can connect, learn and grow.”
Through its first few cohorts of FastTrac and Emerge, Omni has graduated around 65 entrepreneurs. The startup accelerator Plug and Play Topeka, which launched during Momentum 2022, has now graduated more than 100 startups.
Collaborating with K-State 105, GO Topeka in the last six months has also helped conduct an “unheard of ” number of technology validation studies, Moran said. These entrepreneurs and startups are now part of the ecosystem.
Also involved in local entrepreneurial development are Shawnee Startups, the Washburn Small Business Development Center and community partners like the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library and SCORE business mentoring. Topeka becoming K-State 105’s first urban pilot partner when the statewide prosperity plan launched in 2023 was another step forward for capital city entrepreneurs.
“We’re definitely seeing some momentum,” Moran said. “It doesn’t mean there’s not still a lot of work to do.”
To achieve the vision of a community where entrepreneurs know they can thrive, Moran said Topeka needs to continue identifying gaps in programs, services and funding. Building better awareness and helping locals support local will also be key.
To fully realize Momentum 2027, Odupitan said, the community must commit to inclusive economic growth, invest in education and mentorship, strengthen access to capital and foster a thriving startup culture. Imminent development of downtown’s ASTRA Innovation Center and District will play a big role in the latter.
“Maintaining alignment and coordination between organizations like Omni Circle, GO Topeka and others,” Odupitan said, “is essential to avoid redundancy and maximize impact.”
VISIONING THE RIVERFRONT
The “21st Century Riverfront” effort and “Active Recreation Initiatives” are also seeing progress under Momentum 2027. In October, Topeka’s Riverfront Advisory Council (RAC) announced details of the Topeka Riverfront Vision Plan, which proposes an “iconic pedestrian bridge” connecting downtown to the NOTO Arts & Entertainment District.
“It’s an honor to help lead this charge to design and reimagine our city’s riverfront,” RAC Chair Greg Schwerdt said at the time. “With greater connectivity between key areas of our community on the horizon and developments in mind that will provide lively new entertainment and recreation opportunities, this is a plan the community can get excited about.”
The vision plan proposes new trails, river access points and mixed-use developments likely to include residential, restaurant and retail options. Alongside other downtown projects, riverfront development promises to transform the heart of Topeka into an urban lifestyle hub.“
This vision plan will create a community riverfront that is appealing and accessible to all,” Cuevas-Stubblefield said when it was announced. “We’ll continue to collect community input along the way, as keypartners come together to develop a cutting-edge community core.”The next step is to secure funding and permits. Development is expected to unfold over the next three to four years.
INVESTING IN RECREATION
When it comes to recreation and economic impact, the Topeka Area Sports Commission (TASC), an organization launched under Visit Topeka in 2022, has been working to drive local sports tourism and advocacy.
TASC recently released results of its first youth sports economic outflow survey, an attempt to measure money leaving the community each year due to families traveling to participate in sporting events.“
If we invest in facilities and invest in ourselves, we can bring them back,” said TASC Executive Director Mike Bell.
“Project Moonshot,” a code name for an economic development project Bell is involved in, should help address economic outflow highlighted in the survey. Land identified for the project is now under local control. If the project comes to fruition, Bell said, it would be “generationally transformational.”
Upgrades to infrastructure and facilities are also underway, with support from TASC and recreation partners like the City of Topeka and Shawnee County Parks & Recreation.
Completed and expected renovations at sites like Stormont Vail Events Center and Kossover Tennis Center are positioning Topeka to host more national events.
In fact, Shawnee County’s decision to purchase nine full-size basketball courts and repair the existing hardwood floor in the event center’s Landon Arena is part of the reason Topeka secured the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics’ 2026 and 2027 Cheer and Dance National Championships.
“They require that hardwood floor,” Bell said. “If we look to do KSHSAA events, volleyball in particular, they need the hardwood floor.”
In the final month of 2024, TASC also awarded its first round of “TASC Cares” grants, equity-focused funding designed to lower barriers to athletic participation.“What’s really cool is we had a thousand dollars and six applications,” Bell said. “We are fully funding five of them because the [Topeka] Lodging Association is ponying up another $2,500.”
The grants are going toward items like cleats, high school cheer mats and registration for summer sports camps. Bell said the goal is to keep kids active and participating in the community.
Zooming out to Momentum 2027, the plan’s riverfront and recreation initiatives aim to make Topeka and Shawnee County an attractive place to live and grow a family.
Recognizing that “interests and needs can change,” Cuevas-Stubblefield said Momentum 2027’s executive committee will conduct a mid-course assessment in 2025 to ensure all initiatives still align with community needs and objectives. The data will be used to revise elements of the plan if necessary.
dd“Making sure we better communicate the efforts of all involved will also be a challenge that we lean into,” Cuevas-Stubblefield said. “The work needs to be shared because the initiatives are a benefit to all who live, work and play in the region.”
