On-going downtown development projects

[moderne]

Whom residences at the View.

[kcexpress]

I would be fine if they demolished the old library building at 1301 McGee and put a mixed use development there. There's more than enough room to put up a 35-45 story hotel / condo with a parking garage and more retail /eateries at ground level!!

1301 McGee? Which building are you talking about? That would be in the middle of the Sprint Center.

I hope you aren't talking about the building with the Zoo in it. Because as you said, there's plenty of room to build a tower, garage, retail, and keep this building.

Sorry, I meant to say 1201 McGee. The building that formerly housed the KC Library that's now occupied by the Kansas City School District. I don't know who the property belongs to, but I would love to see that building razed and something put in its place...preferably a tower of some kind and a parking garage.

[earthling]

Surface lots should be developed before any building is torn down. E of Grand could use more attention, which seems to be happening now, but next should be all those surface lots on N central loop to the E of Phoenix jazz bar.

If Cordish manages to get over $2/sqft on next P&L building as they plan, the E of Phoenix area would be prime for more residential towers. At that lease rate and apparent demand for downtown living, KC should be able to attract national hirise developers. Is highly likely downtown could attract more residential towers than office towers in the near term. Class A office vacancy is too high and too cheap to attract developers and downtown has way more hip/functional Class B space than most other cites. Residential OTOH is at the right lease rate to attract outside hirise developers.

When streetcar starts to run and if $2/sqft residential works, would expect a jump in hirise residential from national developers. Office hirise may not kick into gear until existing space is leased out and rates go up. Will be shocking if that tornado tower happens with Class A space still over 15% vacancy and office rates under $20/sqft, unless it's purpose built instead of speculative.

[FangKC]

Note that Copaken does not own the building at 1210 McGee. It is owned by Preston Cain, an attorney who has his office on the second floor and may or may not own Zoo Bar as well.

That doesn't mean that the building isn't in danger of being demolished for the Copaken project. The City can take the building under its' redevelopment authority--even though they will have to pay a fair market share for the structure. Then they can bundle the parcel with the larger Copaken project.

I want to get started early on lobbying city leaders to retain this building--even if it gets bundled in the larger Copaken parcel. My preference, if that happens, is that the City only take the building and sell it to Copaken under the condition that the building remain, and be accommodated into his larger project. I don't want to wait until the demolition permit is issued to rally people to save the building.

We have a city election coming up, and will soon have a possibly several new members of the City Council. We should probably hold off on lobby efforts until then as not to waste time on outgoing council members. Although I would encourage anyone attending campaign events for their city council members to question them in public forums about preserving existing, and viable, older buildings and what position they might take on projects like Copaken's at 12th and Grand and any potential future demolitions.

If Copaken is going to demolish the structure only to build more parking spaces, then my position is it isn't worth the loss of the building. Copaken can design around the structure. There are other examples downtown where blocks were developed with large buildings and parking garages where a building was maintained: The Boley Building and the Harzfeld's building on the Town Pavilion block; the Midland Theater and Midland Office building on the One Kansas City Place block.

DaveKCMO has also successfully staved off demolition of the Lane Building on Main when the Marriott Residence Inn (Chartwell project) was proposed. We do have the ability to affect city actions in that regard.

If Copaken makes the case that more parking for 12th and Grand is needed, we can use the streetcar as an argument for reduced parking exemptions for the development. If that doesn't work, another alternative is the small parking garage on the south side of the Board of Education building to the east--where the Kansas City Central Library branch used to be. In that scenario, I would support the City buying the block, and allowing an additional parking garage for the Copaken development on that site as long as it has street-level retail spaces.

There has been talk that the Board of Education is going to sell that building at some point anyway, and the City might as well buy it, or Copaken buy it for that purpose. Additional office or residential space could be built on top of the garage as well, or narrow apartments wrapped around the edge of it, and more placed on top.

This is also a case where I wish the City would get involved in brokering shared parking for surrounding blocks. I would hope that the City could negotiate with the owner of the Interstate Building that is putting in a Holiday Inn Express there, and then the adjacent surface parking for the Interstate Building could also be developed.

Anyway, I do want to start getting to ball rolling politically on preserving the 1210 McGee retail building before it gets to be a desperate fight to save it.

I have suspected that building was designed by local architect Louis Curtiss. There are design elements in the building that lead one to conclude he did. He designed more than 200 buildings, and many of his papers were lost, so we don't know all the buildings he designed. I do know he designed several buildings near 12th and McGee that remain, and others along 12th Street: Argyle Building, his studio building, the Boley Building, the Virginia Hotel, The Folly Theater, and the Progress Club on Washington (now YMCA). There were also several buildings around there he designed that have been demolished: the original part of the Jones Store at 12th and Main; Baltimore Hotel; the retail building on the NW corner of 12th and McGee next to the Empress Theater; 1105 McGee and 1114-16 McGee for Dean Bros. Realty Co.; the Willis Wood theater at 11th and Baltimore; The YWCA building at 1020 McGee; the YMCA building at 10th and Oak; Century Hotel at 304-310 W. 12th (next to the Folly); the Albany Hotel at 9th and Charlotte; the Cotter Hotel at 12th and Holmes, and the Pepper Building at 9th and Locust. He also designed a building at 11th and Grand for Thomas Swope that existed before the Professional Building was built there.

So because of proximity, it wouldn't surprise me that he designed 1210 McGee as well.

