KCRag Forum

Partners detail $71M plan for Commerce Tower

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/n ... 3&page=all

awesome that they're seeking an historic register listing. guess that means no balconies...

Collison: Commerce Tower redevelopment plan moves forward

The $71 million project being pursued by a group called Kansas City Sustainable Development Partners received unanimous approval for a 10-year, 100 percent property tax abatement from the Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority....

The developers plan to continue using about half of the building, 160,000 square feet, as office space. Besides apartments, the developers believe Park University will continue to be a tenant, and other uses will include a childcare center.

Downtown Kansas City has gone through so many changes this past 8 years. The next three years will bring even more changes to the skyline, composition and demographics as we put in the street car starter line, One Light Tower and the renovation/rehab of many buildings into market rate apartments. I'm hoping the new downtown YMCA gets underway during that time and that all the developements and changes will bring someone on board to turn the Federal Reserve into apartments/condos or an upscale hotel.

Even the City Market is upgrading with the new apartments west of populous and the initial housing phase in Columbus Park. The builder of the townhouse off Wyandotte is seriously considering the build out of several more units which would infill those surface lots.

I'm really excited about our future and look forward to seeing all the changes.

Part of the proposed redevelopment agreement before the LCRA, however, gave board chairman Michael Duffy pause.
Duffy questioned the 20 percent, $9.4 million developer's fee included in the project, calling it a higher-than-average figure.
But Bob Long, a development services specialist with the Economic Development Corp. of Kansas City, said a 20 percent developer's fee was typical for historic renovation projects.

I can almost guarantee that the $9.4m figure will come up when the Missouri Legislature takes another run at the tax credits next year.

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/n ... merce.html

Does it seem appropriate? A GC often get 20%.

grovester wrote:Does it seem appropriate? A GC often get 20%.

It does, but in a debate that only focuses on numbers and not context, it looks bad. Along the same lines, the Mayberry Machiavellis love to cite how much the state pays out in tax credits, but never mention that the state gains several times that amount that in economic investment as a result.

Gotcha. Folks always seem to think that's free money.

chaglang wrote:

grovester wrote:Does it seem appropriate? A GC often get 20%.

It does, but in a debate that only focuses on numbers and not context, it looks bad. Along the same lines, the Mayberry Machiavellis love to cite how much the state pays out in tax credits, but never mention that the state gains several times that amount that in economic investment as a result.

a good point

I like handouts that come with strings attached, auditing and results you can see. like if it over and over a program gets us a return, let's keep it. if a specific handout doesn't, let's stop doing it.

there was that story about the economic assistance to some factory project where both the city/county and state were going to pitch in. then it turned out the whole thing was a scam. the state had benchmarked the assistance to creating jobs, was actually going to check, and was out nothing as a result. that's my kind of assistance.

that relates to the big issue with the KS-MO stealing. there was that whole article that showed the state of KS isn't decently auditing it's handouts based on job creation. and that's wrong.

Developers always charge the maximum that the DED will allow for a development fee. That way, they maximize the amount of tax credits. It is mainly set by precedent and this is what they have historically allowed. If the DED allowed 95%, they would charge that.

Anyone recall how the elevator banks are set up? Are 10-24 serviced directly by at least 2 lifts and 1 freight lift?

Excuse maybe a dumb question, but is Commerce Bank no longer in the building? Where are they now?

Sorta dumb question, look up, can't hide a 20 story building on 10th st.

beautyfromashes wrote:Excuse maybe a dumb question, but is Commerce Bank no longer in the building? Where are they now?

the one that sold is the Commerce Tower

Right now they're in the Commerce Trust Building and Commerce Bank Building and AT&T Building (811 Main)

I guess I'd look up if I worked at 10th street, but I don't and no ones given me a reason to be there for anything else. --::crickets in the north loop::

Commerce Tower Redevelopment picks contractor, architect

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/n ... 2013-12-03

Anyone notice that a month or two ago the lights on the Commerce 'globe' on the north side of the building changed from red to green?

moderne wrote:Anyone recall how the elevator banks are set up? Are 10-24 serviced directly by at least 2 lifts and 1 freight lift?

There are two banks of elevators -- with I believe four elevators per bank. The lowrise elevator bank also includes a separate, keyed elevator that goes down 30 feet into the sub-basement to the vault, which by the way, is still leased by Commerce Bank.

It would be a logistical nightmare if Commerce had to vacate the vault, as customers have had those safe deposit boxes for decades and may visit downtown infrequently. Some may even come to KC only rarely. Last time I was in the vault, the attendant indicated that Commerce had a very long term lease (50 years IIRC), and had no intention of ever giving up the cavern.

Eon Blue wrote:Anyone notice that a month or two ago the lights on the Commerce 'globe' on the north side of the building changed from red to green?

Yes -- green is the corporate color, but the lights were red for many years.

Eon Blue wrote:Anyone notice that a month or two ago the lights on the Commerce 'globe' on the north side of the building changed from red to green?

It looks a lot nicer, not sure why. But I like it.