Arson Probed at Kansas City, MO, Warehouse After Sale for ICE Detention Scrubbed

Police are investigating an incident Thursday where witnesses say an unidentified woman started a fire at a south Kansas City warehouse which many feared could have become a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility.

The small fire, which crews extinguished before it spread, came hours after Platform Ventures, the owners of the warehouse at 14901 Botts Rd., said it would not move forward with the sale of the 920,000-square-foot facility to the federal government.

In a statement Thursday afternoon, the development company said they no longer were “actively engaged with the U.S. Government or any other prospective purchaser.” Platform Ventures had previously said in a statement last month that “negotiations are complete” after they were approached with an “unsolicited offer” in October 2025.

Battalion Chief Riley Nolan, of the Kansas City Fire Department, said crews responded to the scene at 5:49 p.m. Thursday on reports of a person attempting to light a building on fire.

“Due to the nature of the incident, KCFD requested Kansas City Police Department Bomb and Arson, who is handling the investigation,” Nolan said in an email.

Capt. Jake Becchina, a Kansas City Police spokesperson, said bomb and arson detectives are continuing their investigation and “the suspect is not in custody at this time.”

Platform Ventures did not immediately respond to questions from The Star about the fire. But in their statement on Thursday, they said: “While typically we do not comment on potential transactions, baseless speculation, inaccurate narratives, and serious threats toward our leadership, our employees and our families have prompted us to issue this statement.”

In response to media requests about the “South Kansas City Vandal,” Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas posted a comment on social media Friday.

“I am outraged by federal efforts to place 10,000 human beings in cages inside distribution warehouses in Kansas City or anywhere in our country,” his post on X read. “I’ll trust the courts, our local prosecutors, and law enforcement in Kansas City to handle the offender.”

Jackson County Legislative Chair Manny Abarca also released a statement Friday about the incident, saying that “any act of destroying public or private property in unacceptable.”

“I will never encourage or condone destruction,” Abarca said in the emailed statement. “People are frustrated, I get that, but there are other ways to make your voice heard rather than setting a building on fire.”

Accelerant sprayed on building

The fire was the latest development in the ongoing saga involving the warehouse.

Grandview firefighters were among the first responders who went to the scene Thursday evening. A Grandview unit was dispatched to the scene for a “fire on the outside of a building,” said Grandview Fire Chief Dave Hinson.

“We arrived and just basically put out the hot spots,” Hinson said. “Because the accelerant had pretty much burned out by the time they arrived.”

Hinson said the accelerant was “sprayed onto the outside of the building and lit on fire by the individual.” He said he did not know what the accelerant was.

When Grandview firefighters arrived, there was still a small amount of accelerant burning, Hinson said.

“But the building was not on fire,” he said, “so it had minimal damage.”

The controversial project

The prospect of an ICE detention center in a Kansas City warehouse has drawn criticism and ire for weeks.

News of the possible project erupted last month after reports emerged that the federal government was eyeing the large, empty warehouse in a south Kansas City industrial park for an immigration detention center with thousands of beds.

Department of Homeland Security and ICE officers reportedly visited the warehouse in mid-January, which came as President Donald Trump’s administration has continued to ramp up immigration enforcement nationwide.

The site was developed by Platform Ventures, a Kansas City-based investment firm that’s become a major player in the area’s real estate and development scene over the past decade.

Hoping to attract jobs and reduce blight at a former Air Force base while raising tax revenues, Port KC granted tax breaks and issued $80 million in bonds to support the project in 2022. The warehouse was finished in 2023.

The agency owns additional acreage in the area, and Platform Ventures had expressed interest in buying about 305 more acres from Port KC for further industrial development.

But during negotiations, according to Port KC documents, the agency learned that Platform Ventures “intends to sell” the existing warehouse to the federal government for an ICE detention facility.

Last week, in a sign of disapproval for the prospect of an ICE detention center in the warehouse, the Port Authority of Kansas City voted to formally cut off ties with Platform Ventures over the sale of additional land.

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