Park Place- City Living in the "Country" 119/Nall

[ComandanteCero]

This is what's going to be going in that vacant triangular lot just to the north of Town Center. Looks like it'll be mixed use (office, retail, hotel and condos).

City living in the country

$125 million project will attempt to be big and intimate

By KEVIN COLLISON

The Kansas City Star


The developers of Park Place believe the village-like intimacy of their project planned near 119th Street and Nall Avenue will provide a decisive edge in a competitive retail market.

The $125 million first phase, scheduled to break ground this summer, calls for 100,000 square feet of retail laid out to resemble an old-fashioned Main Street, with 80,000 square feet of professional office space above. It also includes a 120-room luxury hotel; a 52-unit, eight-story condominium building; a 700-space garage; and a four-acre park. Work is scheduled to be completed in fall 2006.

The remainder of the development calls for 300 additional condos in several five- and eight-story buildings, another pedestrian-oriented street with retail and offices on the second level, another parking garage, and a 200,000-square-foot office building. This $125 million second phase is not expected to begin until five years later.

Park Place is not alone, however, when it comes to potential new mixed-use developments aimed at the flourishing demographic heart of Overland Park and Leawood. Competitors are pursuing plans that include:

• Cornerstone of Leawood, 135th Street and Nall Avenue, 356,827 square feet of retail and offices.

• One Corbin Park, 135th and Metcalf Avenue, 1.1 million square feet of retail and offices.

• Mission Farms, 105th Street and Mission Road, 373,475 square feet of residential, retail and offices.

• The proposed Overland Park arena and 334,000-square-foot retail entertainment district at 115th Street and Metcalf Avenue.

How do Park Place developers Jeffrey Alpert and Melanie Mann intend to rise above that crowd? By taking what is now a dormant 30-acre farmer's field across from Sprint Corp. headquarters and turning it into a tasteful place where people will want to visit or live and spend money at a unique mix of shops and restaurants.

“We want to be authentic,â€

[ComandanteCero]

[quote]Alpert says many of the potential buyers are people who enjoy the urban-style living of condos but don't want to make the leap into the city.

“They like the whole idea of creating an urban feel, but maintaining the convenience and frame of reference of a suburban location,â€

[staubio]

We destroyed our cities to create suburbs, we say "shucks" and we build a new, fake main street to replace the old one.

I wonder if these condos will actually sell. Who is looking to own a little slice of fake urbanity when you can have the real thing?

[Tosspot]

We destroyed our cities to create suburbs, we say "shucks" and we build a new, fake main street to replace the old one.

I wonder if these condos will actually sell. Who is looking to own a little slice of fake urbanity when you can have the real thing?

If only we could install a regional transit system with these cutesy little mixed use developments along the lines, then the burbs might not be such a bad place over the long haul.

[ignatius]

We destroyed our cities to create suburbs, we say "shucks" and we build a new, fake main street to replace the old one.

I wonder if these condos will actually sell. Who is looking to own a little slice of fake urbanity when you can have the real thing?

Sex and the City wannabee JoCo girls who fear the city and suburban VWPs (very white people) who think they are so diverse because they have that one token carefully selected ethnic friend that they hope will visit in this fabricated new urbanism, which would then justify their pseudo-urban-in-the-middle-of-suburbia hipness.

I'm being facetious (a little). Actually, I think the suburbs do need more of this. But I'd like to see it happen as an extension and infill of old town Olathe/Lenexa/Merriam along the proposed commuter rail.

[ComandanteCero]

staub i think there's probably a very large market for people retiring who don't want to all of a sudden move away from their friends, church, established community, but do want to live in a smaller, denser environment. But i agree i don't see young people heading to these places (and if they do they're lame, hehehe ).

it's a definite improvement over the suburban norm and hopefully a sign of larger trends, but like ignatius says it would be a lot better if it was part of a larger land use strategy that was coordinated with the transit corridors (so maybe people who live in or near a pedestrian friendly area in the burbs can easily commute to the core using mass transit ((and the other way around))). But regardless, for every person who moves into these denser living arrangements you know a house somewhere is being emptied to be bought by someone else (who will have less of an incentive to go through the expense of building a new one on the fringe).

In general i think it'd be interesting, and positive if there's a trend towards denser living in the suburbs for older babyboomers/retirees who are not ready (or willing) to go to the city, while younger people move into the core city. It'd be cool if there were laid back quieter urbanity in the burbs, and an energetic bustling urbanity in the core. So density in both places definitely aren't mutually exclusive, but faces of the same non-sprawl coin we should be striving for. Anywho, let's see more of this

[Kaye]

In my opinion, if the building of these mixed-used developments continue at this rate, it is eventually going to contribute to too much sprawl in Johnson County. Soon, southern Johnson County will become overbuilt and commercial areas of northeastern Johnson County will decline even further.

[Tosspot]

Too much sprawl in Johnson County?? Sorry, that happened long ago.

And how do mixed-use development contribute to sprawl? By definition it is denser and more compact than the single-use pod zones that reign supreme.

[GRID]

I think they are going to find out that there is a market for high density condos along the College Blvd corridor.

I am amazed that nobody has proposed a big residential tower in Corporate Woods or Indian Creek Parkway. You find them in other big city's major suburban office districts.

They cator to bigwig executives that are extremely transient and oldtimers that don't want to be in the city, yet want to be close to fancy suburban resturaunts and shopping, have a doorman and no yard work.

Regardless, OP/LW need to start going up more instead of going south.

[doogieslap]

A little over a month ago I drove down the College Blvd corridor between Johnson County CC and Corporate Woods, and I saw a large number of empty business space....too much, in fact. I was surprised at the large number of vacant space, IMO. Good thing it's not a blighted neighborhood, or else it would've looked worse.

[GuyInLenexa]

[quote="staubio"]We destroyed our cities to create suburbs, we say "shucks" and we build a new, fake main street to replace the old one.

I wonder if these condos will actually sell. Who is looking to own a little slice of fake urbanity when you can have the real thing?[/quote]

People who have, or plan to have kids in the near future and send them to a world class school district.

And even people like me, who would like to live close to where they work.

I think this sounds great. I am surpised that such a development has not been started earlier.

[moderne]

Could they bus in some street people and panhandlers to give it a real urban feel?

[staubio]

Could they bus in some street people and panhandlers to give it a real urban feel?

Heck, I'll give them a ride out there.