KCRag Forum

this has been discussed a bit in other threads, but i think that MAC Properties' work on and near Armour deserves its own thread.  

http://www.antheuscapital.com/mac/a_kc_hp_overview.html

the MAC company, out of chicago, has purchased and renovated (or is renovating) 11+ buildings on Armour between Broadway and Troost, as well as a few buildings on Gillham just north of Armour.  in some cases, the buildings were converted from Section 8 to market-rate, and i believe some other buildings were not in use at all.  

so far MAC is renting out or actively working on the del monte, the bellerive, park central, yankee hill, clyde manor, gillham house, raleigh arms, six40 (formerly armour towers), the hamilton, the brownhardt, and 3408 Gillham.  buildings such as clyde manor and the bellerive are beautiful, historic structures.  

at the recent ribbon-cutting ceremony for the clyde manor building at the NW corner of Armour and Gillham, it as announced that the company is buying more buildings - the kenwood, the homestead, westport central, the windemere, and armour park buildings, all along Armour.  this is a good sign that the company is interested in reviving this corridor and is in for the long haul and is interested in bringing Armour back.  this would bring the company's portfolio up to 16 properties int he area - more really, since some of these properties are actually spread over a few buildings - i.e. the "kenwood" occupies 2-3 buildings and a large house on Armour.

to me, this seems to be the most significant residential project going on in the city right now - hundreds of newly-renovated, market-rate apartments at approachable price points, many in beautiful and historic buildings.  

there is something slightly distasteful about a single company swooping in and snatching up 18 buildings along Armour and controlling it all, but ultimately i think this will be a huge win for Armour and midtown generally.  i think it takes a company of this size and with these resources to adequately maintain and operate such large buildings - not to mention keep the projects capitalized while buildings come online and become occupied over time.  

MAC is a company that actually gives a shit about what goes on on Armour Boulevard, so I say BRAVO to them for buying more buildings.

I agree on both fronts - good news to see further progress there but also a little scary to have such a massive chunk of key midtown housing reside in single hands.  What happens if MAC has a shift in finances or the board moves in a different philosophical direction in a few years. 

LenexatoKCMO wrote: I agree on both fronts - good news to see further progress there but also a little scary to have such a massive chunk of key midtown housing reside in single hands.  What happens if MAC has a shift in finances or the board moves in a different philosophical direction in a few years. 

Seems to me that having huge key parcels in a single entities hands bodes well for the hood and the city in general.

Professional leasing and management, economies of scale, product and neighborhood branding should result from this structure.

One of the great problems in turning around neighborhoods is the assembledge of properties under one ownership, or under a cooperative set of owners, to a degree that allows a change in public perception. 

It's a hell of a lot scarier to me to have 15 different owners.  I hiope they have the cash flow to keep buying up and down Broadway.

Although I am skeptical of any large businesses' intentions, I am glad to see a company that is restoring a beautiful street. If they are successful and enough people move into these properties density could GREATLY be increased in midtown. There would be much more potential for businesses in the area as well. Very exciting.

I've seen MAC's work in Chicago where they renovated and maintain several similar building's in Hyde Park.  I've met some of their leasing staff and am very impressed.  They are very committed to promoting an urban lifestyle and go out of their way to initiate tenants who are often young people living in an urban city for the first time.

Even if the company changes direction in the future, we will still have these wonderfully restored buildings for future use.  Even if you aren't in the market for an apartment, it's worth your time to check out what they have done.

I went to the open house at Clyde Manor Thursday and although the units are very small, they were updated nicely.  Stainless steel appliances and granite countertops.  The leasing people really seemed on top of their game.  The fitness center is good sized and you can tell this isn't the first unit they have operated.

As a former Westport Central resident ( & current tenant across the street in The Ellison ), I say "about freakin' time". This is great news - Westport Central has reaaaaaaally gone downhill since we moved 5 1/2 years ago.

Good news! Hope it ends up a little better than the grab that Mills Properties did here in St. Louis on Pershing ave (very similar to Armour), they own like 10 buildings + or something and treat it like a giant apartment complex, with mediocre results. It probably saved the buildings, though. MAC sounds like a good company.

