OFFICIAL: Power & Light District

Come here for discussion about the new downtown entertainment district.
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DColeKC
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Re: OFFICIAL: Power & Light District

Post by DColeKC »

Cordish has hired a new leader for the Power and Light District. John Monke will become the President of the PNL district. He's been with Sporting for over a decade, most recently as EVP of stadium and brand revenue.

He will focus on community and 3rd party leasing at first. Big hire as it will free up Nick Benjamin to focus solely on residential development here and around the country.
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Re: OFFICIAL: Power & Light District

Post by earthling »

Interesting choice. Not hiring someone highly experienced in retail implies Cordish has given up on that, which may actually make sense. But I would expect someone more experienced in adult leaning entertainment. Could this hire help with soccer stadium downtown?
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Re: OFFICIAL: Power & Light District

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earthling wrote: Wed Jul 28, 2021 4:53 pm Interesting choice. Not hiring someone highly experienced in retail implies Cordish has given up on that, which may actually make sense. But I would expect someone more experienced in adult leaning entertainment. Could this hire help with soccer stadium downtown?
He has major retail experience and many great local and national contacts. His main priority coming in is to focus on 3rd party leasing including more retail.

He left on great terms, so certainly doesn't hurt the chances of a downtown stadium.
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Re: OFFICIAL: Power & Light District

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earthling wrote: Wed Jul 28, 2021 4:53 pm Interesting choice. Not hiring someone highly experienced in retail implies Cordish has given up on that, which may actually make sense. But I would expect someone more experienced in adult leaning entertainment. Could this hire help with soccer stadium downtown?
Sporting KC has a bunch of retail and f&b that are event-based and semi-seasonal. Not that unlike the power & light district. I think some of the tenants are even the same.

I welcome someone with a unique perspective. Retail is changing quickly and a traditionalist may not be the right choice.

I wonder if a sports hire implies a run-up to downtown soccer or baseball
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Re: OFFICIAL: Power & Light District

Post by FangKC »

Tell him to get this place.

https://ozarkbiscuits.com/biscuit-bar

Is the Whopper Bar space still empty?

And get that biscuit food truck out and about too. A fleet of them while you're at it. Those should be patroling neighborhoods like ice cream trucks. :lol:
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normalthings
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Re: OFFICIAL: Power & Light District

Post by normalthings »

The vacancy rate for commercial and retail space is 10%, and apartment complexes One Light and Two Light are about 2% vacant, Benjamin said.

https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/ ... e=twitter
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Re: OFFICIAL: Power & Light District

Post by earthling »

10% is considered high for retail but I wonder if it's really higher than if factoring perhaps some of Garment District spaces taken off market in plans for 4L.
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Re: OFFICIAL: Power & Light District

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earthling wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 6:44 am 10% is considered high for retail but I wonder if it's really higher than if factoring perhaps some of Garment District spaces taken off market in plans for 4L.
I believe that’s including everything and not taking anything off market. Leasing is priority #1, especially with many tenants still not paying full rent.
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Re: OFFICIAL: Power & Light District

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That seems to be an impossible percent given all the empty store fronts on main and 14th but when you add in bar sf guess it probably maths out.
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Re: OFFICIAL: Power & Light District

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KCPowercat wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 12:27 pm That seems to be an impossible percent given all the empty store fronts on main and 14th but when you add in bar sf guess it probably maths out.
If you'd break it down per type of business and broke out "retail" from "Bar & or Restaurant", I'd think retail vacancy would be higher than 10% but yeah, figured as a total of all available storefronts or rentable locations, it's 10% or under.
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Re: OFFICIAL: Power & Light District

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DColeKC wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 3:30 pm
KCPowercat wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 12:27 pm That seems to be an impossible percent given all the empty store fronts on main and 14th but when you add in bar sf guess it probably maths out.
If you'd break it down per type of business and broke out "retail" from "Bar & or Restaurant", I'd think retail vacancy would be higher than 10% but yeah, figured as a total of all available storefronts or rentable locations, it's 10% or under.
Have any solutions to the issue been tossed around by the new management? What kind of things can help entice business to establish in the blank storefronts?
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Re: OFFICIAL: Power & Light District

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Anthony_Hugo98 wrote: Sun Aug 08, 2021 11:49 pm
DColeKC wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 3:30 pm
KCPowercat wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 12:27 pm That seems to be an impossible percent given all the empty store fronts on main and 14th but when you add in bar sf guess it probably maths out.
If you'd break it down per type of business and broke out "retail" from "Bar & or Restaurant", I'd think retail vacancy would be higher than 10% but yeah, figured as a total of all available storefronts or rentable locations, it's 10% or under.
What kind of things can help entice business to establish in the blank storefronts?
more residents
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Re: OFFICIAL: Power & Light District

Post by flyingember »

normalthings wrote: Mon Aug 09, 2021 11:25 pm
Anthony_Hugo98 wrote: Sun Aug 08, 2021 11:49 pm
DColeKC wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 3:30 pm

If you'd break it down per type of business and broke out "retail" from "Bar & or Restaurant", I'd think retail vacancy would be higher than 10% but yeah, figured as a total of all available storefronts or rentable locations, it's 10% or under.
What kind of things can help entice business to establish in the blank storefronts?
more residents
With a minimum income amount.
If there was one retail space per side of the block, per block just the crossroads would have ~150 retail spaces.

