Downtown Baseball Stadium

[DColeKC]

KC Star reporting KC Star site back on the table.

https://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-c ... =247774433

Huge (but could be a negotiating ploy nonetheless).

Interesting tidbit in the article:

Last week, Royals owner John Sherman and team president Brooks Sherman, who are not related, were scheduled to meet with Mayor Quinton Lucas at Populous, the chosen designers for the new Royals ballpark, in a gathering that also included Blake Cordish, records obtained by The Star show. Cordish is a principal at the Cordish Companies, the developer behind Kansas City’s Power & Light District and One Light, Two Light and Three Light luxury apartments. The company has developed several sports-anchored districts across the country. It is the first time any member of the company has been publicly identified as being involved in the Royals’ stadium meetings.

Read more at: https://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-c ... rylink=cpy

Keep in mind, KC Star has the best through line to the Royals via Sam Mellinger.

From my post on 11/9, "Regardless of all that, I think we will see some interesting new developments soon and we may want to toss out all we currently think we know."

Wish I could say more, but some exciting progress is being made.

[KCPowercat]

Would be an amazing location. Imagine it being tied to the 670 park.

Then just let the East Village build out, maybe around a new soccer stadium.

Please don't tear out a thriving neighborhood. Imagine the parking and access to highway bitching from there as well.

[Anthony_Hugo98]

Would be a colossal waste to utilize that site, which is predominantly occupied buildings, instead of infilling the massive gaping hole in our downtown area, but that’s just me…

[DColeKC]

Would be an amazing location. Imagine it being tied to the 670 park.

Then just let the East Village build out, maybe around a new soccer stadium.

Please don't tear out a thriving neighborhood. Imagine the parking and access to highway bitching from there as well.

That's a strange way to look at it. I see it as adding to a thriving neighborhood and adding to the billions we've already invested in downtown opposed to creating a new little neighborhood that would just compete with all we've already invested in.

Parking and highway access would be addressed and this could be a far better deal for the tax payers.

[GRID]

Would be an amazing location. Imagine it being tied to the 670 park.

Then just let the East Village build out, maybe around a new soccer stadium.

Please don't tear out a thriving neighborhood. Imagine the parking and access to highway bitching from there as well.

I mean there are some nice businesses but are the blocks around the Star press really "thriving"? Honest question.

Looking at google, I see a church at 16th and Grand that has moved in and apparently needs 75% of an entire block for parking. 90% of McGeee facing the Star building is surface parking lots.

Most of the buildings on Grand and Oak don't look particularly amazing and worth holding back a 2 billion dollar development, but who knows where the actual footprint of the stadium would be.

Would it be over the highway? Does this also include the County Jail and state office building areas?

I think you need more info. I get not wanting to tear anything down, but that star building has become a giant while elephant and a barrier to downtown walkability and connectability and the basic land use of that area is still very low density even if there are a few bars or what not there.

Maybe if they came up with a good enough plan, it would be worth any losses.

[DColeKC]

Would be a colossal waste to utilize that site, which is predominantly occupied buildings, instead of infilling the massive gaping hole in our downtown area, but that’s just me…

Well, once a decision is made and if that decision isn't EV, you'd think the land bankers would have no reason to sit on it anymore and could get started on development. It's only never been developed because they've been planning for a baseball stadium for the last decade.

This would allow them to be move on.

[Rusty Irish]

Would be a colossal waste to utilize that site, which is predominantly occupied buildings, instead of infilling the massive gaping hole in our downtown area, but that’s just me…

Yeah lets not continue to over complicate and unnecessarily drag out this process.

[GRID]

Would be a colossal waste to utilize that site, which is predominantly occupied buildings, instead of infilling the massive gaping hole in our downtown area, but that’s just me…

I get it. I guess I'm just curious to see what they come up with.

[droopy]

I would be curious to see a plan. I feel like this site was debated to death a few months ago too. Oak has several viable businesses (with more to come?? What happed to Green Dirt Farm cafe??) with The Pairing and Chartuesse Saloon. South of the press on McGee is thriving with constant weddings in the event space, Brick River cider place, a hair salon (never seen it open but I’m not on the block during business hours) a church that seems pollutant, Casual Animal which is very popular, The Brick, etc.