How is one company owning hundreds of renovated apartments on Armour Blvd. any different that one company owning hundreds of newer apartments in the suburbs?

There are companies that own a dozen suburban properties around town. Look in For Rent magazine sometime, and you will see their corporate ads listing the many communities they own.

Looks like the city is moving forward with the plan of excluding porbationers from the neighborhood on threat of an additional six month stretch.  http://blogs.kansascity.com/crime_scene ... rmour.html  I remember this proposal being discussed in one of the armour/hyde park/midtown threads but I can't remember which.  Oh well, looks like they are moving on to implementation. 

i'm sure it'll help "reduce crime" in the armour area in the short-term, but it seems a bit overbroad.  what if they have relatives in the area?  job contacts?  i wonder if the aclu will challenge this...

in MAC properties news, i dont know how leasing is going in the more recently-opened buildings like Clyde Manor, but i have seen a pretty steady stream of what appear to be renters or potential renters walking in and out of the buildings.  hopefully things are going well!  i know their initial occupancy rates have been very good, but some folks have bailed after their lease expires due to perception of, or experience with, the criminal element in the area.  fortunately, it seems that MAC knows what they're doing and has the financial capability to weather the storm.

May 18th Video from portable camera system KCPD officers used on Armour Boulevard to track down the suspect in an aggravated assault.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrWXL4tEGGw

loftguy wrote: May 18th Video from portable camera system KCPD officers used on Armour Boulevard to track down the suspect in an aggravated assault.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrWXL4tEGGw

a rather sobering video indeed.  if you watch the video from about 0:20-0:50, you see the guy in the dark shirt/shorts casually approach the guy in the red shirt.  red shirt guy starts walking the other way, and dark shirt guy calmly busts a few caps in his head.  the shooting is f'd up in its own right, but even i am surprised at how cavalierly the gentleman saunters away - and there appears to be no reaction at all from passersby.  the rest of the video is boring, but shows the perp serenely walk down armour and into the homestead apartments near armour and gillham, one of the remaining three or so hives of trouble on armour.  

i am definitely not a fan of govt/police surveillance, but i think it's more palatable when police deploy these "portable" devices in response to some actual crime issues and neighborhood feedback, rather than just installing static cameras all over town.

chrizow wrote: i'm sure it'll help "reduce crime" in the armour area in the short-term, but it seems a bit overbroad.  what if they have relatives in the area?  job contacts?  i wonder if the aclu will challenge this...

To clarify - they don't get picked up merely for being present in the "zone", they just get an extra six months if they committ any sort of city violation in the zone.  Thus visiting grandma or your job wouldn't necessarily be a problem unless you committed a violation while there.  I think you can technically still live in the zone - just not cause any trouble.  Not to say that doesn't present its own potential civil rights pitfalls, but I don't think its quite the clear case of ACLU bait it would be if they were just arresting them for being present.  

LenexatoKCMO wrote: To clarify - they don't get picked up merely for being present in the "zone", they just get an extra six months if they commit any sort of city violation in the zone.  Thus visiting grandma or your job wouldn't necessarily be a problem unless you committed a violation while there.  I think you can technically still live in the zone - just not cause any trouble.  Not to say that doesn't present its own potential civil rights pitfalls, but I don't think its quite the clear case of ACLU bait it would be if they were just arresting them for being present.  

that's not what it sounds like to me:

"It basically works like this: whenever anyone is cited with a city ordinance violation in this zone, Mr. Wilcher is notified. When the case is prosecuted, if the judge determines the offense is serious enough, the usual recommended sentence is two years' probation. One of the defendant's conditions of the probation is to stay out of the Armour Boulevard Restriction Zone. If they are seen there during the term of their probation, Wilcher will file a motion to revoke the probation, and they will go to jail for up to 180 days."

in other words:
Step 1: city violation inside the Zone.  if it's bad enough, you get 2 years probation.  

