Katz on Main

[Anthony_Hugo98]

Lux principals have been indicted. https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/ ... tives.html

Lol

[mistervinix]

And still doesn't look like any progress on the first floor redevelopment, including the clock tower. This is not good.

[FangKC]

I have a sick feeling about this project and Wonderland not getting finished and it becomes another problem for the City.

[Chris Stritzel]

I have a sick feeling about this project and Wonderland not getting finished and it becomes another problem for the City.

The benefit of the Katz building at this point is that the new building is practically finished. Wonderland is no where near completion and a portion is still without a roof.

[dukuboy1]

I'd love for this project and the Wonderland be sold to someone with some "can do", financially stable, and local. Would love to see Northpoint Development (or one of companies under their umbrella) take over these projects to bring them across the finish line

[mistervinix]

According to an article in The Star today, no work has been done on the Katz Building shell in five months. This is not looking good.

[beautyfromashes]

According to an article in The Star today, no work has been done on the Katz Building shell in five months. This is not looking good.

What I'm more worried about is them saying it's not secure. An unfinished building can be denegrated pretty fast with graffitti and theft and damage before it could be sold or taken in bankruptcy. Also, crazy things happen when a company is going through bankruptcy. They look for insurance claims and sometimes make them actually happen themselves. Still worried about the historic exterior that is propped up with braces.

[Highlander]

According to an article in The Star today, no work has been done on the Katz Building shell in five months. This is not looking good.

What I'm more worried about is them saying it's not secure. An unfinished building can be denegrated pretty fast with graffitti and theft and damage before it could be sold or taken in bankruptcy. Also, crazy things happen when a company is going through bankruptcy. They look for insurance claims and sometimes make them actually happen themselves. Still worried about the historic exterior that is propped up with braces.

Has Lux filed for bankruptcy? In any event, it would be great if they could attract a buyer for the Katz location. Unfortunately, the downtown Wonderland project has been exposed to the elements for a long time and it would be a pretty risky acquisition by a third party. My suspicion is that Wonderland will eventually be torn down before being finished. But yea, I hate seeing the drugstore component just sitting there with the walls propped up.

[FangKC]

Beyond fraud indictments, problems mount at two Kansas City luxury apartment projects

...two of their Kansas City luxury apartment projects under construction — Katz on Main and Wonderland — are said, ... to be continuing “full steam ahead.”

Except court actions, interviews and a visit to an open and unsecured Katz work site suggest the projects are facing troubles.
...
One of the contractors, Epic Concrete Construction, Inc. of Kansas City claims it is owed just short of $648,000 for work done at Wonderland, the 215-unit project still being built at 1923 Broadway Boulevard. The company poured concrete for foundations, footings, slabs, balconies, sidewalks, curbs and driveways.

The other, Contract Services Corporation of America, is a family-owned steel fabricating company in Raytown. It claims it is owed about $395,000 on more than $1 million worth of structural steel to be used for the 192-unit Katz on Main project at 3948 Main St. ...
...
Lux’s plan has been to construct a $37.6 million six-story luxury apartment building at the west rear end of the former drug store. The drug store’s brick facade and distinctive clock tower would be preserved and repurposed ...
...
The six-story apartment building is close to completion. A visit to the site this week found workers laying carpet and hammering could be heard inside.

But the old Katz drug building has for months remained a brick shell with no ceiling or roof, open to the weather, with steel braces holding up its walls and no work occurring.

The site this week and on multiple previous occasions was also found to be unsecured and open to pedestrians ...

DeVargas said that, in June, her company delivered multiple truckloads of structural steel ... for the roof and rooftop pool decking.
...
The drug store’s old terrazzo floor, she said, had not been made safe enough to support the steel columns.

David Conley, the project manager for Contract Services, said that as the steel was put into place, the floor beneath it began to chip, crumble and break apart.
...
Conley said that erecting the steel under those conditions created a potential long-term risk.
...
DeVargas said that her company has done no work on the building in the five months since.
...

... Ira M. Berkowitz, attorney representing Lux Living’s contract firm, Big Sur, said the company planned to take care of any outstanding liens.
...
“Both projects are moving forward,” he said. “The liens: They will get resolved.”

https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/a ... rylink=cpy

[DaveKCMO]