OFFICIAL - Strata (H&R Block's 2nd Tower)

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swid
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Re: Five Light

Post by swid »

smh wrote: Let us also never forget that it was Shields that championed the Westport development moratorium and it is Shields who thinks parking should be required to be bundled in rent. Both absolutely detrimental to affordable housing. She cares nothing about true affordability. She saw an opportunity to shit on an easy target and took it with hopes of grabbing a few political points.
Note to self - I should comment on her next "Shields for KC" FB post on how, exactly, expanded parking minimums and development moratoriums help with housing affordability in any way. Since all those posts invariably get a single self-like and no responses, I don't expect much, if any, of a response.
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Re: Five Light

Post by WoodDraw »

flyingember wrote:
WoodDraw wrote:That a bit of a weird conversation. It's disappointing that none of the objectors seem to have any competence on how to lower housing costs.

Getting rid of zoning and parking requirements would do far more for affordable downtown housing than anything they said there. The shade thrown at the midland was weird as well.
Getting rid of zoning has little connection to affordable housing. We don't want every project to be contentious.
There's room to rethink zoning without doubt but no zoning could make things very bad for downtown.
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texa ... 171688.php

And to limit costs for parking within project we need different parking requirements, not none. No parking requirements puts all the power on developers and banks. They could build as many spots as wanted. You want to start looking at parking maximums as a requirement. A maximum that affects only the largest projects could be a good start.
Yeah, sorry. I'm not advocating for no regulation. I worded my post very poorly.
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normalthings
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Re: Five Light

Post by normalthings »

Can someone with working speakers summarize the video?
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Re: Five Light

Post by KCPowercat »

I'll assume Cordish leadership is smart enough to understand politics and won't run away from a profitable situation due to two council people
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Re: Five Light

Post by KCPowercat »

One side isn't trying to adjust the agreement though. ...2 council people don't get to change anything
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Re: Five Light

Post by KCPowercat »

When you want $10MM's of dollars of tax money, you have to expect this from government....
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normalthings
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Re: Five Light

Post by normalthings »

StrangerThings wrote:
ldai_phs wrote:Can someone with working speakers summarize the video?
Shields and Canady continue their argument that the council/city isn't pushing Cordish hard enough and claim Cordish knows they have the upper hand since they already have 7 votes needed. City manager explains what Cordish is willing to do, which involves some movement and that they will turn Midland into affordable units soon in the timeline as opposed to later down the road. Shields and Canady not happy, most other members sit in silence with the exception of the Mayor. That was terrible and very basic, sorry.

One thing I don't think these two council members understand is Cordish DOES have the upper hand. If this agreement isn't legally binding and they can renegotiate, so can Cordish. So all downtown development by Cordish could stop after Three Light if it really came down to it. I just hope their political posturing doesn't mess anything up. We have such great momentum at the moment.
So no real 5 light details?
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Re: Five Light

Post by FangKC »

Cordish considers Midland office building for affordable housing
Kansas City officials and Power & Light District developer Cordish are in discussions about a plan to convert the historic Midland office building into 100 units of affordable housing.

...

The 100 apartments at Midland would be in lieu of affordable units in three of Cordish's existing or planned luxury high rises. Two Light, with about 300 units, is scheduled to open this summer. Construction on Three Light, also with about 300 apartments, is expected to begin before the end of the year at Truman Road and Grand Boulevard.

...

The company said the financing structure of Three Light did not permit affordable units. But it offered to reduce the 99-year agreement by half and set aside 10 percent of units beginning with Four Light.

Schulte said Monday that the scenario under discussion calls for Cordish to convert the Midland building, at 13th and Baltimore, to affordable housing at the same time it is constructing Three Light. In exchange, the city would still build the $17.5 million garage and appropriate an additional $3.8 million to pay for additional parking.

...

Mayor Pro Tem Scott Wagner, who attended the editorial board meeting along with Council members Jolie Justus and Jermaine Reed, said the idea seemed to address concerns about affordability. He also and that it was not fair to ask Cordish to reconfigure Three Light to include low-income units at this point.

