RIVERSIDE, MO. ? Twelve years after floodwaters almost drowned this small Kansas City suburb, community leaders on Friday announced the completion of a six-mile-long levee along the Missouri River.

The $80 million project, an up to 25-foot high earthen berm on the river’s north bank, will not only protect Riverside from 500-year floods, but will make possible a 900-acre commercial development. City officials are hoping the development will eventually make Riverside more than just the home to a few automotive suppliers and the state’s first riverboat casino.

“It’s an investment in our future,” Riverside Mayor Betty Burch told residents and state and federal officials gathered in grassy fields behind the levee. “The levee provides flood protection for what we have and an opportunity for another day.”

The city, which owns 60 percent of the land, calls the development Horizons and said it would be evenly split between stores, offices and light industrial businesses. The city is eager for retail because it will need sales taxes to help pay off bonds for the levee construction.

Before now, the low-lying land was not considered developable because the nearby river flooded regularly, the worst coming in 1951 and 1993. In 1993, the waters damaged 70 businesses in Riverside, putting thousands of people out of work for months.

Shortly before the flood, the city of 2,900 had voted to attract a riverboat casino. The Argosy, the Kansas City area’s first riverboat, opened in 1994 and poured millions of dollars into the town’s coffers.