Four Light

[KCPowercat]

Ones now around that price get snatched up quick when they actually hit the market. Lot more demand than supply at this point. I searched for years.

I did to several years ago. I was suckered in by the price before realizing the HOA fees are insane which basically double your mortgage payment. The buildings I looked at didn't have great amenities either.

Yeah DNA did a class for new condo buyers helping them be aware of things like HOA that don't have to worry about in a single family. When I bought my first condo downtown a long time ago I had no idea and didn't get into a great HOA financial situation luckily it worked out as we made it healthier. Was definitely something I was aware of as I searched those years after getting my second one.

[dukuboy1]

Would love to see a neighborhood with brownstone style townhomes, which would not considered condos & have no amenities & crazy HOA’s. Quality Hill is setup like this although almost all rentals. Perhaps a change there where possible & new units/neighborhood could pop up in Paseo West. Especially if Royals go to EV

[smh]

Would love to see a neighborhood with brownstone style townhomes, which would not considered condos & have no amenities & crazy HOA’s. Quality Hill is setup like this although almost all rentals. Perhaps a change there where possible & new units/neighborhood could pop up in Paseo West. Especially if Royals go to EV

While not full neighborhoods, you are seeing a few of these projects pop up. 27th/McGee townhomes were first, now 19th/Locust and Pacific Street in Columbus Park. It would be nice though, I agree, to see a full neighborhood or a few blocks at least of townhomes. Also, as an aside, the city really has to start treating townhomes as SFHs for purposes of trash collection. It is unfair that developments like 27th and McGee have to pay for private collection, to share just one example.

[dukuboy1]

Would love to see a neighborhood with brownstone style townhomes, which would not considered condos & have no amenities & crazy HOA’s. Quality Hill is setup like this although almost all rentals. Perhaps a change there where possible & new units/neighborhood could pop up in Paseo West. Especially if Royals go to EV

While not full neighborhoods, you are seeing a few of these projects pop up. 27th/McGee townhomes were first, now 19th/Locust and Pacific Street in Columbus Park. It would be nice though, I agree, to see a full neighborhood or a few blocks at least of townhomes. Also, as an aside, the city really has to start treating townhomes as SFHs for purposes of trash collection. It is unfair that developments like 27th and McGee have to pay for private collection, to share just one example.

thanks for the update, glad to see there are at least some development a kin to this going up. I would agree that they should benefit from trash collection KC services. I live in in a non-KC city (surrounded by KC) so paying for trash is my normal. But even if they have to pay perhaps an HOA of sorts could help keep the cost minimal to owners and even have a large dumpster for several units to use to place trash bags.

[smh]

Would love to see a neighborhood with brownstone style townhomes, which would not considered condos & have no amenities & crazy HOA’s. Quality Hill is setup like this although almost all rentals. Perhaps a change there where possible & new units/neighborhood could pop up in Paseo West. Especially if Royals go to EV

While not full neighborhoods, you are seeing a few of these projects pop up. 27th/McGee townhomes were first, now 19th/Locust and Pacific Street in Columbus Park. It would be nice though, I agree, to see a full neighborhood or a few blocks at least of townhomes. Also, as an aside, the city really has to start treating townhomes as SFHs for purposes of trash collection. It is unfair that developments like 27th and McGee have to pay for private collection, to share just one example.

thanks for the update, glad to see there are at least some development a kin to this going up. I would agree that they should benefit from trash collection KC services. I live in in a non-KC city (surrounded by KC) so paying for trash is my normal. But even if they have to pay perhaps an HOA of sorts could help keep the cost minimal to owners and even have a large dumpster for several units to use to place trash bags.

Yeah, that is basically how it is working right now. I think at 27th/McGee there are 9 units and they share a common dumpster.

