OFFICIAL - Waddell & Reed - 14th & Baltimore

[normalthings]

I feel like W&R wants a big tall grandiose tower DT with a lighted sign but don’t have the employees to fill it so they’re loading up the levels of parking to try and build height. Why do all these companies have to have dedicated standalone towers? Have two elevator bays and partner with another midsize company. Or, build several more floors of office and rent them out.

They are on a tight deadline for 2022 move in.

[normalthings]

Making the WR ~950 space garage open on weekends pretty much single handily replaces BAP garage. This and Strata adds ~1600 spaces to public (convention center) supply during weekends. Both are about a 2 block walk from BAP and are actually closer to some aspects of the convention center than BAP is. Strata and WR are closer to Sprint Center. WR is closer to the Ballroom and Kauffman Center. Both are closer to the streetcar and the hotels popping up along it.

This seems like too good of an idea to ever happen.

I’m not sure what part of that idea is too good to happen? Strata is already committed to being open to the public and it sounds like WR is as well.

It sounds to me like the weekend BAP demand is more than covered already by those 2 garages. The city just has to figure out what to do during the week. Weekday events should be able to use the PAC garage and in my experience have a higher % or flyers. Not to mention that we have large hotels with their own garages (Loews, Crown Plaza). So really only a small replacement garage is probably needed at BAP to cover weekday overflow or for when PAC garage is closed due to performances.

[beautyfromashes]

It would have made a lot more sense for WR to combine their HQ with a hotel or condos. However, they are on a tight deadline for 2022 move in. A bigger mixed-use or office building may not have been able to open up on time.

Which is why they should stick with office floors. I can guarantee they could double their number of floors and it would be fully leased by the time the building opens in 2022.

[normalthings]

It would have made a lot more sense for WR to combine their HQ with a hotel or condos. However, they are on a tight deadline for 2022 move in. A bigger mixed-use or office building may not have been able to open up on time.

Which is why they should stick with office floors. I can guarantee they could double their number of floors and it would be fully leased by the time the building opens in 2022.

A bigger office building may not have been able to open up on time. A mid-sized partner as you proposed would bump the building up to 500K SQFT office or about 1.2 million SQFT total for the project (office+parking+other).

I have no doubts that they would be able to lease it before it opened. I do however doubt that they would be able to open it in time. Texas Tower is about 1 million SQFT and is taking about 3-4 years to construct. WR, on the other hand, is looking at 1 -1.5 years.

[beautyfromashes]

WR, on the other hand, is looking at 1 -1.5 years.

You said a 2022 move in. You can build a 25-30 story in 2.5 years, especially if 10 levels of above ground parking is part of that.

[normalthings]

WR, on the other hand, is looking at 1 -1.5 years.

You said a 2022 move in. You can build a 25-30 story in 2.5 years, especially if 10 levels of above ground parking is part of that.

You are right. I confused myself there.

[FangKC]

I feel like W&R wants a big tall grandiose tower DT with a lighted sign but don’t have the employees to fill it so they’re loading up the levels of parking to try and build height. Why do all these companies have to have dedicated standalone towers? Have two elevator bays and partner with another midsize company. Or, build several more floors of office and rent them out.

They would probably share a tower with another company--at another location--if it not for the connection of the Merriman family to W&R, and that family's ownership of the parcel at 14th and Baltimore.

It explains the site choice, since it's not really the greatest site for prominent corporate headquarters.

If you want a showy corporate sign atop a "skyline-changing building", 13th and Grand is the site. That shows up on postcards. Fourteenth and Baltimore will allow that to some extent, but only from a few angles. The Loews will block it directly from the south. Four Light will block it from the east. New buildings on both corners of Truman and Main--south of 670--might block it from the southeast.

The only way it wouldn't be blocked at that location is to build a much taller building than what they have planned--taller than everything else planned around the site.

[KC_JAYHAWK]

Is B&M the primary architect on this project? If so, they need to stick to engineering power plants or airports.

