wtf is happening to w. 39th?!

[earthling]

^Good news along with another Thai also going back into old Thai Place spot in Westport. And good news he is going for 'street Thai' served in banana leaves.

[kcjak]

Signs up in the building attached to Missie Bs that a latin restaurant is coming soon - Ana Marie's I think the name said. This is the spot that was a day labor office until recently.

[earthling]

Nice to see 'greater' Midtown get new restaurant locations but it seems the increase in Midtown/Westport restaurants are proportionally higher than rate of Midtown population increase. w39th is somewhat a metro draw and Q39 nearby especially brings attention to w39th so might be able to handle increase of more spaces, maybe. Valentine/Uptown area also on a roll.

[JBmidtown]

Nice to see 'greater' Midtown get new restaurant locations but it seems the increase in Midtown/Westport restaurants are proportionally higher than rate of Midtown population increase. w39th is somewhat a metro draw and Q39 nearby especially brings attention to w39th so might be able to handle increase of more spaces, maybe. Valentine/Uptown area also on a roll.

Hopefully new population data this year shows a marked increase. But it's something I've wondered about lately. I hope we're not looking at a restaurant bubble.

Still, I imagine all the new downtown population happens to visit other retail nodes in the urban core. The new restaurants should be alright.

[kboish]

I'm pretty sure we are in a restaurant bubble across the country. That being said, midtown has had a transformation over the past 5-10 years. Not all of it necessarily raised the total population, but you can bet it raised the average income/disposable income for the area. What Antheus/MAC properties has done alone along Armour (over 1100 units- many going from Sec-8 to Market Rate) has been enough to warrant some of the additional retail/resto. Throw in a sprinkle of new units and similar upgrades and the economic impact is pretty substantial.

[earthling]

Yeah, income increase appears to be happening around Midtown maybe not so much population increase. Would be interesting to see vacancy numbers as they could be improving yet if say 4+ people in household down to 1-2 people/household with more disposable income, that would lower or flatten population increase but potentially increase income, especially disposable income.

[kboish]

Yeah, income increase appears to be happening around Midtown maybe not so much population increase. Would be interesting to see vacancy numbers as they could be improving yet if say 4+ people in household down to 1-2 people/household with more disposable income, that would lower or flatten population increase but potentially increase income, especially disposable income.

I'll post this somewhere else also because it doesn't really belong in here, but the city released a Market Value Analysis they commissioned for the entire city. It is fascinating and such a great tool. It has some of the info in it you are talking about. The people who created the tool presented it at the last business session- which they usually post on Ch. 2's website at some point- if you want to watch their analysis.

http://kcmo.gov/planning/market-value-analysis/

[KCtoBrooklyn]

I believe many of the buildings Mac has renovated had rather low occupancy or were vacant, so there should be a decent addition to the population from their projects. There has been a smaller scale improvement of apartments on Warwick bringing in new people and more income. There have been a few new construction apartment and single family builds in Midtown and an even greater amount around the fringes of Midtown in places like Union HIll, Beacon Hill, The Plaza. It seems like the number of vacant houses has gone down significantly, as well.

I'm not sure how much household sizes have decreased to offset population gains. I have seen a few instances of houses that had been split into apartments being reverted to single family, but I don't know if that is happening on a large enough scale to have a significant drag on population. I would be curious to see if there has been a significant change in the owner-occupant rate. A rental with 4 college kids being sold to a DINK couple would drop the population. Although, it does seem like the number of households with kids in Midtown is growing rapidly.

So I would guess that the population of Midtown has been growing at a decent rate. There are some more projects in the pipeline that should help add to that, but I still think there is room for significantly more population growth.

This is one reason why I am especially interested in Mac's new construction project on Main St. I'm curious what they will be charging for rent. Will the prefab construction save enough money that they will be able to rent the units for a similar cost as their rehabs (even though those are starting to get quite steep), or will it have to be higher? Even though I don't think it is going to be the most attractive building, if it allows new construction at a reasonable price, I wouldn't mind seeing a dozen more of those buildings scattered throughout Midtown.

[brewcrew1000]

Speaking of 39th St Restaurants and a restaurant bubble. How does KC Kitchen Pizzeria next to Missie B's stay open? It looks empty at prime restaurant times almost all the time.

[earthling]

They do a lot of delivery but yeah, pretty dead.

[brewcrew1000]

Did Meatball District close up? I noticed signs on the building the last month

[kcjak]

For what it's worth, Yelp says they are closed temporarily and will reopen May 1.

[kcjak]

Both Po's Dumpling Bar and DB Coopers have closed in the past couple of weeks. Former Crossland Machinery Company at 1320 W 39th has been renovated (nicely) into the Do Good Co, which a source tells me will be an antique/art gallery for a couple of years and then Aladdin will move into. Also, the Krave Kultur DAV shop across from Roca is for sale.

[rxlexi]

NOOO not Po's! Was my favorite Chinese in the city for many years. It will be missed. I've been spending a lot of time out-of-town and hadn't yet noticed it was gone. Blue Koi finally shut em down. Shit.

[earthling]

And Blue Koi re-opened! (I miss Mindy's hugs, RIP).

[kcjak]

NOOO not Po's! Was my favorite Chinese in the city for many years. It will be missed. I've been spending a lot of time out-of-town and hadn't yet noticed it was gone. Blue Koi finally shut em down. Shit.

Po's was our favorite, too - ordered take out once a week. But the staff was always bad, and never very busy (hence the bad staff). They stopped selling alcohol months ago, which led me to believe it was the beginning of the end. KSBH said they were retiring, but a note on the door said they had lost their lease. They advertised as a dumpling bar, which they weren't, and overextended themselves on the menu. I would've liked to see them get in on the noodle trend - I think a place with a guy making noodles in the front window would've been a gold mine.

[TheBigChuckbowski]

Po's was the only place in town we've found beef noodle soup and it was far from authentic. Would love to see a quality place serving beef noodle soup with a noodle guy in the window like you say. I think it's way better than pho or ramen, not sure why there's nowhere here to get it.

[kcjak]

Po's was the only place in town we've found beef noodle soup and it was far from authentic. Would love to see a quality place serving beef noodle soup with a noodle guy in the window like you say. I think it's way better than pho or ramen, not sure why there's nowhere here to get it.

I'm sure you can't get any further from authentic than this, but the Chinese pot roast noodle soup at Blue Koi is pretty great.

[kcjak]

The mini mart/liquor store/BBQ place on the NE corner of 39th/Rainbow is closed. It's a shame they did such a crappy job with this place - there's no reason a New York-style market with hot/cold food section, deli, liquor store and convenience store items couldn't make it in that location.

[earthling]

There was something odd about the execution of that place. Needs a better manager and per another thread, maybe the market could partner with a local chef to create some buzz. Or it may need a larger local player with economies of scale like a Consentino's if they'd be willing to get into the small neighborhood market biz.

edit: Or wait don't you mean 39th/State Line? That's what I was thinking closed.