South KC: $5B district primarily genomic research/life sciences center

[earthling]

^Looks like they are starting with residential first, not sure about commercial space. The target was to open first residential this Spring, haven't seen any updates since Nov.

[KCtoBrooklyn]

There are signs that the planning of the next phases is moving forward (but still in planning mode). It is still spec, afaik.

[earthling]

^Yeah given it's spec there isn't a need for pre-leasing to move forward. And a portion maybe really isn't even spec given the first tenant would seem to be Stowers.

[FangKC]

Do the developers assume that a large number of the workers in those office buildings are going to live in the housing in the project? The reason I ask is that it seems to me unwise to put the office buildings on the backside of the development instead of up front near 87th Street. Why make all that traffic go through the neighborhood? There don't seem to be many artery streets feeding to those office buildings and what appear to be several large garages behind them.

Wouldn't it be wiser to have the housing be further back in the development and the office and retail closer to 87th Street?

[earthling]

That's a good point. I thought the office should be more mixed in as well but you are right, any standalone office probably should be closer to the main drags. Would be interesting to hear what they're thinking.

[KCtoBrooklyn]

File this under mildly interesting. I was looking around Google Earth at the site of the Glade, viewing older satellite images. I didn't realize there was a little neighborhood on the site of phase 1 that was intact not too long ago (2006). Here are some images over time (this would be in the bottom right corner of the site plan shown above).

[earthling]

The more I look at these plans the more critical thoughts come up. If they're not careful this could turn into an isolated cult compound.

Doesn't appear it will be very inviting to the general public and if they don't attract the general public in area the retail could fail. The retail should maybe be built up to the main drag while also maintaining a pedestrian scale. All components should probably be more mixed up within site with maybe single housing in the 'rear'. But too late for change.

[FangKC]

I had the same thought.

[CrossroadsUrbanApts]

Isn't the designer DPZ? You would think they would be as good as anyone at designing a walkable mixed-use community.

[earthling]

They may be able to design a walkable community but if this isn't inviting to the surrounding areas and future development of South KC it could end up as a cult compound, which could be a challenge for retail to survive.

[earthling]

What's going on with this? No new news for over a year.