KCRag Forum

FangKC wrote: ↑Fri Aug 23, 2019 4:37 pm I just wish the Boulevard Manor Hotel building could be pulled out of the fingers of the Abnos clan, and included in this development.

Well it is still for sale. They listed it with a new broker not too long ago for $1.2M.

Baseless speculation: maybe the reason for the delay in MAC releasing their updated/final plan is that they are working on acquiring this building.

Periodic reminder that Abnos paid somewhere south of $15k for that building and has done nothing to add to its value.

Abnos probably needs MAC more than he would want to admit. If he misses out on being part of their development, he has a 140+ unit building with 0 parking spaces, rendering it effectively worthless.

Any update for MAC's planned retail/residential on all 4 corners of Armour/Troost? No action for quite a while it seems.

Nothing that I have heard. There was the issuing of bonds in August and subsequent demolition on the NE corner. The last projected groundbreaking date was spring of 2020, so that still seems like a possibility, but that would mean updated plans/renderings may need to come out fairly soon to start going through the approval processes.

520 Armour is beginning construction in earnest and the Red Cross building renovation is well under way, so those might be pushing the 4 corners project to the back burner.

The car and bicycle lanes on Armour west of Cherry Street have been shifted south, with long term construction barriers. I assume this is for the Cherry & Armour new construction project.

Centric is listed as the GC on Parcel Viewer for the footings and foundations package.

Helix is the architect; contact is Kaitlyn Davis.

STREET - EAST ARMOUR BLVD CONTRACTOR MAY CLOSE Date:
AND OCCUPY THE NORTH CURB LANE OF EAST ARMOUR
BLVD FROM THE WEST CURB LANE OF CHERRY STREET TO
APPROX 215 FEET WEST.

STREET - CHERRY STREET CONTRACTOR MAY CLOSE AND Date: FROM: 09-Oct-2019 TO: 09-Nov-2020
OCCUPY THE SIDEWALK WEST OF AND ADJACENT TO
CHERRY STREET FROM THE SOUTH CURB LANE OF GILLHAM
ROAD TO THE NORTH CURB LANE OF EAST ARMOUR BLVD.

SIDEWALK - EAST ARMOUR BLVD CONTRACTOR MAY Date: FROM: 09-Oct-2019 TO: 09-Nov-2020
CLOSE AND OCCUPY THE SIDEWALK NORTH OF AND
ADJACENT TO EAST ARMOUR BLVD FROM THE EAST CURB
LANE OF LOCUST STREET TO THE WEST CURB LANE OF
CHERRY STREET.

PARKING LANE - EAST ARMOUR BLVD CONTRACTOR MAY
CLOSE AND OCCUPY THE SOUTH CURB LANE OF ARMOUR
BLVD FROM THE EAST CURB LANE OF LOCUST TO APPROX
215 FEET EAST FOR KEEPING BIKE LANE OPEN.

General plans, renderings, and sketches for the 4 buildings at Armour and Troost are available through this Compass KC permit.

The plan includes:
NW Corner(3438 Troost)

• 8 story building, 102 apts, 87 parking spaces, 3,300 sqft retail

NE Corner(1108 E Armour Blvd)

• 5 story building, 51 apts, 20 parking spaces, 2,500 sqft retail

SE Corner(3501 Troost)

• 5 story building, 48 apts, 20 parking spaces, 3,500 sqft retail

SW Corner(3500 Troost)

• 8 story building, 139 apts, 60 parking spaces, 3,700 sqft retail

Total Project

• 340 apts, 187 parking spaces, 13,000 sqft retail

KCDowntown

“Sketchy renderings”

Images not showing for me

Those developments will be so transformative

It looks like the proposed start date is now September 2020. Beginning with the NE corner and starting each new building 3 months in succession, with the last building completed September 2022.

I’m old enough to remember when this was rumored to be 4 10-story buildings, before Hyde Park cried about parking.

MAC Submits Armour Crossing Design, Plan Commission Next Up

https://cityscenekc.com/mac-submits-ar ... n-next-up/

Very excited about how this project has shaped up. It's not 4 10-story buildings but the scale and parking ratios are all very good and are a great counterpoint to other proposed developments like the thing along the riverfront.

Balancing requests from each of the three neighborhoods could not have been easy.

There is a public meeting about this project on 12/11 at Central Presbyterian Church, for those interested in attending.

Sad thing is on the neighborhood pages people are still complaining. They will never be happy and only want to hold the city back.

Yeah, I'm sure they are. It's what people do on those pages. Everyone I've talked to IRL is excited about the project, although I do think that there is a generational split on this project and I don't talk regularly with a lot of CHP boomers.

When MAC had a large meeting on their previous plan, it was a shitshow par excellence. And then it want to CPC the next week and passed 5-0 before dying in committee. I'm somewhat more optimistic about this plan passing for a few reasons:
-A previous version already passed CPC
-MAC added parking since then, to appease the boomers who have their own driveways but don't like the look of people parking in front of their house
-The committee the previous plan died in doesn't exist anymore
-There isn't a major city election in the near future
-The city has already invested a lot of money in this and there is wide consensus that the project is a massive benefit
-The conversation about density and the tax base is more advanced than it was a year ago

If it doesn't pass, it might be because:
-The project gets sucked into the affordable housing vortex. There's no set-aside number of affordable units. MAC accepts housing vouchers for up to 20% of units in a building, but personal observation is that people find this answer unsatisfying and want a specific, unchanging number of units. It will be up to the council to understand this. Speaking of the council...
-3/4 of the council members are new and it's hard to predict how they will vote.
-Although this is a project that absolutely worthy of incentives, people don't like incentives now. This is where Melissa Robinson's vote will be very interesting.

Here's an excerpt from a response I got from Robinson:

"Until economic dev resulting in people aging in place happens at the same clip ALL these projects (in my view) are/should be under scrutiny.

Thanks for your voice, while I value I disagree with some aspects; and so do many of my constituents."

What's the best way to address the elderly living in large homes they can no longer afford to keep up physically or financially?