Crown Center: urban disaster, shining star, or in-between

Issues concerning Downtown as described by the Downtown Council. River to 31st Street, I-35 to Bruce R. Watkins.
dukuboy1
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Re: Crown Center: urban disaster, shining star, or in-between

Post by dukuboy1 »

Interesting. Had they previously occupied those floors? For some reason I thought Shook occupied the entire building? Perhaps they moved a division else where I town and are looking to become landlords as a revenue diversification move
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Re: Crown Center: urban disaster, shining star, or in-between

Post by normalthings »

dukuboy1 wrote: Wed Jun 03, 2020 11:55 pm Interesting. Had they previously occupied those floors? For some reason I thought Shook occupied the entire building? Perhaps they moved a division else where I town and are looking to become landlords as a revenue diversification move
The current opening is a fire sale sublet which expires in 2024.
2 of the sublet floors come furnished.
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Re: Crown Center: urban disaster, shining star, or in-between

Post by earthling »

Things are going to get worse with office industry before getting better. Next wave of employment hits are expected to be office jobs through summer, which May job data is expected to show later this month. Compound that with some companies planning more working from home permanently.
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Re: Crown Center: urban disaster, shining star, or in-between

Post by Highlander »

earthling wrote: Thu Jun 04, 2020 5:02 am Things are going to get worse with office industry before getting better. Next wave of employment hits are expected to be office jobs through summer, which May job data is expected to show later this month. Compound that with some companies planning more working from home permanently.
Some industries will be hit harder than others such as energy and airlines. Energy is highly centered in Houston and the airline hub cities will be hit hard and they tend to have home office where the hubs are: United in Chicago. American in Dallas. KC won't be immune but I suspect we won't be hit as hard as many other cities.
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Re: Crown Center: urban disaster, shining star, or in-between

Post by normalthings »

Highlander wrote: Thu Jun 04, 2020 8:42 pm
earthling wrote: Thu Jun 04, 2020 5:02 am Things are going to get worse with office industry before getting better. Next wave of employment hits are expected to be office jobs through summer, which May job data is expected to show later this month. Compound that with some companies planning more working from home permanently.
Some industries will be hit harder than others such as energy and airlines. Energy is highly centered in Houston and the airline hub cities will be hit hard and they tend to have home office where the hubs are: United in Chicago. American in Dallas. KC won't be immune but I suspect we won't be hit as hard as many other cities.
KC has also seen multiple firms in logistics, customer service, and financial sales go on hiring sprees. That should help cushion things a little.
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Re: Crown Center: urban disaster, shining star, or in-between

Post by earthling »

According to BLS, KC metro actually took a bigger % hit than Houston in April office jobs compared to a year earlier. Take a look at the more office related job categories... KC metro lost a higher % than Houston. May is expected to be worse than April for office jobs (possibly worse for Houston than KC) while many hospitality jobs return. KC also has well above avg leasable office space for its size and was among highest in country in % of conversions to coworking spaces, which may have to rethink approach.

Though office industry won't show the hit until leases start to expire, which could be months to years depending on remaining leases - some may sub-lease sooner. Hopefully hirings with some local companies will help offset. And economy very well may return within a year (or get worse, nobody knows),
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Re: Crown Center: urban disaster, shining star, or in-between

Post by Highlander »

earthling wrote: Fri Jun 05, 2020 6:05 am According to BLS, KC metro actually took a bigger % hit than Houston in April office jobs compared to a year earlier. Take a look at the more office related job categories... KC metro lost a higher % than Houston. May is expected to be worse than April for office jobs (possibly worse for Houston than KC) while many hospitality jobs return. KC also has well above avg leasable office space for its size and was among highest in country in % of conversions to coworking spaces, which may have to rethink approach.

Though office industry won't show the hit until leases start to expire, which could be months to years depending on remaining leases - some may sub-lease sooner. Hopefully hirings with some local companies will help offset. And economy very well may return within a year (or get worse, nobody knows),
It takes a while for downturns to impact employment. The career type jobs tend to be the last people to be impacted because those skilled positions are the most difficult to replace when times get better and company want to hold on to employees they have spent a lot of money to train. If oil prices hover around $35, then the energy industry will be hit hard this Fall. The airline industry has laid off some but warned of huge layoffs in the 3rd-4th quarters.
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Re: Crown Center: urban disaster, shining star, or in-between

Post by earthling »

^Makes sense.
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Re: Crown Center: urban disaster, shining star, or in-between

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Re: Crown Center: urban disaster, shining star, or in-between

Post by FangKC »

I hope whomever develops that site design the building to be rounded up against the curb on the south end. A wedge-shaped building (think Flatiron Building in New York City) would look great there.
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Re: Crown Center: urban disaster, shining star, or in-between

Post by kenrbnj »

With low interest rates and the expectation for a sharp recovery... It might be a good time.

KC-land was well behaved in this latest round of insanity. Good.
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Re: Crown Center: urban disaster, shining star, or in-between

Post by Highlander »

kenrbnj wrote: Fri Jun 26, 2020 7:40 am With low interest rates and the expectation for a sharp recovery... It might be a good time.

KC-land was well behaved in this latest round of insanity. Good.
I wish CC would take the steps to somehow integrate the southern part of CC (the stand alone buildings) with Union Hill and the new apartment/townhomes just to the east. Where all of those come together, is a near four square block area of surfaces lots.
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Re: Crown Center: urban disaster, shining star, or in-between

Post by kenrbnj »

Union Hill's success was due in-part to CC (Specifically CCRDC).

When I bought in Union Hill in 1996; the area as you approached Gillham Ave was dodgy. CC extended their security sweeps up to 30th street. It kept the nuttiness down and residents' confidence up.