[FangKC]

Would love to see a neighborhood with brownstone style townhomes, which would not considered condos & have no amenities & crazy HOA’s. Quality Hill is setup like this although almost all rentals. Perhaps a change there where possible & new units/neighborhood could pop up in Paseo West. Especially if Royals go to EV

I have bitched about this for years but I think the City should have zoned Beacon Hill for only single-owner townhouses for most of the vacant parcels east of Troost and also allowed alley ADUs. Line Troost with apartment buildings. Then across the highway, it should have been zoned for apartment towers to take advantage of the hilltop views--or at least 7- or 8-story buildings. The townhouses could have had a mix of single-owner plots with no HOA, and some other blocks having HOA situations. If you are going to do condo setups, do small projects of 4-10 units done by different developers so it's easier to find cash buyers to reach the 50 percent sold mortgage rules for the remaining units. You also would get a variety of design styles for the buildings that way.

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.0939748 ... ?entry=ttu

Please let the rest of Columbus Park's HAKC parcels be developed like this and not a bunch of SFHs on plots with yards and setbacks.

[langosta]

Posted May 2022. I hadn't realized how close the B&B theatre rooms are to their common wall with 4 light.

[TheUrbanRoo]

They should have easy access for 4L hotel/apartment residents to use the theatre and jazz lounge in that B&B.

[DColeKC]

Posted May 2022. I hadn't realized how close the B&B theatre rooms are to their common wall with 4 light.

The Midland Apartments faced a similar challenge, as they are situated adjacent to the theater, where noise levels can reach significantly higher decibels. To address this issue, they strategically positioned amenity and common areas closest to the theater. When it comes to Four Light, noise won't be a concern, thanks to the parking garage levels being adjacent to the theater and the amenity level being situated a few floors above the theater's roof.

[im2kull]

Condos would be great. I just always hear they’re far more difficult to get financed. How long has it been since a new condo building hi-rise went up in downtown KC?

As a person who works for a major KC bank in the mortgage division I can confirm condo financing is very tricky. You have to thread a needle of guidelines to get it underwritten & in todays rate environment it’s even more strict.

That said though it would be great for downtown to have more owner occupied properties where possible

They can't be that strict. I see bad loans written for bad condo's with terrible financials and piss poor run HOAs every week. So either they aren't strict, or everyone turns a blind eye to the obvious while accepting inaccurate disclosure documents to push things along. I've seen more inaccurate or missing condo resale certs (despite being required by state law) than I've seen proper ones. It's disgusting and typically benefits one obvious class of citizen while bending over another. The sad part is that most buyers being taken advantage of don't even realize it until it's way to late to do anything about it.

[DColeKC]

Condos would be great. I just always hear they’re far more difficult to get financed. How long has it been since a new condo building hi-rise went up in downtown KC?

As a person who works for a major KC bank in the mortgage division I can confirm condo financing is very tricky. You have to thread a needle of guidelines to get it underwritten & in todays rate environment it’s even more strict.

That said though it would be great for downtown to have more owner occupied properties where possible

They can't be that strict. I see bad loans written for bad condo's with terrible financials and piss poor run HOAs every week. So either they aren't strict, or everyone turns a blind eye to the obvious while accepting inaccurate disclosure documents to push things along. I've seen more inaccurate or missing condo resale certs (despite being required by state law) than I've seen proper ones. It's disgusting and typically benefits one obvious class of citizen while bending over another. The sad part is that most buyers being taken advantage of don't even realize it until it's way to late to do anything about it.

I've always been under the impression that a certain amount of condo units must be sold before construction can take place. I'm not sure if this is true or if it that's just a policy of HUD when they're involved on the lending side of things.

[langosta]

As a person who works for a major KC bank in the mortgage division I can confirm condo financing is very tricky. You have to thread a needle of guidelines to get it underwritten & in todays rate environment it’s even more strict.

That said though it would be great for downtown to have more owner occupied properties where possible

They can't be that strict. I see bad loans written for bad condo's with terrible financials and piss poor run HOAs every week. So either they aren't strict, or everyone turns a blind eye to the obvious while accepting inaccurate disclosure documents to push things along. I've seen more inaccurate or missing condo resale certs (despite being required by state law) than I've seen proper ones. It's disgusting and typically benefits one obvious class of citizen while bending over another. The sad part is that most buyers being taken advantage of don't even realize it until it's way to late to do anything about it.