Step 2: if you're caught in the Zone, you've violated a condition of your probation and your probation can (will?) be revoked and you can be incarcerated up to 6 months.  

OK yeah - that sounds like a bigger challenge.  Did they get any blowback from the Indie Ave Hooking version?

LenexatoKCMO wrote: Did they get any blowback from the Indie Ave Hooking version?

i dont know, but i would be curious about it.  any of our Northeast sources have any knowledge?

i feel like restrictions on sex offenders from being near a school/playground, or restrictions/heightened penalties on hookers being in a high-prostitution area are different.  i dont necessarily agree with those restrictions either, but at least they seem to be "tailored" (practically, if not constitutionally) towards some sort of targeted perpetrator and harm.  in the Armour Blvd case, if you get arrested for any city violation (whatever that is), as a result you can't be in a 40-block radius created by KCPD?  i get the impetus for it - i'm as bothered by Armour Blvd crime as anyone - but it does seem to implicate civil liberties concerns.  one question i have is what sort of city violations would bring the kind of probation we're talking about here.  drug crimes?  assault?  having four pit bulls?  passing a bad check?

rather than just installing static cameras all over town.

I  do not  mind if they blanket the whole downtown, cross roads, midtown, Plaza and Westside area. Do it I would even pay more taxes if they do it, that way criminals will know they are being watched all the time.

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/s ... ily41.html

Hyde Park developer Antheus Capital plans $57M Kansas City housing project

Antheus Capital  LLC is poised to push its multifamily development investment in Kansas City?s Hyde Park neighborhood past the $100 million mark.

The developer, which is rehabilitating old apartment buildings in the historic Hyde Park neighborhoods in Kansas City and Chicago, outlined plans for a new five-building, $57 million effort during a Thursday meeting of Kansas City?s Planned Industrial Expansion Authority board.

After a presentation, the board unanimously approved Antheus Capital?s request to expand the Armour-Gillham PIEA Area, making its new five-building project eligible for property tax abatements.

The five historic apartment buildings, which will include 630 units, are the Westport Central building, 301 W. Armour Blvd.; the Windemere, 601 W. Armour Blvd.; the Homestead, 811 E. Armour Blvd.; and three Kenwood buildings, including 615 E. Armour Blvd. and two in the 3400 block of Locust Street.

...

Peter Cassel, a director with Antheus Capital, said the Hyde Park properties are popular with renters for the same reasons they were in the 1920s. At that time, apartment hotels springing up in the ?gateway neighborhood? attracted working families who wanted to be close to but not in Downtown, he said.

?Most importantly today, (Hyde Park) sits within a couple-mile radius of (the University of Missouri-Kansas City) and the tens of thousands of people who work there,? Cassel said. ?It?s less than two miles from Hospital Hill ... a mile from Crown Center and just south of Downtown.?

Cassel said the rental units Antheus is redeveloping in Hyde Park are filling a gap between the neighborhood?s low-income rental projects and single-family housing.

?What we?re adding is work force housing that brings in the middle,? Cassel said.

Antheus? five most recently acquired properties, he added, were all ?problem buildings (that) will no longer be sources of agitation in the neighborhood.?

Antheus, which manages its apartment holdings through an affiliate called MAC Properties, began investing in Hyde Park in 2006.

Of the 16 buildings it since has acquired there, five received property tax abatements of 100 percent for 17 years and 50 percent for eight years, and six were completed without city assistance, Cassel said.

The developer paid $11 million for its first five tax-abated buildings in Kansas City?s Hyde Park. They were the once-elegant Bellerive, Clyde Manor and Park Central, the fire-damaged Yankee Hill and a fifth building.

Many of the completed restoration projects now are fully leased, Cassel said.

?We believe there?s a significant opportunity for market-rate housing along Armour,? Cassel said, ?but we need significant support to make that happen.?

Antheus seeks federal multifamily tax-exempt revenue bonds to help get its new five-building local project to pencil out. It also has used a variety of tax credits and other state and federal development incentives, Cassel said.

Read more: Hyde Park developer Antheus Capital plans $57M Kansas City housing project - Kansas City Business Journal