New high end apartment tower and Aloft hotel announced for West Plaza

[Tosspot]

The buildings in this picture, please clarify for me - are these getting torn down or just the larger buildings?

[Steve52]

Like I stated earlier, the Roanoke/Madison Triangle would be a great location for a mixed use building with a drug store. It would be a high visibility location with a lot of car traffic and walkable to a lot of adjacent apartments.

Thats should be turned into a magnificent Park. A beautiful green space for relaxation. That Rite-Aid Monstrosity is ridiculous.

[FangKC]

Now you are just being silly. The Bloch Cancer Park is just across the street Steve.  That land will never become a park. It will be developed.  It's a prominent site with no building on it. Few people use the Bloch Park as it is.  I've sat in Bloch Park on several occasions and it's always deserted. There is plenty of parkland around the Plaza as it is.  Most people on the Plaza use Loose and Mill Creek parks.

The Plaza has no drug store or grocery that people there can walk to, and there is more need for those than another park.

[FangKC]

The buildings in this picture, please clarify for me - are these getting torn down or just the larger buildings?

All 17 buildings are being demolished and two larger structures are being proposed in their place.  That is, if it passes muster with the neighborhood.

[Tosspot]

All 17 buildings are being demolished and two larger structures are being proposed in their place.  That is, if it passes muster with the neighborhood.

Hmm. This may go against the grain around these parts, but I kind of like those buildings. I'm totally with you Fang that we should quit demolishing what still remains and instead start to replace the thousand vacant lots and strip mall gulags infesting the cityscape.

[moderne]

I agree these are cheap, undistinguished post WWII housing.  Not worth crying over the loss, unlike the apartments that once lined 46th Terrace.

[FangKC]

I don't see anything wrong with them personally.  I'm less concerned about the style issue.  I just don't see why they can't build the buildings on the vacant portions of the parcels  (parking lots) and retain these 17 buildings, with their apartments.  If the other vacant lots around there didn't exist, then I might reconsider.

But what I'm advocating is that we can have the new buildings (built on the parking lots) and still retain the 17 apartment buildings.  It just requires some imagination and planning.  We can have both. Plenty of similar buildings around there have gone condo.

I worry that tearing down buildings to build new ones will only delay the demand for new structures on the the other already vacant lots around there.   

[Midtownkid]

Not sad to see them go at all, and I consider myself a preservationist.  However, I hope they can deem some 1920s and 30s apartments in the area historic (if they are not already.)  I don't want to see anymore of the charming apartments demolished (ie: Cleaver Blvd apartments).  That lot Fang is talking about, I would like to see it developed too, but with a much larger set back and very wide sidewalk on Roanoke.  It could house a nice department store maybe...(although I could see people not wanting to go from there to the plaza on foot.)

[DaveKCMO]

Not sad to see them go at all, and I consider myself a preservationist.  However, I hope they can deem some 1920s and 30s apartments in the area historic (if they are not already.)  I don't want to see anymore of the charming apartments demolished (ie: Cleaver Blvd apartments).  That lot Fang is talking about, I would like to see it developed too, but with a much larger set back and very wide sidewalk on Roanoke.  It could house a nice department store maybe...(although I could see people not wanting to go from there to the plaza on foot.)

i would rather see that intersection converted to a traffic circle, but KCMO seems suspiciously averse to them.

[FangKC]

Fang is a big fan of the traffic circle.

[KCMax]

Put me in Fang's camp. I'm not a huge fan of the current buildings, but it seems silly to me to tear down when there are still plenty of good undeveloped parcels of land out there waiting to be built on. But I probably won't lose sleep over it.

[ignatius]

I agree but developers go after agreements they can make with the owners of the property.  I know that Ray Braswell (W Edge developer) has made attempts to develop one of the empty lots on N side of the Plaza but couldn't come to an agreement with the owner.

[ComandanteCero]

http://forum.kcrag.com/index.php?topic=13467.0

mebbe we should merge these?

[ChilipepKC]

A friend of mine who lives in these apartments told me she recieved a letter saying the units will be replaced with a W Hotel.  They weren't notified of the time frame yet.  Not sure if this is 100%.

[kard]

A friend of mine who lives in these apartments told me she recieved a letter saying the units will be replaced with a W Hotel.  They weren't notified of the time frame yet.  Not sure if this is 100%.

They're both owned by Starwood and aloft is being developed by W, so one could refer to aloft as a W.  I'd still picture an aloft over a W.

[kcjak]

I'd picture the aloft over the W, too, Kard.  Plus, I'm hoping the W is still an option for the downtown hotel/condo tower if it ever gets off the ground.  KC, in my opinion, is still a little small of a market for two Ws...even though New Orleans has two (or did) that's a whole different market.

[DaveKCMO]

downgraded from luxury apartments to upscale senior housing. i love the new euphemism "memory care"; don't you remember how great the care is at the nursing home? aloft is still the plan, minus the condos. 15-year abatement versus the original 25. will it pass?

Backer rethinks 46 Summit plan

A Denver developer has revamped his proposed apartment and hotel project near the Country Club Plaza after his request for a full property tax abatement was rebuffed last December.

Don MacKenzie plans to return to the City Plan Commission next month with a revised project that calls for an eight- or nine-story upscale senior housing building with 214 apartments, and a 12-story hotel with 216 rooms.

His original 46 Summit plan called for a luxury apartment building and a boutique hotel that included 18 condos.

The $125 million project is proposed for the site of the 83-unit Colonial Court apartment complex at 46th and Jefferson streets. Residents were notified about the revised plan this month.

[omenapt]

Yeah,,  what NIMBY  is  gonna say to no "senior living' , luxury, no less!!.. Good thinking!

Still could be a good project... Actualy you could call any upscale Plaza residence as Senior living!!!

[trailerkid]

Council approved plan:

Upscale senior housing...

Homestead by Hilton (ICKY!)...

Way to STAND UP by only giving him 15 years of tax abatements instead of the initially requested 25 for the luxury apartments and Aloft...now the property owners will pay taxes sometime in 2020s instead of the 2030s. Thank GOD we've got the tough leadership willing to say NO! to developers.

[cattlemaster]

[quote]Way to STAND UP by only giving him 15 years of tax abatements instead of the initially requested 25 for the luxury apartments and Aloft...now the property owners will pay taxes sometime in 2020s instead of the 2030s. Thank GOD we've got the tough leadership willing to say NO! to developers.



Despite the sarcasm, your comments can be taken literally.  The project will receive less public money, expand the Plaza footprint, creates more density, scale back a posh concept with expensive finishes to a more standard concept.  All at a time when hotel occupancy is diminishing.  This is very positive.