Martini Corner near 31st/Gilham

[FangKC]

I'm happy to see that building at 31st and Cherry get renovated.

[moderne]

Is Attitude a Croatian restaurant?

[TheBigChuckbowski]

Well, there's a florist, candy store, yoga studio, maybe a bike place in the hopefully not-too-distant future but I completely agree. 31st and Cherry have tons of potential in that area.

[chingon]

Is Attitude a Croatian restaurant?

Its a Misfits theme bar

[moderne]

Attitude to open at 31st & Cherry in November as breakfast and lunch cafe with Italian and Polish food.

[bobbyhawks]

Is that an effort to enable a bang bang in a single location?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ-Z1di-c58

[WSPanic]

http://www.pitch.com/FastPitch/archives ... lies-local

Hadn't seen this mentioned yet. Haus to be "Ollie's" - new Eddie Crane venture. Sounds fun. Hope it does well.

[kcjak]

Drove by Ollie's last night - looked open, but may just be a soft opening. They've taken the advertisements off of one of the windows facing Gilham and one facing the parking lot so you can actually see in (and through) - amazing what some natural light can do to open a space up.

[TheBigChuckbowski]

Looks like Oddities Prints is opening next to Attitude. http://www.odditiesprints.com/

Does anyone know anything about the space that has "Blues, Blood, Bruise" in giant letter on it?

[KCtoBrooklyn]

Does anyone know anything about the space that has "Blues, Blood, Bruise" in giant letter on it?

That is Maker Village KC:
http://www.makervillagekc.org/

[bryan]

I found a bit more information on the Velvet Freeze development at 31st & Gillham. If I'm looking at the rendering correctly, it looks like it includes a remodel of the existing building as well as new construction on the lot to the North.

Rendering


Existing Velvet Freeze Building


New Construction to the North of Velvet Freeze




More info and pictures here: http://www.epochdevelopments.com/kc-martini-row-1.html

It appears the Velvet Freeze Building is getting redeveloped by a Colorado developer. I caught mention of it in a story about the same developer making an offer on the Kansas City Club building on Baltimore. I did a little research on Epoch Developments and found their Denver address on 15th Street. The owner of the Velvet Freeze Building on the city's KivaNet database shows the same address. The developer has a history of developing spaces for startups, business incubator, and co-working spaces.

The filing indicates Epoch Developments LLC is offering to buy the (Kansas City Club) building "as is where is." The sale is not contingent on any financing or due diligence period. Epoch Developments, according to its LinkedIn page, is a Denver-based developer focused on "adaptive reuse conversions, incubators, lofts, micro-apartments and accelerators."

Craig Slawson, owner of Epoch, said he would like to redo the four-story, 48,750-square-foot building as an event space or possibly as a club space once again. Slawson said he's active in downtown Denver, where he has a startup incubator and coworking space.

The company is also working on a project at the intersection of 31st Street and Gillham Road near the "Martini Corner" area of Kansas City. He expects that redevelopment project will debut in 2016.

Here is the address listed on KivaNet.

VELVET FREEZE LLC
Address: 1614 15TH STREET STE 300
DENVER, CO, 80202-

Here is the LinkedIn address for Epoch Developments.

Headquarters
1614 15th street Suite 300 Denver, CO 80202 United States

https://www.linkedin.com/company/epoch-developments

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/n ... t_20150824

[mgh7676]

Here is another rendering from the website:

[TheBigChuckbowski]

Are they really only planning 34 parking spots for 110 units?

This is right across the street from one of the Union Hill buildings that is going up and they're currently using the lot that the new building in this development will go on to store construction equipment/wood. Maybe they're working together and this building will have some parking in the Union Hill building's garage?

[Eon Blue]

That may be. I think the building currently going up looked like it had a larger garage than the one immediately to the north.

[mgh7676]

Are they really only planning 34 parking spots for 110 units?

This is right across the street from one of the Union Hill buildings that is going up and they're currently using the lot that the new building in this development will go on to store construction equipment/wood. Maybe they're working together and this building will have some parking in the Union Hill building's garage?

Who owns the lot just south of Velvet Freeze (across 31st)? It doesn't show up as a parcel in parcel viewer.

[flyingember]

Who owns the lot just south of Velvet Freeze (across 31st)? It doesn't show up as a parcel in parcel viewer.

that's technically a city street. google street view has a sewer inlet on it (barely) which wouldn't be on a private parking lot

the parcel viewer shows it's a parkway so being parkland it would take a city vote to change it's status.

[TheBigChuckbowski]

Actually, now that I look at the plan a little closer, there may be basement parking in the new building accessed from Gillham.

[moderne]

Gotta have lots more parking. Union Hill Founders under construction has added another whole underground level from the prior building to the north because parking demand is so high. They ran out of parking spaces to rent in the McGee building so had to lease out the spaces originally intended for use by tenants in the retail space. Can make more money on leasing parking stalls than apartments. This stretch of Gillham was desolate and empty 18 years ago and now will be a real urban node. Hope they get a real place to eat in the Velvet Freeze storefront.

[chingon]

This stretch of Gillham was desolate and empty 18 years ago and now will be a real urban node.

It is one of the quiet "downtown" success stories. And the potential for new apartment construction linking it to Crown Center would go a long way towards making Dutch Hill/Longfellow a legitimate part of greater downtown. Hopefully the node spreads east along 31st to fulfill some of the potential that the remaining building stock over there represents. Ideally if it spread all the way to the very solid 31st/Troost environs we could point to a functional example of our decade-long downtown revitalization focus spreading east in the way I geniunely believe city leaders have long wanted.

[Eon Blue]

I went to Kitty's for lunch today. Across the street are a pair of sturdy-looking two-story brick buildings that sit set back from the street a bit. On the top floors are cutouts for doors and you can clearly see where a balcony was anchored before. Every time I go there, I daydream about how neat those buildings could be if someone got ahold of them, renovated them and re-attached balconies. East 31st could be a wonderfully intimate urban street with the right approach.