OFFICIAL - Fairfax Lofts/Hotel Indigo (former Brookfield Building)

Issues concerning Downtown as described by the Downtown Council. River to 31st Street, I-35 to Bruce R. Watkins.
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KC-wildcat
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OFFICIAL - Fairfax Lofts/Hotel Indigo (former Brookfield Building)

Post by KC-wildcat »

The Brookfield Building (101 W. 11th St.) on SW corner of 11th and Baltimore has street barriers up around it. Anybody have any idea what's going on here?

I'm quitting this board if somebody tells me demolition.

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voltopt
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Re: Downtown Buildings with Activity

Post by voltopt »

Brookfield Building
101 W 11th Street
4th district
Kiva Number - 122545
JaCo APN - JA29220460100000000
Owner:
Pioneer Village Estates
2130 NE Sparta Dr
Blue Springs, MO 64014

http://kivaweb.kcmo.org/kivanet/2/land/ ... pin=122545
Permits-
http://kivaweb.kcmo.org/kivanet/2/land/ ... pin=122545

A traffic control permit was pulled within the past month, something to do with Hotel Phillips.
Give Brenda Mendora or Emily Shelton at Hotel Phillips a call. 816.346.4404
http://kivaweb.kcmo.org/kivanet/2/permi ... 1&jur=KCMO
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Re: Downtown Buildings with Activity

Post by voltopt »

Also know as the Fairfax Building -

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Interior Shot!
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KC-wildcat
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Re: Downtown Buildings with Activity

Post by KC-wildcat »

Jeezus, what happened to the bottom of the building? The nice deco vanier and windows around the street level were just stripped bare, leaving ugly concrete. Maybe a structural improvement was necessadry or something.
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Re: Downtown Buildings with Activity

Post by bobbyhawks »

KC-wildcat wrote:Jeezus, what happened to the bottom of the building? The nice deco vanier and windows around the street level were just stripped bare, leaving ugly concrete. Maybe a structural improvement was necessadry or something.
I think the building flooded multiple times, and the fire that forced everyone out has it looking like a post-apocalyptic point-in-time snapshot of humanity. I think there are still subway wrappers and tools inside one of the storefronts.

Also, the upper floors are home to what is probably the largest number of building pigeons downtown. There are some cracked windows, and I'm pretty sure they have inhabited an entire floor (or at least had a few years ago). If you are willing to do a bit of digging, there is an old Pitch article about the place, its troubles, and an ownership change. There is probably a lot of work required to fix it up, and it sounds like the owner is just sitting on it until it can be condemned. Clearly, they weren't trying to do anything with it when the economy was doing well.
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Re: Downtown Buildings with Activity

Post by FangKC »

This would be a good building to convert into apartments.
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Re: Downtown Buildings with Activity

Post by Midtownkid »

The bottom floors appear to have a "concrete" veneer covering the outside. I wonder if the terra cotta is hidden behind it, but more likely it was stripped off and replaced with that cladding.

Really hope it is not to be demolished. It's a great looking building. Bottom floors could be re-tiled.
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Re: Downtown Buildings with Activity

Post by kcjak »

Looks like the bottom floors were turned into a parking garage.
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Re: Downtown Buildings with Activity

Post by mgh7676 »

How long have the businesses on the ground floor been boarded up? I noticed there was a pretty wide variety of cafes there at one point in time. FWIW, I also noticed that the barriers around the building say something along the lines of "Beware: Dangerous Building". Sounds a lot like the barriers that were up around the Cosby Hotel at one time. Hopefully something good is happening, but with KC's history, I have my doubts.
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Re: Downtown Buildings with Activity

Post by bobbyhawks »

kcjak wrote:Looks like the bottom floors were turned into a parking garage.
You're probably thinking of another building. The street level floors of the Brookfield include an abandoned Japanese restaurant, an abandoned eye glasses store, and an abandoned barber shop. There is no parking garage entrance, but the two buildings on either side both have them (as they are both parking garages with one just an attachment to 12 Wyandotte).
mgh7676 wrote:How long have the businesses on the ground floor been boarded up? I noticed there was a pretty wide variety of cafes there at one point in time. FWIW, I also noticed that the barriers around the building say something along the lines of "Beware: Dangerous Building". Sounds a lot like the barriers that were up around the Cosby Hotel at one time. Hopefully something good is happening, but with KC's history, I have my doubts.
At least since 2005. There was a sign up for like one week circa 2009ish that claimed some women's business organization would setup shop, but that lasted all of a week or two with no real activity other than a banner.
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Re: Downtown Buildings with Activity

Post by lock+load »

Barbershop was still open in August 2005, but pretty sure it closed soon after.

Such a beautiful building (minus the horrible concrete cladding). Really hope someone can turn it into something useful.
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Re: Downtown Buildings with Activity

Post by kcjak »

lock+load wrote:Barbershop was still open in August 2005, but pretty sure it closed soon after.

Such a beautiful building (minus the horrible concrete cladding). Really hope someone can turn it into something useful.
Other than a surface lot.
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Re: Downtown Buildings with Activity

Post by mgh7676 »

I drove by the Brookfield today...still no activity, just barriers proclaiming "Dangerous Building". If something positive was being done, wouldn't some work have started on the building by now? Not encouraging, I really like that block, but am worried that in the near future it is just going to be more surface parking.
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Re: Downtown Buildings with Activity

Post by Midtownkid »

Alright. Who wants to start a "Save the Brookfield Building page?"

This iconic view would never be the same. :-(

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Re: Downtown Buildings with Activity

Post by smh »

Midtownkid wrote:Alright. Who wants to start a "Save the Brookfield Building page?"

