OFFICIAL: West Edge/Plaza Vista development

[KCPowercat]

Great article today about the site that was going to be home to the Van Tuyl project about 10 years ago.  It has been reborn and now the block surrounded by 48th on the north, Roanoke on the east, Bellview on the West, and Brush Creek to the south now looks to become a 10 story office tower and a 5 story boutique hotel with ground level retail.  

I live less than a block from this area and I must say it would be a huge upgrade.  The residential towers lost would be sad but the overall progress in almost extending the Plaza to the west would be awesome.

It would also really help out JJ's with more foot traffic.

Hope this is approved....I'll get the masterplan out of the paper and scan it tonight.

[Good2Great]

I attended the planning commission meeting from 11-1:30 to hear about the project. It was scheduled for a hearing at Noon, but at 1:30 there were 6 more cases to be heard prior to the West Edge and then they broke for LUNCH!

Apparently, the PC doesn't care that many of our hours spent at the meeting are billable and drive up the costs to clients.

I had to give up.

[KCPowercat]

So who is in the planning commission? Is that the agency anything has to pass before it goes to the council?

Is that a good place to see some newer projects being proposed? Can anybody go to those I assume?

[Good2Great]

Indeed, you are correct. EVERY development project that is heard by the City Council must first be approved by the planning commission. It's sort of a "pre-qualification" stage.

The meetings are public and the agendas/dockets are avaialable at KCMO's website www.kcmo.org

Virtually every metro city has a planning comission and anyone can attend. Very few business development people attend the meetings, but it's a great place to pick up leads.

[KCPowercat]

Now if I just had a job downtown that involved planning, I could justify going to those....

Wish they showed them on Channel 2......

thanks for the 411.

So, hear anything cool while you were there?

[KCgridlock]

Great article in Pitch about the project!

http://pitch.com/issues/2003-03-06/feat ... index.html

[KCPowercat]

West Edge got approval from the TIF commission.

[KCblightking]

Yeah, great article...I think that has been Ray's life-long goal-to make the cover of PITCH. Did he draw the picture himself?

[GRID]

In today's BJ it has been reported that a tenant is close to being signed for the West Edge office tower. The company will lease 130,000 sq ft.

This is kinda weird though:

"the company would move from elsewhere in the metro but isn't coming from Downtown or the suburbs"

Huh? Then where, Crown Center?

The 100 room hotel and 28,000 sq ft of retail would go up at the same time and could open in about two years.

[TheDude]

put the bong down....

[Good2Great]

If ALL of the hotel plans in the metro were actually built, we'd have no room for residents.

[dangerboy]

"the company would move from elsewhere in the metro but isn't coming from Downtown or the suburbs"

Huh? Then where, Crown Center?

I didn't get that either. Very curious who it is. The only non-suburban areas with companies of that size (besides Downtown and the Plaza) are I-29 and southern Kansas City at Ward Parkway or I-435/Holmes/Wornall.

[GRID]

put the bong down....

huh?

[GRID]

"the company would move from elsewhere in the metro but isn't coming from Downtown or the suburbs"

Huh? Then where, Crown Center?

I didn't get that either. Very curious who it is. The only non-suburban areas with companies of that size (besides Downtown and the Plaza) are I-29 and southern Kansas City at Ward Parkway or I-435/Holmes/Wornall.

I guess I think of those areas as being suburban too. But I'm sure they are considering anything in the KCMO city limits as "city".

[TheDude]

looked out the window--pigs arent flying yet.....

[kcteen]

This will be a really good and needed devlopement. The inner courtyards between the apartments that are being torn down have been rampant with drug trafficking, prostitution, and numerous incidents of aggravated assaults. It's not safe at all to go in there at night. That's one reason some of the apartment buildings over the past years havent been reaching full occupancy and a reason the neighborhood gave the go-ahead for the project. It will help with crime in the area. Also, this "west edge" project is really a good compromise between what the neighborhood and the developers want---they are keeping the three apartments right by the creek which are the most historic ones anyways and will help keep a residential feeling to the west edge of the plaza. The only real problem i see is that traffic at bellview and 48th is already pretty bad and will probably get worse with this project.

Oh, and other benefit will be that the new underground parking garage for the west edge will have spaces for the employees of neighboring businesses, which will help with parking in the area and prevent the addition of more surface lots for some of the nearby businesses which WERE proposed until this project went through.

Yes, we are losing apartments but overall i think the devlopement will rejuviante the area and guarantee its future.

KcTeen

[trailerkid]

Kind of interesting...

Braswell wants to sign retail and restaurant tenants that can't locate on the Plaza because of the Plaza's exclusivity rules, which restrict category duplication

[KCDevin]

Something interesting in the anonymous album:

[trailerkid]

KC ad giant Bernstein-Rhein seems to be the "secret tenant" that was discussed...except Bernstein ended up just buying the entire development and hiring old developer to help them. I like their style...




----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bernstein-Rein pursues Plaza development

By KEVIN COLLISON
The Kansas City Star

Bernstein-Rein Advertising, the region's largest ad agency, is plunging into the development business and plans to build a corporate headquarters, hotel and retail project near the Country Club Plaza.

The firm expects to break ground this fall on an $80 million development that will occupy most of the block between Roanoke Road and Belleview Avenue, from Ward Parkway to 48th Street. It is purchasing the prime property from businessman Cecil Van Tuyl for an undisclosed price, and has hired developer Raymond Braswell to oversee the project.

Braswell won city approval a year ago for a development plan for the site called the West Edge. Robert Bernstein, the president and chief executive of the 300-employee firm, currently located in the Plaza West building at 4600 Madison St., was so impressed with the development he is buying it and has put Braswell on his payroll as director of real estate development.

“We liked where Ray was going with it, and he likes what we want,â€

[KCPowercat]

put the bong down....

Who should put the bong down?