The land bankers and Resurrection Church I suspect will be happy to collect high parking fees for this lots. I hope developers will build out those surface lots I just won’t hold my breath on it.

I just saying this again to say that the crossroads is one of the few organically developing/growing areas in this city. I don’t think plunking a stadium into it helps. It may get some surface lots developed but likely by national chain leasing companies which will change the positive stuff that has been going on the last couple decades.

[DColeKC]

Would be a colossal waste to utilize that site, which is predominantly occupied buildings, instead of infilling the massive gaping hole in our downtown area, but that’s just me…

Yeah lets not continue to over complicate and unnecessarily drag out this process.

It's a billion dollar investment and something that will impact downtown for the next 3 decades or more. They need to get the location right and EV just isn't exciting. It may be the easiest, but it's not the most ideal.

Might as well try and make the right choice while also attempting to get the costs down, considering how JaCo has been so far.

[taxi]

Well, once a decision is made and if that decision isn't EV, you'd think the land bankers would have no reason to sit on it anymore and could get started on development. It's only never been developed because they've been planning for a baseball stadium for the last decade.

This would allow them to be move on.

Wrong. Two decades, at least.

[DColeKC]

I would be curious to see a plan. I feel like this site was debated to death a few months ago too. Oak has several viable businesses (with more to come?? What happed to Green Dirt Farm cafe??) with The Pairing and Chartuesse Saloon. South of the press on McGee is thriving with constant weddings in the event space, Brick River cider place, a hair salon (never seen it open but I’m not on the block during business hours) a church that seems pollutant, Casual Animal which is very popular, The Brick, etc.

The land bankers and Resurrection Church I suspect will be happy to collect high parking fees for this lots. I hope developers will build out those surface lots I just won’t hold my breath on it.

I just saying this again to say that the crossroads is one of the few organically developing/growing areas in this city. I don’t think plunking a stadium into it helps. It may get some surface lots developed but likely by national chain leasing companies which will change the positive stuff that has been going on the last couple decades.

Valid concerns but I think the crossroads has already started to see the shift to less "grassroots" which seems like natural progression anytime development happens and it starts to spread.

We're also talking about a stadium that would take up 16 acres when the "crossroads" district is almost 400 acres. I know many in here disagree with me, but I think the pros a stadium brings to the area far outweigh the cons.

[DMNBT_RCJH]

I agree with everything DCole and GRID have said. This is, IMO, the most impactful site.

Can it work? I don't know. That's for the good folks at Populous and traffic engineers to figure out.

Building an organic ballpark village in the EV always seemed far fetched.

[Rusty Irish]

The Crossroads has more natural existing energy and on top of the higher volume of current tenants. I see the smaller individual lots as having more development potential than any in EV on their own and it has more fundamentals in place as is to try and build some cohesiveness, although obviously the Star building would leave a gaping hole, but again you're flattening way more to have to make this work. EV however I just cannot see any major wholescale change without the ballpark district and the scale of the buildings proposed plus the ballpark itself I feel aesthetically blends much better into the surrounding streetscape there. Its a hard sell otherwise, its a much more barren site. I also don't get that the Star site would be seen as an overly better connection to Power and Light. Google has it as 0.5 v 0.3 miles to be precise, pretty much splitting hairs, and it would still be cut off by the south loop gap as opposed to a visible highway. EV is definitely for me the lesser of two evils, thats essentially why I think they are at risk of overthinking this, to the point it puts an April vote in jeopardy.

[TheSmokinPun]

Nah, the Crossroads doesn't need this to add to their community. It needs to be in EV, it just makes sense.

Think the church wouldn't sell anyways which makes me feel like it's DOA in any scenario.

[DMNBT_RCJH]

Looking at the land records, I'm not entirely sure that a lot of the land hasn't already been consolidated.

