Misc Crossroads News

[DaveKCMO]

The article doesn't say Novel is moving, just that Ryan Brazeal is opening something in the East Crossroads. ... Dave, was that a mis-read, or do you know something?

Anyway, great to see all these new places popping up in the East Crossroads! I have a feeling that McGee between 18th and 19th is going to be one of the city's most active streets in a few more years. It would be nice if the city would invest in some streetscaping.

my impression is that novel intends to move.

street trees were recently installed along mcgee, thanks to the city, bridging the gap, and the heartland tree alliance.

[pash]

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[JBmidtown]

I work next to Novel in the Westside and got to talk to Ryan about the McGee location. They still have a long lease at their current location so won't be moving anytime soon and it sounds like the McGee building is just being sat on. Bummer

[flyingember]

The McGee building being sat on was going to be torn down as of a few months ago to be more parking. I checked on the address and they own the former Cadillac Catering building now.

The paper didn't do near enough reporting to know for certain but I would guess they saved the building. I'll take sitting on it if that's the result.

If you weren't on the twitter thread back last winter it became known for the graffiti on the construction barrier that said, and I quote, "fuck parking"

[FangKC]

I don't think anything significant will happen for awhile--until larger parcels are developed first along Main, Walnut, and Grand. There are just more attractive parcels to develop for residential than the East Crossroads.

It's difficult to have any hope that things will happen there in the near future seeing that development in the East Village has been so difficult to get done. I thought more would have been built there by now.

What has held up the East Village development? Itseems like there's enough demand in the loop/CBD to finish that project

Well, I would say it is because of change in developers. Van Trust Real Estate has joined the original developer Swope Community Builders. The change in the development partnership probably reset the plan to the beginning. Because of this, they probably started over with having an architecture firm draw up a new plan, etc. Van Trust also probably has a different set of financing partners to access capital, so they have to be on-board with the new concept and plan.

The first project reported in the Kansas CIty Star awhile back with Van Trust on board is a 180-unit apartment building and a 270-space garage at 10th and Holmes streets. This parcel is the former site of J.E. Dunn's old building. For comparison sake, Market Station in the RIver Market is 323 units.

That report said the neighborhood could include as many as 600 apartments and modern office space, focusing on low-rise buildings. That number of apartments is markedly reduced from the original plan, which had 1200 apartments.

I'm disappointed that the number of apartments planned for the neighborhood has been reduced by half.

[FangKC]

Novel's Ryan Brazeal not sure yet what he'll do with 1935 McGee

The new owner of that building and its neighboring structure on the northeast corner of 20th and McGee, Ryan Brazeal — chef-owner of Novel Restaurant at 815 West 17th Street — says he's talking with architects and his bank to see whether the building can be saved.

"I'd still like to do something in the Crossroads," Brazeal tells me. But how soon?

"It still may need to come down," says Brazeal, who adds that he bought the two buildings "as an investment." (The one that isn't boarded up is now leased by a company called Building Keepers.) "The building had some issues long before 2012," he says. "There had been a fire there in the 1940s that affected the roof even then."

But Brazeal, who says he outgrew the space that Novel currently leases from developer Adam Jones "before the restaurant even opened to the public," would like to put a restaurant at 1935 McGee if the building is viable. "We're just weighing our options right now," he says. "We have no plans."

http://www.pitch.com/FastPitch/archives ... 1935-mcgee

[pash]

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[shinatoo]

That's the old convention hall that burnt to the ground

[flyingember]

That's the old convention hall that burnt to the ground

I assume you mean it is the replacement to that one. It matches that nicely.

If this is 1915 that's 15 years after the fire

[Eon Blue]

Look at that row of buildings on Main north of the Globe Building - how fantastic would those be today? The one behind them on Baltimore is pretty impressively-scaled, too.

Does anyone know what that large building over around Oak is?

I believe the large complex south of the Globe was a brewery.

[pash]

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[JBmidtown]

it's heartbreaking to see just how much has been needlessly lost.

[FangKC]

The large building over on Oak is the old YMCA building. The brewery complex south of the Globe Building was the former Muehlebach Brewery before the operation was moved to the River Market area. Muehlebach took over another brewery that existed there, then later it became the Schlitz Brewery. If I recall, at one time there were three breweries operating on various corners of 3rd and Grand.

[moderne]

The "row houses" in the lower right are the McClure Flats, a notorious filthy cheap slum that was infamous for crime. It is amazing how close in proximity were high end properties to the lowest.

[flyingember]

The "row houses" in the lower right are the McClure Flats, a notorious filthy cheap slum that was infamous for crime. It is amazing how close in proximity were high end properties to the lowest.

Go to New Orleans. They still have this proximity across parts of town.

[chingon]

Stop posting pictures like this. It's likely looking at high school yearbooks and noticing how pretty all the girls you didn't date were.

[Midtownkid]

I love how the white terra cotta buildings downtown contrast with all the brick in that image.

Wasn't the brewery torn down for the TWA building? Shame, but I do love the TWA too.

[flyingember]

Wasn't the brewery torn down for the TWA building? Shame, but I do love the TWA too.

The timing may be off, but that's the same location.

The TWA building didn't go up until 1956 but the brewery closed in 1930 and reopened in the new location in 1937. So there's 26 years between the two events.

Wonder what happened during those years?

[Demosthenes]

The "row houses" in the lower right are the McClure Flats, a notorious filthy cheap slum that was infamous for crime. It is amazing how close in proximity were high end properties to the lowest.

They may have been a slum and home to crime, but I sure wish they still existed. Isn't that the location of the enormous parking lots on Grand? Man things looked so different.

[DaveKCMO]

zebedee's RPM (now revolution records) reopens at 1830 locust on august 7: http://www.pitch.com/FastPitch/archives ... a-new-name