Kansas City, Mo. ? The planes don’t land any more at Richards-Gebaur Memorial Airport, at the south edge of Kansas City. The hoped-for trains and fleets of trucks haven’t shown up, either.

Nearly three years after the airport closed, it still awaits its reinvention as an international trade hub and industrial park.

Developers had hoped that by now, trains from Mexico and across the nation would be unloading containers onto fleets of semi-trucks. But they did not anticipate drawn-out legal challenges or an economic recession, and they say now that the hope of creating 40,000 jobs was not realistic.

So far, the site has produced fewer than 100 jobs in return for some five years of often bitter public debate.

But the plans remain big, and backers say they are moving forward.

Kansas City Southern Railway said it will break ground on the trade-processing center next spring, and the Kansas City Port Authority has begun searching for an international promoter to market and develop the 1,400-acre site.

Warren Erdman, Kansas City Southern’s vice president for corporate affairs, said the land is ripe for business.

The acres surrounding the runway are mostly clean and easily developed. Almost all building areas could be linked by rail spurs to the main line. It would be ideal for manufacturers of auto parts and components, he said.