KCRag Forum

The City needs to be proactive in educating residents about problems their protests against higher density create for the City's well-being.

* The City south of the river has become depopulated. There are numerous vacant lots that provide little revenue to the City's tax base. Fewer people live in existing houses. Around 40 percent of single family houses only have one or two resident(s) living in them where in past decades there might have been 3-6 people. Fewer people buying fewer things affects sales taxes.

* As they can see by the number of empty retail buildings, this depopulation has ramifications for the City. There are less tax collections per square mile than in decades past. At the same time, the City hears constant complaints about providing services and maintenance. However, it has become difficult to keep up because fewer people pay into the neighborhood tax base. There are not enough police officers to address crime and quality of life issues. The City has budgetary constraints.

*Yet, despite this depopulation, the City must still provide the same infrastructure and basic services.

Then the council members need to ask the protesting residents if they would prefer more residents sharing the tax burden, or if instead they prefer paying higher taxes?

There is a tipping point for older cities where the cost to provide basic services becomes too high and there aren't enough residents to pay for it (Detroit and Flint, Michigan; Newark and Camden, New Jersey; and Gary, Indiana).

^Absolutely this!!! Part of the problem too was built by the government and society pushing the idea that the American dream was everyone owning a single family home with a yard and , even now, the idea that DTs are not for families/kids. That idea has even been pushed on this forum. The city should market that DT is a viable option for families in order to boost density. After all, families lived there for many decades before the 1980s.

Drove by the BP gas station at Armour and Troost on NYE. Looked like it has gone dark and pumps removed. The businesses on the northeast corner were dark as well but could've been related to the holiday.

Any info on the condemnation process and if we are getting closer to development?

The buildings on the NE corner have been vacated for a little while now. The plan had been for MAC to have control of the properties by the beginning of the year, and it looks like that has happened (sans the Abnos owned hotel building, which they are moving ahead without).

They said they would go ahead and start demo/environmental remediation while they work on finalizing plans and getting approval/incentives together (I really hope they hold off on demoing the old market building for now). It sounds like middle of the year might be best case scenario for ground breaking.

KCtoBrooklyn wrote:(sans the Abnos owned hotel building, which they are moving ahead without)

It's not clear what is going to happen with that building now. The MAC project seemed like it was it's most realistic shot at redevelopment.

I’m not a fan of the Abnos family.

chaglang wrote:It's not clear what is going to happen with that building now. The MAC project seemed like it was it's most realistic shot at redevelopment.

You might have better details since you seem to have a lot of info on this project, but I heard some ridiculous numbers about Abnos' demands for the buildings. I don't recall the exact figures, but it was something like he paid $50k for the building just a few years ago and wants $3M for it. I have no idea how much MAC was willing to pay.

I might have told this story already, but I was at a garage sale maybe a year and a half ago and someone was selling these architectural salvage items - mostly big plasterwork pieces. He said they came from that hotel building. Oliver Abnos was the landlord for his business and I guess he let him go in the building and take down whatever.

He got it for either $5k or $15k when it was on the Dangerous Buildings list. I don't know the exact figure he was asking for but it was several times the court's appraisal. I don't know if Abnos's building is redevelopable. There are probably close to 125 possible units in there. MAC has all the parking on those corners and they're going pretty low on the counts. So there wouldn't be extra for this building to use.

An elderly person in checkout line at Costco told me there was once a Wolferman's grocer at Armour and Main. Anyone know which corner? When did it close? Would be nice now to have a dt Cosentino's size grocery on Main.

Heard MAC tried to buy the Burger King lot at Armour/Main but owner won't sell or is holding out for value to go up with streetcar. Would be a great spot for large residential building with grocery at corner. Such a waste of a great corner spot, much larger than BK needs.

BTW, friends own a Victorian in N Hyde Park just off Armour closer to Troost that they got dirt cheap about 15 years ago. The value has shot up significantly (according to Zillow) through 2017/18 given all the Armour improvements, market rate apt direction, crime improvements and desire of people to live there. The 4 corner Armour/Troost development announcement could improve value even more. What a change from when Armour was known as 'sex offender row' in the 80s/90s. Gives hope for 39th/Main to E End of Westport efforts. Wish MAC would target that area too.

moderne wrote:An elderly person in checkout line at Costco told me there was once a Wolferman's grocer at Armour and Main. Anyone know which corner? When did it close? Would be nice now to have a dt Cosentino's size grocery on Main.

It was on the SW corner where the US Bank is now. It was a small store -- more like a convenience store that a full-scale grocer.

http://kchistory.org/content/kansas-city-blues-parade

Ignore the library caption. They have the address wrong. It was most likely 1 W. Armour.

http://midtownkcpost.com/mastin-mansion ... -and-main/

earthling wrote:Gives hope for 39th/Main to E End of Westport efforts. Wish MAC would target that area too.

The Santa Maria (115 W 39th St.) just went up for sale. Unfortunately, it is packaged with several other apartment buildings in the Northeast and East Side. Unless they would sell it separately, a developer like MAC wouldn't be interested. Unfortunately, this package deal seems likely to ensure a new owner will keep it low-rent/section 8.

http://clemonsrealestate.com/listings/m ... -for-sale/

Also, back to Armour Blvd, I noticed the old Soli Printing building on Armour is up for lease (finally, it seems like it has just been sitting there vacant for a while). I had hoped that this building would be sold so a developer like MAC could demo build a new mixed-use building, but a new tenant with updated facade would be better than nothing:

http://clemonsrealestate.com/listings/r ... -broadway/

From that listing, it looks like the Santa Maria is listed individually for $3.5M.

Nice, I didn't catch that. $3.5M seems a bit high. I seem to recall it was on the market 7 or 8 years ago for around $1.7M. I'm not sure if it sold to the current owners at that time. I doubt much work has been done to the building since then.

Image from Armour and Charlotte looking West from Mac's Instagram account. You can see the preliminary bike lane markings along Armour.

The Abnos owned hotel building SE of the corner of Armour and Troost is currently on the market. The price is not being disclosed, but I'm guessing that they are still asking a ridiculous amount. If MAC isn't willing to pay Abnos what he wants, I doubt anyone will.

Have to think that MAC was his best hope. Not sure how marketable a shell of a building with zero access to parking is.

This part of Midtown may have not quite hit critical mass yet but it's on its way to have a smaller Sprouts say in the old Apple Market in Uptown Shoppes and an Aldi near Armour/Troost - or locally owned markets would be great too. You can smell the momentum in Midtown that it will be able to support 2+ more markets of some form sooner than later - ideally at the expense of Sunfresh pushed out.

Still thinking way too small. I picture three more west of Troost and 4 more east of Troost

My neighborhood could never be as densely populated as midtown and within about a 10 minute trip from my house I count 8 grocery stores.

An Aldi would probably do well in the former Thriftway store at Westport Road and Main Street.