KCRag Forum

It would be hard to get more wrong than they did when they moved to the new location. For the prices they were charging, Il Centro is superior in every way.

More restaurants doing fine in that area: Spin Pizza, Glace, Planet Sub, The Mixx, Chipotle.

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Temporary Certificate of Occupancy permit was issued today for this building. It is getting close.

KCDowntown

Found this blurb in the KCBJ article today about increased office building activity:

...in addition, VanTrust is preparing to replace the four-story office building at 4901 Main St. near the Country Club Plaza with 149,000 square feet of new Class A office space.

This is that bland building just south of the Mixx. 149K sq feet should be 5-7 stories on that spot, no?

it has a unique midcentury look. if it wasn't just 4 stories I could get upset over the replacement

flyingember wrote:it has a unique midcentury look. if it wasn't just 4 stories I could get upset over the replacement

Honestly, I am a little upset about this. I mean what do they plan on replacing it with? I think it's a pretty good looking building, and I'm not even a fan of that style of architecture. It addresses the street nicely. Has the potential to house ground floor retail with big windows. The only thing that is no good is the drive thru, but honestly it isn't even that obtrusive. If they built a building on the parking lot to the south in the future, a nice urban building right up to the drive thru and practically touching the 4901 Main building, I think this would be a nice urban stretch.

Now what I would like to see done, if anything were to be done to this intersection, is some mixed use buildings added on the west side of the street here where there is grass in front of the high rise. Get rid of the stupid drive thru and fill in the rest of the block with mixed use buildings.

Here's a rough idea of what I'm talking about:



This block is the SW corner of 49th and Main, just to the West of the building mentioned. The tall building on the site is the highrise, and I put in a midrise building that is broken up into a row of narrow buildings to give it variety. I sized them at about 5 stories, and am envisioning tall rowhomes here with retail on the bottom floor. Doesn't have to be residential, it could be offices. Either way. Or both. And honestly they don't even have to be midrises. It could just be single story retail added to the street. I just figured it would be even better to add mixed uses and even more density.



Anyway, something like this would be much more interesting to me than tearing down the building on the east side of the street. Shoot, that sucker can still be used. I know they want to have more modern office space, but is there no way to revamp the interior of this building to your liking?

And to refresh everyone's memory of what these buildings look like, here is the 4901 Main Street building they are considering tearing down:



And here is the 4900 Main Street block, with the high rise, drive thru, and lovely bed of grass:



Images courtesy of Google Maps

Demosthenes, you should be doing the sketch-ups for the Copaken PAC block instead of me.

FangKC wrote:Demosthenes, you should be doing the sketch-ups for the Copaken PAC block instead of me.

Ha, yea I was actually thinking of putting your plan into a 3 dimensional sketchup. Just trying to get the motivation lol. It's amazing how much work it takes just to make something small and basic like that.

taxi wrote:

chrizow wrote:Accurso's closed.

Justus!

I did hear that Justus is coming to that area, although I thought it was to be at 51 Main.

I have some inside sources in this area and the story about Justus got real quiet, real fast. No one seems to be certain what is happening there now. I will be sure to update you raggers as soon as I hear any more baseless rumors.

Jonathan Justus' Black Dirt headed to KC this year

Justus isn't quite ready to say just what zip code he's after for the place — to be called Black Dirt — but he tells me he's in the final stages of negotiating the lease. The space, he says, is "south of the Plaza."

http://www.kansascity.com/living/liv-co ... 96071.html

A new restaurant and bar called Black Dirt is proposed for 51 Main

When I toured the units at 51Main Monday, they strongly hinted that Justus was going to open Black Dirt there, they just really couldn't say anything yet. The units, although very nice were out of my price range. It's a great location to be sure.

cknab1 wrote:When I toured the units at 51Main Monday, they strongly hinted that Justus was going to open Black Dirt there, they just really couldn't say anything yet. The units, although very nice were out of my price range. It's a great location to be sure.

http://www.pitch.com/FastPitch/archives ... at-51-main

Nice to see him finally open in the city but was kinda hoping he could be in Xroads - to get all James Beard noms/winners in Xroads and create a sort of James Beard restaurant district (there are currently 6). He tried to get in Xroads but didn't pan out.

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Black Dirt finally scheduled to open late Summer.

http://www.kansascity.com/news/business ... 04969.html

This stretch is developing into a nice contiguous restaurant row from Stock Hill building also getting 4 more restaurants like Larkburger from Denver, a health food restaurant and a brunch cafe (Elly's from Chicago) and then several existing like the sushi/pizza/sub places to Black Dirt (not yet open) to Eggstc. Chipotle is the only large chain it seems. There's an old gas station lot being developed, anyone know what that is?

The area is ready for a couple bikeshare stations. Can take Main St MAX to center.

Elly's menu looks good in a modernized classic way...
https://ellysrestaurants.com/ellys-kc-menu.pdf

We just got back from Elly's. Above average basic+ diner eats, nicely unfancy (lacquered raw cracked floors, no cliche theme, basic tables, some booths, minimal leaning but modern decor). They have a separate espresso bar with a small counter but was hoping for that classic low slung long diner counter, which is a lost form in KC. Downtown could use a classic diner like this (food better than Frans and City Diner), but ideally with the low slung stool counter like City Diner.

Elly's is based in Chicago, several sites there but for some reason they have expanded to just KC and Phoenix - more KC expansion possible, downtown a natural next spot. Larkburger from Denver should be opening soon next door, which some compare to Smashburger and Shake Shack.

There are now about 20 places with eats/drinks along this 3 block stretch. A BBQ counter joint would be nice.

I noticed some work going on at the gravel lot on the NE corner of 51st and Main. It was dark when I went by so I couldn't get a sense of what was happening. Anyone know? I'm afraid it may just be a parking lot.

Black Dirt symbolic for death? New Missouri bridge might be built before it opens.