KCRag Forum

From the Business Journal:

Committee will review Columbus Park plans
An advisory committee appointed by Kansas City Mayor Kay Barnes will meet this week to start reviewing three responses to a request for qualifications to redevelop 22 acres in Columbus Park, a development officer for the Land Clearance Redevelopment Authority said Monday.

Pat Sterrett, a development officer for the LCRA, said he expects the organization to get a recommendation before its April 28 meeting. The advisory committee is headed by Lynn Craghead, a community development officer with U.S. Bank in Kansas City.

An agreement could be signed in June or July, Sterrett said, and the plan could be in place by early next year.

Plans call for a mixed-use redevelopment. The LCRA wants to cluster street-level stores on Fifth Street. Remaining space will be used for residential purposes.

As much as one-quarter of the units will be designated as affordable housing and reserved for people earning no more than 80 percent of the Kansas City-area median income. Submissions, due Feb. 26, came from three joint ventures:

-McCormack Baron Salazar, the developer of Quality Hill, and Greenleaf Construction Co. Inc. of Kansas City.
-Columbus Park Developers, made up of Zimmer Real Estate Services Inc., Taliaferro & Browne Consulting Engineers Inc., Urban Coeur Development LLC and architect Kite Singleton.
-Gale Communities Inc. of Lee's Summit, MC Lioness Realty Group and Landmark Mortgage Co.

The redevelopment agreement covers nine acres owned by the Kansas City Housing Authority that had been part of the Guinotte Manor public housing project and 13 acres that is split among private owners. The privately owned land won't be assembled until a development agreement is in place, Sterrett said.

© 2004 American City Business Journals Inc.

Did anything ever come of this?

From what I hear, it's still in the works.

update from the city plan commission:

1 JE    12.    SD 1416 ? Preliminary Plat, Columbus Park -- About 20 acres, generally located between 3rd Street on the north, about 100 feet east of Gillis Street on the east, 5th Street on the south and Cherry Street on the west, to consider the approval of a preliminary plat in District URD (Urban redevelopment district) for 10 single family lots, 42 multifamily lots and 340 multifamily dwelling units and 6 commercial lots. (Recommended for continuance)
Applicant: Columbus Park Developers

...and a dedicated page on zimmer's website.

Work to start next month.

http://kansascity.bizjournals.com/kansa ... l?ana=e_ph

Architect's rendering:

http://designwithinsight.com/columbus-park

Infrastructure work to begin for Columbus Park project

The approximately $1 million public works project will improve Campbell Street from Third to Fifth streets, and Fifth Street east of Charlotte. It also will rebuild sewers and other infrastructure. The cost is being borne by Columbus Park Developers, the city Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority and the city of Kansas City.

excellent news! I'm surprised i hadn't heard of this before. will be huge for the neighborhood. I may not live there anymore, but it certainly holds a special place in my heart. it has SUCH potential...

They gave us an update on this project last night at the community meeting. There is currently infrastructure improvements happening along 5th and charolotte so that site will be ready for a mixed use building fronting on 5th at the northeast corner of 5th and charolotte. It will have 6 apartments upstairs and ~6400 ft of commercial on street level. parking in rear. The plan is to begin building two more similar buildings heading west towards river market, but 1 building at a time.

They also are flipping the phases and are attempting to move ahead with the apartment portion of the original proposal. This would be two three story buildings with something like 36 apts each. Don't remember exactly where that is going, but in that general vicinty. It isn't as imminent as the mixed use buildings though, just a change in phase to accomodate the market (since there is no market currently for the townhomes) ...but they made it sound like the investor are very excited about getting those off the ground as well considering there is essentially 100% occupancy in Rivermarket and DT in general.

They also talked about how they bought comedy city. After the club moved out it turned into a bit of a problem for a little while for the area and they have been trying to figure out what to do with it since. They have decided to refurbish the building and try to get some tech start-up tenants...nice

They also informed us that a law firm has bought the building on 5th and troost (i believe thats right). They will be repurposing the building and adding a floor to office out of.

finally some movement in CP!