It would not be a stretch to expect a cohesive streetscape to link the neighborhoods; as within CC, Union Hill is linked...
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Re: Crown Center: urban disaster, shining star, or in-between

Post by cknab1 »

Looks like the Crayola Cafe is history and La Fuente mexican restaurant is moving in. They are looking to open before June 2021. Haven't been there but hoping it's good. Tried to get Los Tules in there but he had too many other things going on.
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Re: Crown Center: urban disaster, shining star, or in-between

Post by shinatoo »

cknab1 wrote: Fri Nov 06, 2020 10:21 am Looks like the Crayola Cafe is history and La Fuente mexican restaurant is moving in. They are looking to open before June 2021. Haven't been there but hoping it's good. Tried to get Los Tules in there but he had too many other things going on.
Used to go to La Fuente a lot when we lived in the burbs. It's fine for the suburbs. Not great. A step up from the food court. But nowhere i would go with so many more options unless I just happened to be at CC and craving TexMex.
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Re: Crown Center: urban disaster, shining star, or in-between

Post by Philacav »

TheLastGentleman wrote: Sun Aug 04, 2019 11:47 pm
normalthings wrote: Sun Aug 04, 2019 11:05 pmWhy not build something moderately sized with the capability of supporting a future vertical addition?
Because it'll likely never get built on, as evidenced by the other three examples of that development strategy in this city. 1034 has been a garage since what, the late 80s? UMB HQ was built in the mid 80s and never saw its tower completed, and has looked too short ever since. It took over a decade for strata to even get proposed.
1034 Main was the vacant Macy’s flagship store building until its demolition in 1998-99. It sat vacant from about 1989 when Dillard’s closed it; Macy’s left the KC market in 1986 and Dillard’s never saw a downtown store it could not close (of course Macy’s returned in a roundabout way in the last 15 years).

Macy’s operated that location as a major regional flagship between 1949 and 1986. It was 435,000 square feet and was easily the most significant city center Macy’s other than Manhattan, downtown San Francisco, and downtown Atlanta (formerly local behemoth, Rich’s) in terms of size and department scope. They made great use of the store for unique promotions until the end, it had multiple restaurants within it, and of course it provided a powerful visual terminus to Petticoat Lane, especially when decorated for Christmas.

I realize this goes off-topic but in case anyone isn’t aware how long this massive art moderne building stood there unused I had to post about it. It was very upsetting to me that it was demolished, especially considering what replaced it, and further unraveled the visual and architectural buffet that was the 11th and Main area for so long.

Any plan for 1034 Main MUST require total removal of the skywalk that suffocates the intersection there. Total disgrace.
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Re: Crown Center: urban disaster, shining star, or in-between

Post by normalthings »

Philacav wrote: Sun Nov 29, 2020 8:44 pm
TheLastGentleman wrote: Sun Aug 04, 2019 11:47 pm
normalthings wrote: Sun Aug 04, 2019 11:05 pmWhy not build something moderately sized with the capability of supporting a future vertical addition?
Because it'll likely never get built on, as evidenced by the other three examples of that development strategy in this city. 1034 has been a garage since what, the late 80s? UMB HQ was built in the mid 80s and never saw its tower completed, and has looked too short ever since. It took over a decade for strata to even get proposed.
1034 Main was the vacant Macy’s flagship store building until its demolition in 1998-99. It sat vacant from about 1989 when Dillard’s closed it; Macy’s left the KC market in 1986 and Dillard’s never saw a downtown store it could not close (of course Macy’s returned in a roundabout way in the last 15 years).

Macy’s operated that location as a major regional flagship between 1949 and 1986. It was 435,000 square feet and was easily the most significant city center Macy’s other than Manhattan, downtown San Francisco, and downtown Atlanta (formerly local behemoth, Rich’s) in terms of size and department scope. They made great use of the store for unique promotions until the end, it had multiple restaurants within it, and of course it provided a powerful visual terminus to Petticoat Lane, especially when decorated for Christmas.

I realize this goes off-topic but in case anyone isn’t aware how long this massive art moderne building stood there unused I had to post about it. It was very upsetting to me that it was demolished, especially considering what replaced it, and further unraveled the visual and architectural buffet that was the 11th and Main area for so long.

Any plan for 1034 Main MUST require total removal of the skywalk that suffocates the intersection there. Total disgrace.
In your 12 year break from posting, how do you feel KC has changed? What hopes came true and what didn't in your opinion.
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Re: Crown Center: urban disaster, shining star, or in-between

Post by herrfrank »

Crown Center's "crown jewel," San Francisco Tower has been without elevator service for the past three days. All three elevators (two standard passenger, one oversized freight) are inoperable.

A certain nonagenarian, nine-figure millionaire who owns a fast food empire and lives on the 28th floor is reportedly LIVID. He's had to climb twenty-eight flights of stairs for two evenings in a row. My friend, also on an upper floor, has tried to reach the Star's City Desk for publicity, but no one answers the phone (sad). Crown Center recently replaced the building management. Whoops...
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Re: Crown Center: urban disaster, shining star, or in-between

Post by KCPowercat »

their HOAs are insane too. I'd be pissed as well.
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Re: Crown Center: urban disaster, shining star, or in-between

Post by dukuboy1 »

geez, they should call the local News stations. They would be all over that story. Hell stop by Channel 4, it very close. Feel sorry for them, No way someone in their 90's should walk up that many stairs. I would think the risk of a law suit if they fell would get this resolved yesterday. That management group should offer to put them up in a hotel vs. risk them falling or having a heart attack from climbing the stairs. Plus wouldn't this be a building code violation leaving them not working for so long?
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