OFFICIAL - Lightwell (formerly City Center Square)

Issues concerning Downtown as described by the Downtown Council. River to 31st Street, I-35 to Bruce R. Watkins.
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mgh7676
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Re: OFFICIAL - Lightwell (formerly City Center Square)

Post by mgh7676 »

KCPowercat wrote: Wed Feb 27, 2019 3:43 pm Curry in a hurry has a loyal following. Another Indian place would be well served replacing them somewhere in the loop.
Kulture Kurry has a spot at H&R Block food court on something like MWF. Wish they (or anyone else) would set up a regular spot downtown.
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wahoowa
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Re: OFFICIAL - Lightwell (formerly City Center Square)

Post by wahoowa »

would be a shame to see wrap it up kicked out.
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Re: OFFICIAL - Lightwell (formerly City Center Square)

Post by KCPowercat »

They would be better served facing the street. That entire food court is so gross.
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Re: OFFICIAL - Lightwell (formerly City Center Square)

Post by TrolliKC »

mgh7676 wrote: Wed Feb 27, 2019 5:46 pm
KCPowercat wrote: Wed Feb 27, 2019 3:43 pm Curry in a hurry has a loyal following. Another Indian place would be well served replacing them somewhere in the loop.
Kulture Kurry has a spot at H&R Block food court on something like MWF. Wish they (or anyone else) would set up a regular spot downtown.
Is the HR Block food court open to the public? What’s there?
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Re: City Center Square for sale

Post by mgh7676 »

TrolliKC wrote: Fri Mar 01, 2019 12:15 pm
mgh7676 wrote: Wed Feb 27, 2019 5:46 pm
KCPowercat wrote: Wed Feb 27, 2019 3:43 pm Curry in a hurry has a loyal following. Another Indian place would be well served replacing them somewhere in the loop.
Kulture Kurry has a spot at H&R Block food court on something like MWF. Wish they (or anyone else) would set up a regular spot downtown.
Is the HR Block food court open to the public? What’s there?
I only recently found out about the food court when it got brought up (while a co-worker was complaining about Curry in a Hurry leaving). It is open to the public, is much less depressing than City Center, and has a nice salad bar, pizza spot, sandwich spot, and probably some other stuff that I missed. I'll definitely be going back.
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Re: City Center Square for sale

Post by DaveKCMO »

Lightwell renovation sign is up on Main Street entrance.
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Re: City Center Square for sale

Post by wahoowa »

all the tables and chairs in the food court are gone. the remaining food vendors don't appear to have any idea if or when they're coming back. wrap it up lease ends in september, they're being told to leave at that point. presumably the same holds for the rest of the places back there whenever their leases are up.
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Re: City Center Square for sale

Post by earthling »

Wrap it Up is decent counter eats (like the breakfast burrito) and downtown loop lacks enough cheap ethnic counter eats. Hope they find a spot, maybe across from old Mark Twain building.
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Re: City Center Square for sale

Post by KCPowercat »

Agreed. Downtown still had a huge food gap. We need 10x more wrap it up to places
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Re: City Center Square for sale

Post by DaveKCMO »

There’s so much vacant retail space for these places and they might do better with their own storefront than being hidden inside CCS. Maybe even open on nights and weekends!
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Re: City Center Square for sale

Post by smh »

DaveKCMO wrote: Sun Apr 14, 2019 5:14 pm Maybe even open on nights and weekends!
Let's not get crazy
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Re: City Center Square for sale

Post by KCPowercat »

Pretty evil of them to pull all those tables when they have open counter service restaurants.
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wahoowa
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Re: City Center Square for sale

Post by wahoowa »

agreed, surprised that's not a breach of the leases. certainly doesn't endear the new landlord to this unimportant stakeholder.

i get the general sentiment that some of these places might do better or have better hours in a different spot, but i don't think wrap it up is particularly likely to benefit from its own storefront. their breakfast and random snack/drink line of business doesn't seem likely to hold up without the captive audience being in the basement of a commercial building gives them. they already do very well at lunch and it's already a full time job for those guys without expanding hours.

as much as i want to see nights and weekends service, i'd expect a local chain like the mixx or plowboys to be better able to handle expanding hours, and neither of them really do dinner service other than plowboys half-assing it on two or three days or whatever their schedule is. comparatively small operations like the ones in CCS don't seem particularly well set up to transition into that. i'd be happy to be proven wrong, though.

maybe wrap it up should just adversely possess the pickleman's spot. we know pickleman's won't do shit about it in the statutory period.
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Re: City Center Square for sale

Post by KCPowercat »

Yeah I don't see a wrap it up doing weekends but I think street facing storefront would do them a great benefit
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Re: City Center Square for sale

Post by earthling »

A sidewalk facing space even better, with no seating but within public seating. Downtown doesn't seem to have many spaces structured for that, which is more common in larger cities along busy pedestrian stretches.
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Re: City Center Square for sale

Post by herrfrank »

Rumor: Mega-retailer Target will be fitting a small-format store in the former food court of City Center Square (first floor). Between the escalators and the back stairs. All of the food court restaurants/ walls/ fixtures to be removed. Jason's Deli, Domino's, and Starbucks to remain. Rumor from someone who works in facilities in One KC Place (high-rise next door).
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Re: City Center Square for sale

Post by herrfrank »

Also, Wrap-it-up, the Mexican restaurant in the food court will be moving -- sometime this summer -- to a location near 9th and Baltimore.
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smh
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Re: City Center Square for sale

Post by smh »

herrfrank wrote: Tue Apr 16, 2019 12:17 pm Rumor: Mega-retailer Target will be fitting a small-format store in the former food court of City Center Square (first floor). Between the escalators and the back stairs. All of the food court restaurants/ walls/ fixtures to be removed. Jason's Deli, Domino's, and Starbucks to remain. Rumor from someone who works in facilities in One KC Place (high-rise next door).
Could there possibly be enough square footage?
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normalthings
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Re: City Center Square for sale

Post by normalthings »

herrfrank wrote: Tue Apr 16, 2019 12:17 pm Rumor: Mega-retailer Target will be fitting a small-format store in the former food court of City Center Square (first floor). Between the escalators and the back stairs. All of the food court restaurants/ walls/ fixtures to be removed. Jason's Deli, Domino's, and Starbucks to remain. Rumor from someone who works in facilities in One KC Place (high-rise next door).
I am hearing something similar from a few longtime City Center Square office tenants. Office tenants are also saying that the new owners removed the tables,etc to get the retailers to agree to a buy out.
Last edited by normalthings on Tue Apr 16, 2019 4:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Critical_Mass
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Re: City Center Square for sale

Post by Critical_Mass »

Since the new owner is doing extensive remodeling, maybe they could request to have the streetcar stop moved north of 12th st. I'm sure they'd love to have it on their doorstep and there is plenty of space to accommodate a shelter. Still unhappy there is no shelter at Metro Center southbound.
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