[FangKC]

B&M has a partnership with the Merriman family (Americo), who owns the parcel, on the airport project.

To give some context here, the Merrimans were the primary driving force behind all the development on Quality Hill.

[KCPowercat]

we obviously have plenty of parking supply in this city but it's all been hoarded and not shared by those who "own" it even though the city helps build it so it's not available to the public to use. Any parking funded by the city going forward should be 100% shared all day. Don't want that as a business? Fine, build it yourself.

[jasty5]

I have seen the actual renderings of the building, and I do think it looks much better than the rough drawings posted on here. I wasn’t able to tell in the rendering whether there are three car entrances, that is disappointing if so.

Hoping that initial feedback gets incorporated to improve the overall design.

[KCPowercat]

I have seen the actual renderings of the building, and I do think it looks much better than the rough drawings posted on here. I wasn’t able to tell in the rendering whether there are three car entrances, that is disappointing if so.

Hoping that initial feedback gets incorporated to improve the overall design.

If it's 60% above ground garage with offices above it's not going to be good enough. Shame on the city and W&R for thinking it would be.

[beautyfromashes]

The Loews will block it directly from the south.

Loews is 24 stories? Adding 10 floors would get the sign above Loews in a prominent view from Liberty Memorial. I would imagine that would bring some strong value.

[langosta]

The Loews will block it directly from the south.

Loews is 24 stories? Adding 10 floors would get the sign above Loews in a prominent view from Liberty Memorial. I would imagine that would bring some strong value.

Isn’t Loews also on a significant hill?

[beautyfromashes]

Isn’t Loews also on a significant hill?

It basically straddles a cliff with the entrance on the lower height, the same as the W&R (proposed) location.

[FangKC]

They are both about the same height. Loew's is 24 stories. W&R building is reportedly 250 ft. tall.

[langosta]

Do we know at all if W/R knew that the incentive down grade was going to happen ahead of time?

[Eon Blue]

Making the WR ~950 space garage open on weekends pretty much single handily replaces BAP garage. This and Strata adds ~1600 spaces to public (convention center) supply during weekends. Both are about a 2 block walk from BAP and are actually closer to some aspects of the convention center than BAP is. Strata and WR are closer to Sprint Center. WR is closer to the Ballroom and Kauffman Center. Both are closer to the streetcar and the hotels popping up along it.

This seems like too good of an idea to ever happen.

I’m not sure what part of that idea is too good to happen? Strata is already committed to being open to the public and it sounds like WR is as well.

It sounds to me like the weekend BAP demand is more than covered already by those 2 garages. The city just has to figure out what to do during the week. Weekday events should be able to use the PAC garage and in my experience have a higher % or flyers. Not to mention that we have large hotels with their own garages (Loews, Crown Plaza). So really only a small replacement garage is probably needed at BAP to cover weekday overflow or for when PAC garage is closed due to performances.

My post was sarcastic. The laser-guided focus of the city on building a massive garage on this parcel does not give me hope of working out a sensible solution like this. It feels like the Westport vacation issue, where it was preordained to happen no matter what other ideas are offered.

[KCPowercat]

We have GDAP but we need a detailed plan for some of our focus streets. 14th could have been one of those.

[DColeKC]

I understand the concern with friendly pedestrian access and ground floor retail, publicly available space etc. I would love to see a very cool building but at the end of the day, if they build a square cube that's boring AF, I'm ok with it and the incentives. 1000 jobs at 150k/year is far more important than a marvel of a building. I also understand needing to provide pubic parking access when public money is involved and a surface parking lot is going away, however this has proven to be hard to execute. Very limited daily public parking exists in the Two Light garage and it's a cluster. It's also not a revenue driver, so it's not like the city could recoup it's investment.

What's the alternative parking solution to a building like this if you don't make it the first several floors? More ugly standalone parking garages? More surface parking? I think I'll take the lower floors being a parking garage, clad in a nice finish.