KCRag Forum

It could be mixed use the student clinic is part of the Whole Foods development on oak in south plaza

Copaken has previously put up the idea of building student housing and an office tower next to the new campus. So a student housing mixed use addition is definently possible.

Re: bigger and better. When first announced, the scope of the project was bigger than the Conservatory. It included other arts-related entities. Seems like the radio station, visual arts, maybe the theater program were being considered. They were supposed to be added in later stages. Maybe some of them are being shifted into the first stage of development.

missingkc wrote:Re: bigger and better. When first announced, the scope of the project was bigger than the Conservatory. It included other arts-related entities. Seems like the radio station, visual arts, maybe the theater program were being considered. They were supposed to be added in later stages. Maybe some of them are being shifted into the first stage of development.

curious if this is a reference to the physical size. the site is one square block and can't get taller (heigh recommendations) and the neighborhood agreed to the alley vacation in exchange for transparency through that vacated space, so the structure would have to go further underground -- again, assuming he's talking about physical size.

Why is this site height limited to only two stories? Its only a block away from the convention hotel, which will be 20+, and the Opus apartments will be 6. Maybe we don't want something towering over the Kauffman Center, but 5-6 stories would be in scale.

edit: I guess it is 4 on the south side, but still.

tower wrote:Why is this site height limited to only two stories? Its only a block away from the convention hotel, which will be 20+, and the Opus apartments will be 6. Maybe we don't want something towering over the Kauffman Center, but 5-6 stories would be in scale.

edit: I guess it is 4 on the south side, but still.

protected view shed of kauffman to liberty memorial. don't blame me. i think height restrictions (or recommendations, in this case) are stupid. the terrain slopes pretty dramatically with each block south, which is partly why it's 2 stories at 17th, 4 at 18th, 6 at 19th, and 12 at 21st (arterra). the convention hotel is out of that view shed.

That is so stupid. The Kauffman is cool, but there is no reason you need to be able to see it from the liberty memorial. Just make whatever blocks it look better.

Anyhoo, looking at the pictures from the liberty memorial, it looks like the west third of the building wouldn't block Kauffman, so they could add a couple of floors there. Another option for a physically bigger project would be multiple buildings, like I know an earlier plan included. The Northwest and Southwest corners of the Broadway/17th intersection were included at one time, and there are surface lots across central street too that they might be able to get a hold of.

Pretty sure it's the other way around, the patrons of the Kauffman don't want to lose their views.

It is pretty amazing at night and could easily get wiped out by some god awful structure at some point.

I have no problem with it, we need density anyways, not 40 story crossroad towers.

It's a recommendation. Depending on the situation, and sitting City Council at any given time, that height recommendation can disappear. If Cerner wanted to build several 40-story towers in the Crossroads at 20th and Grand, 20th and Oak, or Wyandotte and Southwest Boulevard, and bring thousands of new workers downtown, it would get approved.

FangKC wrote:It's a recommendation. Depending on the situation, and sitting City Council at any given time, that height recommendation can disappear. If Cerner wanted to build several 40-story towers in the Crossroads at 20th and Grand, 20th and Oak, or Wyandotte and Southwest Boulevard, and bring thousands of new workers downtown, it would get approved.

yes and no. the area plan provides a process for exceptions (height study, etc -- used once or twice, notably arterra). there have been few modifications to GDAP, much fewer than midtown area plan despite having been on the books for much longer. CPC would get the first stab at review -- after staff, of course -- and there's no indication they would approve something out of character with the western part of the neighborhood. east is a different story where things have quickly accumulated in matt abbott's favor (but he doesn't really do tall).

the cerner example is 100% hypothetical and no other entity has the power to push the city like that (except maybe amazon...).

Kauffman's pulled their pledged $20 million: https://cityscenekc.com/umkc-downtown-c ... y-funding/

Seemss like this project is swiftly fading away? Continual promises of new funding plans and then...silence.

yea, it's not gonna happen. I hope that that parcel gets sold and developed quickly though.

Perhaps they are putting plans on hold until they get a different administration (post-Greitens) that will fund it.

Why would they pull their $20m? I mean, do they need it to pay the water bill this month?

missingkc wrote:Why would they pull their $20m? I mean, do they need it to pay the water bill this month?

Not a lawyer but here is my understanding from working around a lot of these projects.

Most endowments have to spend the interest earned on the endowment every year, so they have to plan out in advance who is going to get the money. With large sums like this, they have to do a lot of planning. To make that plan they have to look at the viability of a project. If it's not viable they have to take it off the books. What you don't want is to get to the end of a year and have to scramble to dump millions of dollars on projects that may or may not meet your foundation's goals. Or worse, pay taxes and penalties on earned interest.

Having released that commitment, the Kauffman foundation can now earmark that money for other projects that are viable. If the conservatory comes back to life they can always recommit if funds are available.

Also, commitments like this are like contracts and have legal status. If the Kauffman Foundation just committed the money elsewhere without formally withdrawing the commitment and then UMKC entered contracts to build the conservatory expecting money from Kauffman, UMKC could sue the Kauffman Foundation for the money and damages.

UMKC's twitter account just put out the following statements regarding conservatory:

To paraphrase a famous quote, reports of the death of our UMKC Conservatory project are greatly exaggerated. No question we have been facing headwinds since we lost a state match this past summer. (1/2)

We actually have new ideas and energy on how we might accomplish the project and it continues to move forward. Expect word on those new developments in coming weeks. In the meantime, keep the faith Kansas City. We want this project to happen even more than you do. (2/2

So who knows whats going to happen...

I mean it's not like the Kauffman foundation can't come back when they get a better plan together and tie a bow around this thing

Kevin Collison was on KCUR: Up to Date this past Monday discussing ongoing downtown developments and mentioned discussions for the conservatory may point to a location on the UMKC campus instead of downtown. This is the last topic of discussion on the audio for reference.

http://kcur.org/post/seg-1-how-unrealis ... s#stream/0

KCMOJoe89 wrote:Kevin Collison was on KCUR: Up to Date this past Monday discussing ongoing downtown developments and mentioned discussions for the conservatory may point to a location on the UMKC campus instead of downtown. This is the last topic of discussion on the audio for reference.

http://kcur.org/post/seg-1-how-unrealis ... s#stream/0

I was listening to that broadcast and thought I heard him say that the site next to the PAC was now unavailable and off the table.