I guess another aside worth mentioning...there are a couple of buildings still in the sloooow process of being redone, but they do seem to be coming along. one on gillis and another on troost (the big old brick kinds). good to see.
It was infuriating to see the old brick building get taken down next to Garozzos though. What a waste!

Great update! Thanks.

awesome update, thanks kboish! I was cruising through CP after lunch at Happy Gillis the other day and noticed the giant, obvious hole left by the former building next to Garozzo's; another one bites the dust. It made me so angry, and depressed for KC, though in all honesty I don't know any of the details.

I recall the building in a fairly sad state a few months ago but wow, sometimes it feels like such an uphill climb to even maintain what few awesome old neighborhoods we have remaining...

Does anyone know what was wrong with the building next to Garozzo's? Was it unstable?

It was in rough shape, but very restorable, in my opinion. There were many interested buyers, including the neighbors on both sides. For reasons nobody seems to understand, the owners started demolition without permits and were stopped by the city, who were alerted by concerned neighbors. They did receive a permit soon thereafter and continued to tear it down. They salvaged the brick, but nothing else. A great loss for our neighborhood and the city. Incomprehensible.

That is a shame. However, overall I'm excited for the continued re-development of Columbus Park. Such a beautiful neighborhood!

so we got another update at the community meeting tonight. I wasn't able to attend, but my wife gave me the scoop. they have financing lined up to build two of the commercial buildings (w/ apartments on top) along 5th street where they are currently fixing the street/sidewalks. This is great since at the last meeting they said they were only shooting for 1 building for now. They can begin building once they have 70% leased. They've hired realtors and seem to be really moving.

Work is currently underway at Comedy City to transform/fix-up it into a tech/biz incubator and I believe they have contract requests out to demo the old truck/warehouse building along cherry where the apartments will eventually go.

good progress!

Lawyer seeks abatement to rehab Columbus Park building

Patrick Reaves’ law practice is based in the Livestock Exchange Building in Kansas City’s West Bottoms. It include one other lawyer and a paralegal.

He bought the building at 1050 E. 5th Street in the Columbus Park Urban Renewal Area in 2007. The building once had four stories, but is down to one story due to a fire that occurred before Reaves bought it.

“The building actually has a really rich history connected to organized crime,” Reaves said. “When you look at the list of owners, several were linked to organized crime.”

Many of you may not know this, but this building was the former Columbus Park Social Club--aka "The Trap," and was the epicenter of the Civella family crime syndicate for many years.

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/n ... a=e_du_pub

Comedy City is on fire. Can't tell what the extent of the damage is yet.

This is very sad. It looks pretty bad, but probably not a total loss. But, if I were a betting man, I'd wager the developers will tear it down.
This was the ONLY building within the redevelopment area that they had planned to keep and renovate. It was not part of the original plan, but was added later. I believe a law firm was planning to move in to part of it, although it was way behind schedule, and the developers planned to have some kind of high-tech bidness incubator or something of that sort.
Their original plans included renovating the old building that Pho KC is in, but that changed to demo before approval and rezoning.
Like many CP residents, I have high hopes for this development, but I also have my doubts. Tearing everything down and having one developer responsible for 20 acres seems counter intuitive to me.

A new restaurant is in the works at 914 E. 5th Street (formerly For Sale Gallery-next door to Soda Lofts). Apparently will be "small plate southern food (tapas style)". They are going through a hearing process to get a variance on parking requirements at the moment (this includes the requirement to provide 2 permanent bike parking spaces and 3 short term spaces)...so who knows what other city obstacle they may face in their trek to open.

Hopefully another good addition to the area.

kboish wrote:A new restaurant is in the works at 914 E. 5th Street (formerly For Sale Gallery-next door to Soda Lofts). Apparently will be "small plate southern food (tapas style)". They are going through a hearing process to get a variance on parking requirements at the moment (this includes the requirement to provide 2 permanent bike parking spaces and 3 short term spaces)...so who knows what other city obstacle they may face in their trek to open.

Hopefully another good addition to the area.

Aren't "small plates" and "Southern food" oxymorons?