Film Row building threatened with demolition

[kboish]

Question: If this garage allows 3 surrounding surface lots to be developed with structures (as they say it will), is it worth it in your opinion?

[chaglang]

Until someone can explain why a garage couldn't be built on the site of one of the surface lots, no.

I'm also skeptical about promises of redevelopment out of SH. She begged the previous owner of the Orion to sell, with promises of preservation and redevelopment. And here we are. She also knows what will placate people now (or at the very least, muddy the discussion). And she knows that she's powerful enough that she doesn't have to follow through on anything she doesn't feel like doing.

[DaveKCMO]

Until someone can explain why a garage couldn't be built on the site of one of the surface lots, no.

I'm also skeptical about promises of redevelopment out of SH. She begged the previous owner of the Orion to sell, with promises of preservation and redevelopment. And here we are. She also knows what will placate people now (or at the very least, muddy the discussion). And she knows that she's powerful enough that she doesn't have to follow through on anything she doesn't feel like doing.

+1

[kboish]

Until someone can explain why a garage couldn't be built on the site of one of the surface lots, no.

I'm also skeptical about promises of redevelopment out of SH. She begged the previous owner of the Orion to sell, with promises of preservation and redevelopment. And here we are. She also knows what will placate people now (or at the very least, muddy the discussion). And she knows that she's powerful enough that she doesn't have to follow through on anything she doesn't feel like doing.

Fair enough.

I agree nothing is likely to happen in the immediate future to overcome tearing down this building.

[chaglang]

I also worry that whatever development happens will be accompanied by more teardowns and parking lots. If she thinks that there is a parking shortage now, what's she going to say if she builds a 16 unit residential building where a surface lot is now? Add 15-30 new cars, remove 15-20 parking spaces, instant parking catastrophe. Yeah, I can absolutely see having this fight over and over with her.

[flyingember]

I think you just put more thought into it than either Shirley Helzberg or Jay Tomlinson have.

yes, I do think so.

you forget they're also looking at tax rates with a financial advisor

an unnecessary but used paid parking lot/structure is better financially for them than a historic building with value they pay property taxes on even when sitting empty

and this is just so conveniently timed to fit in before 2013 reassessment and the streetcar taxes. if you're not planning to do anything with a building but know you're going to tear it down anyways, they timed it perfectly

[KCMax]

Sad.

[FangKC]

http://www.kansascity.com/2013/04/22/41 ... s-old.html

[FangKC]

Pitch article, with more photos.

http://www.pitch.com/FastPitch/archives ... w-is-razed

[FangKC]

YouTube video of the Orion building demolition.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=p ... nLl2SCsZgQ

[KCMax]

Preservationists try to keep the Crossroads' Film Row off the cutting-room floor

Crossroads developer Brad Nicholson says he had a plan for the Orion's future. Nicholson (who is The Pitch's landlord) says he wanted to make the building his office and home.

However, Helzberg convinced him, he says, to sell her the building, saying she wanted to convert it into the office of the Kansas City Symphony. In 2007, satisfied that Helzberg's cause was worthy, Nicholson agreed.

"I would not have sold the property if it was not going to be redeveloped for the symphony," Nicholson says.

Nicholson is still angry, two months after the Orion was turned into a crater. "The cut is deep, and I'm still healing now," he says. "I'm pissed off. I haven't been this mad in a long time."

Rigby says he would welcome some elements of the Old Film Row plan. The theater owner has refurbished several buildings in the area, including the old Commonwealth Theatres Building, at 215 West 18th Street. For that project, he placed four star-shaped plaques in the sidewalk outside the building to honor Joan Crawford, Walt Disney and other Kansas City film luminaries. The concrete around the stars is now crumbling, with hard gray scraps jutting from the sidewalk.

Standing outside the Commonwealth Theatres Building, which he sold several years ago, Rigby points across 18th Street to the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Building.

"That building right there could be stunningly beautiful with a little work," he says.

Old Film Row: an urban-design plan that crumbled

"Common elements recommended for interpretive plaques include the original studio or business name, property address, and interpretive information," the plan reads, in part. "It should be mounted on the building in a manner and location that is accessible to the general public, and should include a studio logo for film industry-related buildings."

