Pedro Zamora’s Kansas City Pattern: Public Money, Big Promises, and Unfinished Business
# Pedro Zamora's Pattern: Public Money, Big Promises, and Unfinished Business
Pedro Zamora is one of the most decorated nonprofit leaders in Kansas City.
He holds the NFL Hispanic Heritage Leadership Award, given to him by the Kansas City Chiefs in 2017. He has been featured on KSHB, FOX4, KCUR, and NPR. He has been invited to the White House. He runs the Hispanic Economic Development Corporation — HEDC — a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with deep roots in the Westside neighborhood and millions of dollars in federal and city grant funding behind it.
He is also a man with a pattern worth examining.
## Who Is Pedro Zamora?
Zamora was appointed Executive Director of HEDC on April 1, 2015, after five months as interim director. Before that, he built a career in corporate telecommunications at Honeywell and Sprint, then founded Kyland USA — an industrial ethernet manufacturer — in 2007. He sold that company in 2014 and pivoted into nonprofit leadership, describing it as the second chapter of his professional life.
HEDC, where he now serves as the organization's top executive, is a Kansas City-based 501(c)(3) Community Development Corporation founded in 1993. Its stated mission is improving the economic lives of Latinos in the greater Kansas City area. It receives funding from federal agencies, the City of Kansas City, and private donors.
Zamora is also listed as the registered owner of Heirloom Enterprise LLC — a private Kansas City rental property company — at 2130 Jefferson St., Kansas City, MO 64108. That is the same address as HEDC's headquarters.
## Project One: The Center for Urban Enterprise
In late 2017, Zamora and HEDC made a major announcement.
They were going to transform an old tire storage warehouse at 2720 Jarboe Street — a building HEDC had owned since 2009 — into an 18,000-square-foot Center for Urban Enterprise. The campus would serve low- and moderate-income entrepreneurs on Kansas City's Westside. A new 7,000-square-foot building would be constructed on the lot directly next door to house coworking space and HEDC's own offices.
To fund it, HEDC secured a $1.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce — federal taxpayer money. Total project cost: $3.5 million. A public groundbreaking was held at 2720 Jarboe. Renderings were published. Zamora promised the center would be open by fall 2018.
Fall 2018 came and went.
The deadline was pushed to May 2020. COVID was cited as a factor in the delays.
Then in July 2023, Kansas City's longest-running political blog published a post with a blunt headline: "Ambitious Kansas City Westside Center For Urban Enterprise Kaput."
The promised new building on the adjacent lot — 2722 Jarboe — was never built. As of today, that lot appears in no property database as a completed structure. The $1.6 million in federal grant money has never been publicly accounted for in any follow-up reporting.
Kansas City Watch has submitted a Sunshine Law request for all records related to this grant and its disposition.
## Project Two: Belleview Townhomes
Six years after the Center for Urban Enterprise groundbreaking, Zamora and HEDC were back in front of cameras making promises.
On October 4, 2024, HEDC held a groundbreaking ceremony for Belleview Townhomes — nine affordable townhomes at the corner of West 29th Street and Belleview Avenue in the Westside neighborhood. The project is funded through the City of Kansas City's Affordable Housing Trust Fund — again, taxpayer money — and secured a 10-year property tax abatement approved by the Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority.
Standing in front of cameras at the groundbreaking, Zamora made a specific commitment.
"We have a true commitment to try to get this project completed in nine months," he told KSHB.
Nine months from October 4, 2024 is July 4, 2025.
It is now April 2026. The project has not been publicly confirmed as complete. Kansas City Watch has found no certificate of occupancy, no completion announcement, and no press coverage of finished units being delivered to buyers.
Zamora also stated at the groundbreaking that using local Westside contractors was an intentional choice. "We have business owners who come through and we help them get their businesses solidified, we help them grow, or scale," he told KSHB. "Now, they're going to participate in a very nice project in their backyard."
Whether those local contractors have been paid in full is a question Kansas City Watch is continuing to investigate.
## The Questions That Need Answers
Zamora is, by any measure, a prominent figure with genuine relationships in this community. This is not about whether his mission is good. It is about accountability for public money.
The City of Kansas City has allocated tens of millions of dollars through its Affordable Housing Trust Fund. The U.S. Department of Commerce awarded HEDC $1.6 million for a project that was publicly declared dead. In both cases, Zamora was the face of the announcement, the promise, and — so far — the silence that followed.
There are straightforward questions that deserve answers:
What happened to the $1.6 million federal grant for the Center for Urban Enterprise? Was any portion returned? Was it spent on construction that was then abandoned? Where is the accounting?
Is the Belleview Townhomes project actually complete? If not, what is the current status, the revised timeline, and how much of the city's Affordable Housing Trust Fund money has been drawn down?
Were the local Westside contractors Zamora publicly championed paid in full for their work?
And separately: Zamora runs HEDC, which directs millions in public funds toward development projects. He also owns a private rental property LLC registered at HEDC's own address. Has HEDC's board followed its conflict of interest policy with respect to any transactions, properties, or business arrangements that involve or benefit Zamora personally?
These are not accusations. They are the questions any responsible local news outlet — and any Kansas City taxpayer — should be asking.
We are asking them.
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