This iconic view would never be the same. :-(

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I would really hate to see this get torn down. That said, perhaps they just want to remove the cladding from the bottom few floors? That'd be cool, right?
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Re: Downtown Buildings with Activity

Post by FangKC »

Who is going to pay to demolish the Brookfield Building. I doubt the City can afford to take down such a large building. It would be cheaper to repair whatever is causing the building to be dangerous. Did a chunk of cladding fall off?
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Re: Downtown Buildings with Activity

Post by FangKC »

I found out why the Brookfield Building is called that. It used to be owned by Unitog Co., which was run by Dutton Brookfield. Unitog sold the building to Jones Development Co. LLC , and moved to a new one at 1300 Washington. The building was later sold to Richard Turner, co-developer of The View. Redevelopment of the building was held up by litigation between Turner and a former contractor.

Then, Camilo Estremadoiro proposed a plan to convert the Brookfield Building into condos with retail at streetside, but that doesn't appear to have panned out. Estremadoiro used to own the New England Bank Building that became 21Ten when it was converted to apartments.

The building owner on Kivanet appears to be PIONEER VILLAGE ESTATES, Address: 2130 NE SPARTA DR, BLUE SPRINGS, MO, and 235 WARD PKWY SUITE 705, KANSAS CITY, MO. That address in Blue Springs is for Richard Turner, so it appears he still owns the property.
Unitog Co. employees will get a chance to work off their Thanksgiving dinners over the coming weekend as they move into their new headquarters at 1300 Washington St. in downtown Kansas City.

The uniform company, which has been based in the Brookfield Building at 101 W. 11th St. for 21 years, will occupy the top two floors of its new three-story headquarters.

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/s ... lumn1.html
Executive Roundtable: A Group of Kansas City's Foremost Business Figures Survey the Year Ahead and Spot Some Economic Peaks and Valleys.

Abstract: Interview of a "group of Kansas City's foremost business figures," including Dutton Brookfield, president of the Unitog Company of the garment industry, with discussions about business projections for Kansas City in 1979 and into the 1980s.
http://kchistory.org/cdm4/item_viewer.p ... X=1&REC=10
Jones began learning the ropes in the early 1980s as an industrial broker for Jones & Co. — no relation — and then a spinoff, Kerr & Co. Founder Whitney Kerr Sr. said Jones gained an understanding of all sides of real estate deals, complementing his strong work ethic and aggressive but fair nature. Jones employed those tools in his business after a 1990 foray into property ownership made him his boss’s landlord.

Kerr & Co. was based in the Brookfield building in downtown Kansas City, Jones said, and when Unitog Co. sold the building, Jones and a partner bought it and gave Kerr & Co. the management contract.
http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/s ... allb1.html
Wayne Reeder, whose family owns a two-thirds interest in The View, said the building was bought for $1.5 million and redeveloped with help from a 25-year, 100 percent property tax abatement. It is nearing a $40 million sellout.

Meanwhile, The View co-developer Richard Turner is trying to unload the Brookfield Building at 11th Street and Baltimore Avenue -- one of the few blighted buildings remaining in the loop.

Turner bought the 11-story building at the bargain price of $720,000 two years ago, Reeder said. But a fire in a ground-floor sushi restaurant and flooding from a broken water line chased away its few remaining tenants.

Now, litigation initiated by a subcontractor is preventing Turner, who's no longer interested in redeveloping it, from selling.

"It's an eyesore, and he's the first to admit that," Reeder said. "But the lawsuit will be resolved right after the first of the year, and you will see something happen shortly thereafter."


http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/s ... tml?page=3

Pitch Weekly, August 13, 2008
Face magazine publisher Camilo Estremadoiro hopes to breathe life into the stately but neglected Brookfield Building at 11th and Baltimore. Estremadario is launching an effort to restore retail at the ground level and convert the upper floors into condominiums and apartments.
...

Turner purchased the Brookfield Building in 2004. Nine months later, city declared it a public nuisance. Its last tenants were driven out by a burst pipe in December 2005.

Why did Turner purchase the building then seem to ignore it? A lawsuit brought by a contractor against Turner and Reeder suggested that the Brookfield Building had been bought in order to avoid taxes on real-estate sale Turner made in California. (In court papers, Turner's lawyer denied the claim.)

The contractor's suit is ongoing. Meanwhile, Estremadoiro has emerged with a plan to remake the Brookfield as the Gotham Building.

Estremadoiro hopes to make green building practices a centerpiece of the renovation. He's also created the Gotham Arts Project, with the stated intent of changing the way properties are developed in Kansas City’s urban core and surrounding neighborhoods.

Estremadoiro leased space in the Brookfield at one time. "We need to do something with that building," he tells me. Estremadoiro says he's finalizing the contracts that will allow him to market the building to buyers.

Estremadoiro is not new to real-estate deals. In 1998, he sold the building that became 21 West Ten Lofts.
http://www.pitch.com/plog/archives/2008 ... n-building

http://kivaweb.kcmo.org/kivanet/2/land/ ... pin=122545
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Re: Brookfield Building hazardous?

Post by KCMax »

Downtown’s Brookfield Building labeled a hazard because of falling debris
City officials say it has been allowed to decline to the point the sidewalks were closed last week after a chunk of the terra cotta facade fell from the 11th floor.

“It’s located next to City Center Square, and it’s a busy part of town,” Mike Schumacher, a Neighborhood Community Services official, said Tuesday. “We can’t take chances.

“If the owner doesn’t take care of this issue, we will. We want to protect the public.”
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Re: Brookfield Building hazardous?

Post by mean »

SAVE THE BROOKFIELD BUILDING
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Re: Brookfield Building hazardous?

Post by kboish »

Goddammnit. Owners should be fined if they allow their buildings to fall into disrepair. this better not get demo'ed.
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