"You're looking at steel tariffs. The cost of construction is going up, the cost of borrowing is going up," Wagner said. "All of those things are moving.
"

http://www.kansascity.com/news/article205840314.html
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Re: Five Light

Post by kcjak »

So 4 Light could have the bottom five floors containing more/smaller apartments with basic finishes, separate elevators and charge for access to amenities like the pool, while the upper 20 floor can have their own elevators, higher class finishes and include amenities in the monthly rent? Don't need to assume the affordable units would be mixed in on the same floor with market-rate, when you can charge a premium for higher floors w/views.
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Re: Five Light

Post by KCPowercat »

That's part of the reason trying to force affordable into new high rise towers isn't feasible....
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grovester
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Re: Five Light

Post by grovester »

You know how this is going to end...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Rise_(novel)
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GRID
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Re: Five Light

Post by GRID »

Should there should be section 8 housing required in Hallbrook, Briarcliff West etc?
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Re: Five Light

Post by wahoowa »

GRID wrote:Should there should be section 8 housing required in Hallbrook, Briarcliff West etc?
hell yeah
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Re: Five Light

Post by KCPowercat »

If they ask for incentives? Sure!
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normalthings
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Re: Five Light

Post by normalthings »

KCPowercat wrote:If they ask for incentives? Sure!
But aren’t all lower density suburban developments receiving indirect incentives?
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Re: Five Light

Post by flyingember »

ldai_phs wrote:
KCPowercat wrote:If they ask for incentives? Sure!
But aren’t all lower density suburban developments receiving indirect incentives?
My rough math last time I checked said the average ~1960s or newer subdivision pays enough in city property taxes to pay for it's future road repair and nothing more

So every other city service every single family homes use comes from the e-tax and sales taxes

The city functions only because it has downtown. Tourism, the dense employment and property taxes and low cost per resident for this part of town is funding a huge percentage of the city.
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FangKC
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Re: Five Light

Post by FangKC »

flyingember wrote:
ldai_phs wrote:
KCPowercat wrote:If they ask for incentives? Sure!
But aren’t all lower density suburban developments receiving indirect incentives?
My rough math last time I checked said the average ~1960s or newer subdivision pays enough in city property taxes to pay for it's future road repair and nothing more

So every other city service every single family homes use comes from the e-tax and sales taxes

The city functions only because it has downtown. Tourism, the dense employment and property taxes and low cost per resident for this part of town is funding a huge percentage of the city.
This point needs to be made over and over in that city publication, KCMOre, that residents get twice a year. The Mayor needs to be talking about this. People think their property taxes alone support the whole City, when in fact what most people pay (city portion) wouldn't resurface the street on their block.

Doesn't the earnings tax pay for about 40 percent of the City budget? And a good percentage of the earning tax is paid by people living outside KCMO.

There are probably situations where many KCMO residents, who are retired and/or live near borders with other municipalities, and do all their shopping in those communities and not KCMO (state line, Gladstone, Liberty, Lee's Summit, Independence), pay no earnings taxes, and virtually no sales taxes to the City. So much of the revenue the City does get from them is only property taxes. There are a lot of lower value houses all over the city where the property taxes are under $800 a year. The City doesn't get all of that either--county, library, etc. shares.

Residents don't think that they are giving their sales tax dollars to another municipality, and very little of their sales taxes go to their own city. People bitch that the City isn't doing enough to make them happy, yet they give most of their sales taxes to other municipalities. Then they wonder why KCMO doesn't have enough funding for parks, snow removal, etc. People are constantly bitching about downtown, without having a clue how much revenue Greater Downtown generates for the entire City.
flyingember
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Re: Five Light

Post by flyingember »

I would love to see a nice set of charts picking out five averaged homes from across the city

One living in a new downtown apartment tower like Five Light
One in an older apartment building in midtown
One in a newer subdivision in the northland
One in an older subdivision in Waldo
One on the east side along Independence Ave

Have the a baseline chart showing the average citywide cost for road repair and utilities each year for some length of residential street.
Then next to this baseline have a chart for each part of town to show how much taxes the city gets from each

The standard could be "how many years does it take to pay for road resurfacing?" and they give a number for each area
mgh7676
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Re: H&R Block's Second Tower?

Post by mgh7676 »

Recently saw a promo video for a possible tower on this site (directly west of H&R block tower). Won't be a new tallest or anything, but would certainly be a nice/unique addition to our skyline. I don't know any additional details or likelihood of the project happening, hoping the video is released sometime soon!

Also, to shoot down any rumors, the proposed tower was NOT in the "Light" series! :)
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Chris Stritzel
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Re: H&R Block's Second Tower?

Post by Chris Stritzel »

mgh7676 wrote: Mon Sep 17, 2018 4:04 pm Recently saw a promo video for a possible tower on this site (directly west of H&R block tower). Won't be a new tallest or anything, but would certainly be a nice/unique addition to our skyline. I don't know any additional details or likelihood of the project happening, hoping the video is released sometime soon!

Also, to shoot down any rumors, the proposed tower was NOT in the "Light" series! :)
Where did you see the video? H&R Block's offices?
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