If they employ 5 workers on average, including the owner and the goal is to pay $15 per hour to the workers and $45 per hour to the owner, and we use the standard 1/3 of sales covers wages...

That's $98 million in sales needed. If we assume 20% of wages goes to shopping then to support 150 shops is about 490 million in required area income.

Median wage in KC is $55k. So to support two shops per block in the crossroads with residents requires no less than 8950 workers spending 20% of their wages only downtown.

If we assume that overall residents spend 40% of their retail expenses downtown we need 22375 residents downtown just to support the crossroads at a living wage.

Being open 9-5 would be one staff for 40 hours. Being open 5-10pm weekdays, 9-midnight Saturday and 12-10 Sunday is another 50 hours. So those extra hours for residents is basically doubling the working hours they need to cover so it doubles the income requirements.

This kind of math explains why so many places are lunchtime only or would have a much smaller staff after hours.

Obviously it's not quite that simple with workers going out to eat and spending money is much larger than the resident base so it's not like residents need to cover all cost of evening hours, but it goes to show how many people have to spend their money downtown to support downtown retail. Consentino's isn't nearly half prepared lunch food for no reason.

Downtown might need to double or triple in size to support more retail. That could be residents, workers or conventions/tourism. A baseball stadium by itself won't support more retail, but it's more numbers to add to the total that spend money downtown. It's one piece of the puzzle.

There's a reason so much suburban retail doesn't care about how many people live nearby but cares about how many cars drive by the spot.
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Re: OFFICIAL: Power & Light District

Post by dukuboy1 »

agreed, more people in general will make for more business opportunities, retail (both small & corporate), dining, and entertainment. Need more people living downtown, working downtown, and tourism/convention
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Re: OFFICIAL: Power & Light District

Post by kcjak »

We've been hearing for 10+ years now that more residents are key to more retail. First the magic number was 20K. When that number was reached, it moved to 30K and now there are reports that 40K are needed. Adding in the number of workers in greater downtown, that brings the number to over 100,000 people downtown working/living daily, and that doesn't include the number of visitors in hotels. To put that number in perspective, that's equivalent to the population of Lawrence. I wish there was a solid number that didn't keep moving, but understand there are tons of variables in play.
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Re: OFFICIAL: Power & Light District

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kcjak wrote: Tue Aug 10, 2021 11:22 am We've been hearing for 10+ years now that more residents are key to more retail. First the magic number was 20K. When that number was reached, it moved to 30K and now there are reports that 40K are needed. Adding in the number of workers in greater downtown, that brings the number to over 100,000 people downtown working/living daily, and that doesn't include the number of visitors in hotels. To put that number in perspective, that's equivalent to the population of Lawrence. I wish there was a solid number that didn't keep moving, but understand there are tons of variables in play.
Well retail has shifted dramatically over the past ten years. There have been a lot of adds over the past decade downtown
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Re: OFFICIAL: Power & Light District

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you are also fighting weird flyover midwestern stigmas that the early projections probably didn't account for. for example i know several people who drive from their residence downtown to a 'burb for groceries to save whatever handful of bucks a week on groceries vs. cosentinos. it would have been reasonable to expect the people paying a premium for location to live in would do the same for errands, but...
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Re: OFFICIAL: Power & Light District

Post by flyingember »

normalthings wrote: Tue Aug 10, 2021 12:50 pm
kcjak wrote: Tue Aug 10, 2021 11:22 am We've been hearing for 10+ years now that more residents are key to more retail. First the magic number was 20K. When that number was reached, it moved to 30K and now there are reports that 40K are needed. Adding in the number of workers in greater downtown, that brings the number to over 100,000 people downtown working/living daily, and that doesn't include the number of visitors in hotels. To put that number in perspective, that's equivalent to the population of Lawrence. I wish there was a solid number that didn't keep moving, but understand there are tons of variables in play.
Well retail has shifted dramatically over the past ten years. There have been a lot of adds over the past decade downtown
ecommerce went from 4% to 15% of sales in ten years

when profit margins are often single digits, losing 10% of your customers has outsized results.

wahoowa wrote: Tue Aug 10, 2021 2:01 pm you are also fighting weird flyover midwestern stigmas that the early projections probably didn't account for. for example i know several people who drive from their residence downtown to a 'burb for groceries to save whatever handful of bucks a week on groceries vs. cosentinos. it would have been reasonable to expect the people paying a premium for location to live in would do the same for errands, but...
with stagnant wages, people are more willing to travel for lower costs. For example, if you save $20 on groceries and that costs you 10 miles of driving, that's a good deal. An average car that's ~$1.50 in gas It's not much in terms of distance, the Hy-Vee on Englewood is adding two signals to your trip via 169, from some parts of downtown it could take as long to cross downtown to another urban store
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Re: OFFICIAL: Power & Light District

Post by FangKC »

Neighborhood retail might look a lot different in 10 years. It might be more things you can't get delivered to you--mostly services: animal hospitals, more hair and nail salons, massage/spas, yoga studios; various forms of health care: dermatologists, dentists, urgent care clinics, Mailboxes Plus, etc.
Last edited by FangKC on Wed Aug 11, 2021 10:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: OFFICIAL: Power & Light District

Post by earthling »

^Agree for the most part. With the bigger players, Target and Costco are doing a great job adapting for now, Nordstroms trying a shift to services. Will be interesting to see if how long that lasts as generational shifts occur and spending trends along with it. We'll probably see a lot more convenience services too not yet thought of, well beyond the basics.
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