West Bottoms Redevelopment

[FangKC]

The Abernathy Furniture complex redevelopment is underway. Concrete mixer trucks and other construction-related trucks on site now.

[FangKC]

West Bottoms Flats Begins Work, First to Tackle Trademark Old Warehouses

Construction is underway on the $65 million West Bottoms Flats apartment project, the biggest investment to date in the historic warehouse district that until now has been the domain of low-key users such as antique dealers, artists and haunted houses.
...
MCM is renovating three historic buildings on the north side of the West Bottoms: the Abernathy, 1501 W. Ninth St.; the Liberty, 912 Liberty, and the Wyoming, 925 Wyoming, into 265 market-rate apartments.

The Bemis building at 937 Wyoming will become a 201-space garage.
...
The West Bottom Flats units will range from smaller “micro-apartments” renting at under $1,000, to one-bedroom units going for $1,200- to $1,300. There also will be some two-bedroom apartments as well.

Residents will have valet parking in the old Bemis building. Because of its interior layout, elevators will be installed to hoist cars to their parking spaces.

Other amenities will include courtyards, rooftop patios, bike storage, bocce ball courts, grilling patios and an outdoor theater. The project also includes 10,000 square feet of retail space.
...

https://cityscenekc.com/west-bottoms-fl ... arehouses/

[Chris Stritzel]

Here's a rendering I haven't seen before.

[snigglefritz]

The renderings give me a little bit of the same vibe that I got from the Pearl District in San Antonio. Especially if they're also focusing on getting retailers and restaurants as a part of or adjacent to the Flats development.

[town cow]

Word is the developer is looking at additional buildings in the area.

[wahoowa]

that warehouse on st louis has been posted on loopnet for forever at 950k

[alejandro46]

Also the Weld Wheels/"The View" property bundle has been for sale for a long time as well. However, I don't doubt the WB Flats developer looked at those properties before and must have declined for some reason or another.

https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/portfolio/13716847/

[FangKC]

I think that Weld Wheels building had a buyer, that was reported at one point, but it fell out of escrow for some reason.

[DaveKCMO]

Also the Weld Wheels/"The View" property bundle has been for sale for a long time as well. However, I don't doubt the WB Flats developer looked at those properties before and must have declined for some reason or another.

https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/portfolio/13716847/

Is this like the thing where Abnos puts all of his properties up for sale and then some equity partner sweeps in at the last moment and allows him to buy them all back?

[KCtoBrooklyn]

Plans for a new event space and residential conversion in the West Bottoms have shown up in Compass:

https://compasskc.kcmo.org/EnerGov_Prod ... 6ef210b19a

Ground level event space with 4 residential units per each floor above, plus new penthouse for new elevator

The address is listed as 1216 Liberty, which doesn't appear to exist. There is a building at 1200 Liberty, but it is only two stories, so it wouldn't make sense to say "4 residential units per each floor above".

1300 Liberty is a 5 story building and seems like it would be a better fit for what is described. Maybe they are changing the address due to triskaidekaphobia. This is the former Restoration Emporium building:

[taxi]

I recall when the developers changed 911 Walnut to 909 Walnut. Imagine the atrocities they were able to avoid.

[TheLastGentleman]

Rest of these are just pictures I took around the neighborhood

[shinatoo]

Really going to be an amazing transformation if they can pull it off.

[grovester]

Well this looks interesting.

https://rockislandbridgeproject.org/?fb ... _Fezsb1iuI

Tours today in conjunction with Historic West Bottoms Celebration.

They seem a bit behind schedule? Frankly, I'm surprised this isn't on a 10 year timeline.

[kcjak]

Well this looks interesting.

https://rockislandbridgeproject.org/?fb ... _Fezsb1iuI

Tours today in conjunction with Historic West Bottoms Celebration.

They seem a bit behind schedule? Frankly, I'm surprised this isn't on a 10 year timeline.

Very exciting! I can't believe this has been so under-the-radar. Seems a little ambitious that they would be proposing a Fall 2019 opening, but hope they get the funding they need to pull this off.

[kboish]

Its a nice project and I hope its successful.

The only problem is no one lives around it. On the website you link to there is a slide show of what I guess they are trying to show as comparable projects. The main difference I see is that in each of those projects you can see apartments surrounding the riverfront. Those apartments provide users, a sense of place, and something to look at. That's just not the reality of the location for this project, nor will it be in the future. This will likely be sparsely used except as a destination venue. Which I suppose will be more often than most of our other riverfront developments a la brush creek.

[grovester]

Its a nice project and I hope its successful.

The only problem is no one lives around it. On the website you link to there is a slide show of what I guess they are trying to show as comparable projects. The main difference I see is that in each of those projects you can see apartments surrounding the riverfront. Those apartments provide users, a sense of place, and something to look at. That's just not the reality of the location for this project, nor will it be in the future. This will likely be sparsely used except as a destination venue. Which I suppose will be more often than most of our other riverfront developments a la brush creek.

While recognizing WB over all lack of density, there is a large apartment project being built about 500 yards away. I also think the proximity of the arena plays into this as well.

[beautyfromashes]

Does anyone have the pictures to the west bottoms tunnels from several years ago? I can’t seem to find them in this site.

[TrolliKC]

Very cool, thanks. Can't wait for the Carp Symphony - Asian car triggered by underwater speakers to jump en masse

[rxlexi]

Thanks for sharing that website - Rock Island bridge seems like a really cool idea. Sounds like they intend it to be a destination on it's own, combined with a steady stream of visitors from Hy-Vee arena. The nearby KC rowing club dock and ongoing development of the "Stockyards District" strip also off promising future attractions within walking distance.

I go to Golden Ox, Stockyards brewery and Lucky Boys routinely and it's been surprising and fun to see the traffic headed to Hy-Vee on event weekends.

This also furthers my frustration that there isn't a levee trail along the KS and MO, on the river side of the flood wall. Surely this can't be that difficult to make happen, connecting the Riverfront Heritage trail to the Rock Island Bridge on the river side (off-street).