I've always been under the impression that a certain amount of condo units must be sold before construction can take place. I'm not sure if this is true or if it that's just a policy of HUD when they're involved on the lending side of things.

DColeKC is correct. There is also a 10 year window for condor owners to sue the constructor for damages. Complete non-starter for constructors in this area/at local price points/at any meaningful scale.

One of many documents you sign when building a tower in downtown KC is the agreement that the units will be rental and not condo for a period of 10 years.

[neurosyphilis]

Ones now around that price get snatched up quick when they actually hit the market. Lot more demand than supply at this point. I searched for years.

Same. I still keep an eye on listings and count myself lucky to have gotten my place.

[dukuboy1]

Condos would be great. I just always hear they’re far more difficult to get financed. How long has it been since a new condo building hi-rise went up in downtown KC?

As a person who works for a major KC bank in the mortgage division I can confirm condo financing is very tricky. You have to thread a needle of guidelines to get it underwritten & in todays rate environment it’s even more strict.

That said though it would be great for downtown to have more owner occupied properties where possible

They can't be that strict. I see bad loans written for bad condo's with terrible financials and piss poor run HOAs every week. So either they aren't strict, or everyone turns a blind eye to the obvious while accepting inaccurate disclosure documents to push things along. I've seen more inaccurate or missing condo resale certs (despite being required by state law) than I've seen proper ones. It's disgusting and typically benefits one obvious class of citizen while bending over another. The sad part is that most buyers being taken advantage of don't even realize it until it's way to late to do anything about it.

Yes there are lenders out there who do not care and will underwrite bad loans. They know they will be able to hide them in investment packages when they have too. So the guidelines are there to keep a lot of things at bay, but there are lenders who will look to push the envelope and or find a way to exploit a loophole for their profits. So yes condo financing can happens, and there are legit lenders who do it right. I'm just saying a lot of banks do not touch it because they are either risk adverse, lazy & do not want to invest the time to learn to do it right, or a little of both. But if you have a good project, with good people running it, banks will finance it.

[mourban]

All of Cordish’s residential buildings have been financed with FHA insured 221d4/220 apartment loans. That financing is nonrecourse and is very advantageous for the developer, so I doubt they’d stray from that to build condos or a hotel.

[Chris Stritzel]

Not sure if it's for this or something else, but there were some guys on site Friday afternoon with those electric eye survey machine things. They were on the Truman side when I went by one time then on Baltimore another time. If it's for this, something's cooking.

[FangKC]

That used to be the site of the Armacost Studebaker dealership.

https://kchistory.org/image/armacost-st ... ffset%5D=0

https://kchistory.org/image/president- ... ffset%5D=1

Before that, it was the site of a Pen-Jac gasoline station.

https://kchistory.org/image/president-h ... fset%5D=15

[shinatoo]

That used to be the site of the Armacost Studebaker dealership.

https://kchistory.org/image/armacost-st ... ffset%5D=0

https://kchistory.org/image/president- ... ffset%5D=1

Before that, it was the site of a Pen-Jac gasoline station.

https://kchistory.org/image/president-h ... fset%5D=15

John Armacost bought Peterson MFG and his son moved it to Grandview where they built a replica of the Armacost dealership onsite. They have four full-time staff that restore Studebakers. My dad used to call it the ESOP museum. Have dozens of classic cars in addition to all the Studebakers. They supplied most of the cars for the Mr. and Mrs. Bird movie. Unfortunately, it's a private collection.

Peterson's claim to fame through the late '90 was that from the 1950's to the 90s they made about 90% of all the bicycle pumps sold in the US. They also developed the first LED brake light for semis and made most of the lights and reflectors for Crysler and Harley Davidson.

Sorry for the tangent.

[FangKC]

There's a thread on it.

viewtopic.php?t=15127

Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk8-_eHWl9w&t=145s

[shinatoo]

There's a thread on it.

viewtopic.php?t=15127

Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk8-_eHWl9w&t=145s

Shit, 15 years ago! Forgot I had posted in there.