In a resolution, the City Council declares: "The Old Film Row Urban Design Concept Plan is hereby recognized as a guide for the future development and redevelopment for that area."

But the plan was probably too expensive. The commemorative plaques alone were estimated to cost $2,500–$4,000, the kiosks $10,000–$20,000 apiece, and street signs $1,000–$1,800 each.

[FangKC]

I don't understand Shirley Helzberg's reasoning for demolishing the Orion Building. I think there could have been another solution to her parking problem.

She has done good work restoring historic buildings, and I will give her credit for that. However, with the Orion demolition, Shirley needs to be closely watched in the future. It appears she mislead Brad Nicholson to get that property. Property owners of historic buildings, and preservationists, should be leery of her motives from now on.

It's too bad. I don't think Shirley realizes how much good will she has lost. Worse yet, she has created enough concern that it will affect anything she tries to do in the future with her other properties, or ones she attempts to buy.

One of the solutions that might start the process to preserving Film Row is for current property owners to apply to place their buildings on the historic register--if they haven't already. They can do this themselves.

I don't know preservation law well enough to know, but I know that in some jurisdictions, a property owner can place protective covenants on the deed of a historic structure themselves to protect against significant alterations or demolition. Current property owners could do this to their buildings. I know there are such historic covenants already in Missouri. Brad Nicholson might have done this with the Orion Building before he sold it to Shirley Helzberg. However, with her history of restoring historic properties, Brad probably trusted her.

Covenants -- Restrictions attached in perpetuity to the deed of an historic property to ensure that the integrity of the structure or the land on which it is situated is protected once the property is sold.

[DaveKCMO]

this wasn't the first tussle between shirley and the crossroads. she wanted GDAP height restrictions changed several years ago and her indifference to concerns was present then.

re: orion, she only sent a proxy (her paid architect) to address neighborhood leaders after she had initiated removal of the building from her 17th Street TIF (therefore eliminating any public review or financing) and the new garage fully designed. coincidentally, said architect just pledged to fully renovate a building of equal or lesser architectural value built in the same decade a few blocks east.

TL;DR - she's on my permanent shit list (not that she cares).

[KC-wildcat]

Meh. sometimes you've gotta take the good with the bad. Arguable that she's done more for the Xroads than any other single person in Kansas City.

[DaveKCMO]

Meh. sometimes you've gotta take the good with the bad. Arguable that she's done more for the Xroads than any other single person in Kansas City.

arguable, indeed. in fact, i don't know anyone that would agree with you.

[KC-wildcat]

Meh. sometimes you've gotta take the good with the bad. Arguable that she's done more for the Xroads than any other single person in Kansas City.

arguable, indeed. in fact, i don't know anyone that would agree with you.

ok.

[FangKC]

I'd argue that Brad Nicholson has done more good for the Crossroads that Shirley has. He's been involved in improving, renovating, marketing, and finding tenants for numerous Crossroads properties.

[DaveKCMO]

I'd argue that Brad Nicholson has done more good for the Crossroads that Shirley has. He's been involved in improving, renovating, marketing, and finding tenants for numerous Crossroads properties.

+1

[KC-wildcat]

I'd argue that Brad Nicholson has done more good for the Crossroads that Shirley has. He's been involved in improving, renovating, marketing, and finding tenants for numerous Crossroads properties.

+1

certainly arguable. that's my point. fact is that Shirley Helzberg is synonomous with XRoads preservation. Obviously, the Orion debacle is a black mark. appears to be a mistake.

We'll see what happens, though. Her developer says that the demolition of the Orion allows consolidation of the multiple Webster surface lots, freeing up such parcels for redevelopment.

my main point, though is that she's done enough great things for downtown (at a time when hoards were fleeing for the burbs) that one development mistake shouldn't demote her to anybody's "permanent shit list."

[aknowledgeableperson]

Her developer says that the demolition of the Orion allows consolidation of the multiple Webster surface lots, freeing up such parcels for redevelopment.

Sometimes one has to take a step back in order to go two forward, to paraphrase a saying. Five or ten years from now this could be seen as a very smart move.