[Demosthenes]

Demo, the P&L District building on W. 13th between Main and Baltimore was designed to have a second H&R Block tower constructed on top of it. This was before the Crash of 2008, and before H&R Block got into financial trouble with their banking interests and started laying people off instead of expanding. Anyway, those low-rise buildings are designed to have an office tower built over them eventually.

Is that so? I didn't realize. This would be where the new Yardhouse is going, correct?

Well that is awesome! I was thinking it would be nice if we could build atop those.

Could the white square be the base for a future tower?

like we know the MO Bank garage at 11th and Main is ready for a tower on it
the nasty garage at 9th and Wyandotte is the same way

The Mo Bank garage wraps around the building on the corner and goes all the way to 11th and Baltimore right? Yea I've always wanted a tower built on that garage. It's already an underground garage on the Baltimore side. It's perfect.

And are you talking about that nasty, rotten garage at 9th and Wyandotte? I thought that it was structurally unsound? Like by a long shot. You're telling me it could handle a tower atop it?

[FangKC]

Well, probably not a tower, but it might have been designed to have a smaller building built on top of it.

I can't imagine that anyone would build a tower on that garage anyway.

[flyingember]

And are you talking about that nasty, rotten garage at 9th and Wyandotte? I thought that it was structurally unsound? Like by a long shot. You're telling me it could handle a tower atop it?

the top deck is in bad shape. the ground level is fine

from what I remember the original plan was to tear out the printing building to the north, expand the garage, build a walkway to Union Carbide and use it for shared parking with UC and New England Building/Baltimore Place

yes, the printing building was going to become more parking.

[LCDSI]

It's interesting that copaken also still has this rendering up of the 30 story tower.

http://www.copaken-brooks.com/src/prope ... x?pid=1084

[WinchesterMysteryHouse]

Dang, Zoo Bar is cool. Cash only, swells!

[moderne]

How about going back to the old plans for Two Kansas City Place on this block?

[FangKC]

I imagine they would build Two Kansas City place if they got a big enough tenant.

[Demosthenes]

Two Kansas City Place? I haven't heard this plan.

[FangKC]

The proposed 1034 Main tower is often referred to as Two Kansas City Place.

When One Kansas City Place was conceived, it was part of a larger overall redevelopment scheme that included additional towers as demand dictated. The Savings and Loan Scandal of the 1980s put a stop to the plan. Only two buildings were completed: One Kansas City Place and 1200 Wyandotte. Two & Three Kansas City Place were to be taller than One Kansas City Place.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Kansas_City_Place

Project proposed buildings

Name Floors Status Use
Two Kansas City Place 65 Cancelled Office
Three Kansas City Place 55 Cancelled Office
One Kansas City Place 42 Built Office
Four Kansas City Place 24 Cancelled Office
Kansas City Place Apartments 20 Cancelled Residential
1200 Wyandotte 18 Built Office
Kansas City Place Apartments 16 Cancelled Residential
Kansas City Place Apartments 14 Cancelled Residential

This is the only mockup of the plan I could find. I think the plan changed from this over time. 1034 Main doesn't appear to be on this drawing. I think the plan evolved based on what land they thought they could buy, or take under the City's redevelopment authority. I'm guessing Two KC Place's location was moved at some point.

[FangKC]

Demo, if you go to the link below, you can also see AMC's founder Stan Durwood's plan for the South Loop. He had a couple. One was the Crosstown District, and the later one was the Centertainment District, then it evolved into the Power & Light District. That is where the name came from. Cordish adopted that name later when they came in to redevelop the South Loop. Originally, Cordish was going to call the whole district Kansas City Live.

http://kcrag.com/viewtopic.php?p=518969#p518969

[Demosthenes]

Wow. Too bad the plan got derailed. But then again, if they got built in the 80s we would no doubt have a lot more mega blocks and buildings that completely ignored the street. If we could somehow continue the plan today it would be better.

What was the savings and loan scandal?

[WSPanic]

Wow. Too bad the plan got derailed. But then again, if they got built in the 80s we would no doubt have a lot more mega blocks and buildings that completely ignored the street. If we could somehow continue the plan today it would be better.

What was the savings and loan scandal?

I'm no finance expert, but it was a mid 80's and 90's situation where an atmosphere of deregulation and "creative accounting" practices turned about 1/3 of the nations savings/loan institutions into Ponzi institutions that eventually failed. A lot of it is tied into tax reform, real estate and junk bonds. Look up Charles Keating/The Keating Five for more reading.

[grovester]

Wow. Too bad the plan got derailed. But then again, if they got built in the 80s we would no doubt have a lot more mega blocks and buildings that completely ignored the street. If we could somehow continue the plan today it would be better.

What was the savings and loan scandal?

Not dissimilar to the recent recession/crash. Everyone was over-leveraged.

[flyingember]

What was the savings and loan scandal?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savings_and_loan_crisis

read the third paragraph

[Demosthenes]

Ahh I see. Exciting stuff.

[earthling]

The Downtown Council 2014 report was released recently, not sure if anyone posted yet. It's not as thorough as past reports with specific housing units but still lots of interesting info, especially page 6.

http://www.downtownkc.org/wp-content/up ... lowres.pdf

It doesn't list the downtown workforce unless I missed it. It used to be claimed at 100K then down to 80K but it seems to be rising again, especially with Xroads kicking into gear compared to being dead 15 years ago, as well as the massive amount of Class B space that has high occupancy (even though Class A still not great). Any source on latest downtown workforce numbers?