Matt Abott or a Matt Abbott entity owns a lot, then the KC Star building, a self storage business (almost assuredly PE sponsored who is not going to turn down a profitable exit for its LPs), and then a couple of random owners.

[DColeKC]

Nah, the Crossroads doesn't need this to add to their community. It needs to be in EV, it just makes sense.

Think the church wouldn't sell anyways which makes me feel like it's DOA in any scenario.

The church isn't historic and could take the money and build bigger and better, likely a block or so away. I know that's a bit wasteful but nothing crazy when thinking about the longterm. Also, the city has tools available to them that can make obtaining land anywhere possible.

I've always felt building in EV is just taking the lay up. I want a slam dunk. I know we are development enthusiast in here, so I'm not surprised that many people would prefer to fill up vacant space over pulling down existing property.

We've talked to death about why EV doesn't feel naturally attached or a part of all the progress and energy.

I'll take a downtown stadium over nothing, but the star sight is perfection in my book.

[beautyfromashes]

Heard tonight from credible source that Royals have competition for the EV site. They better stop messing around if they want that location. ::back to my hole::

[Chris Stritzel]

East Village still is the best bet for this because it's been on the mind of the Royals for a long time now. Beyond that...
- There are few structures that would need to be demolished (compared to a ton for the Crossroads location).
- Fewer street vacations.
- More property owned by the City of KC (easy to flip to the Royals).
- Basically no businesses in the East Village.
- Addition: Crossroads doesn't have the parking garages necessary to support a stadium. Yes, debate me on this point, but let's be real here. If the stadium goes into the Crossroads, expect tons of additional garages to be built resulting in the loss of other properties. East Village is close enough to numerous garages that the "need" to build more is less.

From a practical standpoint, East Village is the winner. Crossroads is only viable if you think the idea of spending considerable amounts of money to demolish tons of buildings, and their infrastructure (water, sewer, gas, electric lines), is worth it. I cannot be convinced that it's the better deal.

If you're going to go through that much trouble, go with the North KC site. It's comparable in complexity.

You already have one business Madison Finch at 501 E 16th) saying they won't sell https://twitter.com/madisonflitch/statu ... 9904338229

[DColeKC]

East Village still is the best bet for this because it's been on the mind of the Royals for a long time now. Beyond that...
- There are few structures that would need to be demolished (compared to a ton for the Crossroads location).
- Fewer street vacations.
- More property owned by the City of KC (easy to flip to the Royals).
- Basically no businesses in the East Village.
- Addition: Crossroads doesn't have the parking garages necessary to support a stadium. Yes, debate me on this point, but let's be real here. If the stadium goes into the Crossroads, expect tons of additional garages to be built resulting in the loss of other properties. East Village is close enough to numerous garages that the "need" to build more is less.

From a practical standpoint, East Village is the winner. Crossroads is only viable if you think the idea of spending considerable amounts of money to demolish tons of buildings, and their infrastructure (water, sewer, gas, electric lines), is worth it. I cannot be convinced that it's the better deal.

If you're going to go through that much trouble, go with the North KC site. It's comparable in complexity.

You already have one business Madison Finch at 501 E 16th) saying they won't sell https://twitter.com/madisonflitch/statu ... 9904338229

You’re missing the most important part. How it fits into the fabric of downtown and what’s best for the fans from an entertainment perspective. A stadium at the star press site opens and from day one feels like it belongs with its surroundings. Close to existing hotels, apartments, parking, restaurants, bars and other forms of entertainment.

The additional costs to level existing structures is mitigated by the savings on underground infrastructure costs. The east village site needs a lot of ground work with its elevation change whereas the crossroads site is slightly less complicated. The deep basement and foundation of the star press building may also offer some savings.

Lastly, this site takes advantage of its surroundings and adds value to the existing businesses and property owners whereas the EV site would need to do that all on its own. The stadium is the anchor tenant at EV site that risks harming prior investment by private investors and more importantly, it could be detrimental to subsidized developments that sure as hell don’t need a dip in the tax revenues they generate.

I honestly think the better bet is the star press site because of the key people behinds the scenes in support of it. There’s alignment amongst the right folks.