KCRag Forum

From Eric Bowers' photoblog:

http://blog.ericbowersphoto.com/2015/06 ... emolition/

Who's the owner and developer that allowed these to fall to shit over the past three decades? They've basically made it so it's impossible to get the necessary value out of these to justify the property taxes. I'd vilify them before attacking the new owners.

WSPanic wrote:Who's the owner and developer that allowed these to fall to shit over the past three decades? They've basically made it so it's impossible to get the necessary value out of these to justify the property taxes. I'd vilify them before attacking the new owners.

Same thing happened to the apartments they tore down on the SW corner of 48th/Roanoke and those buildings were a lot better. Owner escapes with responsibility...and a ton of money.

A lot of people seem upset about this. I wonder what could be done?

Some of the building nearby are protected under the "poet apartments" Nelle Peters District...but I guess these are not part of that zone?

Midtownkid wrote:A lot of people seem upset about this. I wonder what could be done?

Some of the building nearby are protected under the "poet apartments" Nelle Peters District...but I guess these are not part of that zone?

there is an adopted plan -- albeit from 1989 -- that dictates low rise development in this stretch. doesn't really prevent demo, but replacing these gems with something of the same scale may not make financial sense (versus going more vertical).

Historic District protecting other apartments in the area to be expanded, delay demolition! There is some hope

Historic District protecting other apartments in the area to be expanded, delay demolition! There is some hope - via Historic KC

More correctly, a petition to add the buildings to a historic district has been filed.

flyingember wrote:More correctly, a petition to add the buildings to a historic district has been filed.

Which halts demolition while it's being reviewed.

Save our plaza. What would Cecil do?

taxi wrote:Save our plaza. What would Cecil do?

Oh, I dunno....initiate a lawsuit?

Midtownkid wrote:Historic District protecting other apartments in the area to be expanded, delay demolition! There is some hope - via Historic KC

If these people want to save the apartments, why didn't they get involved before they reached the current state?

If these people want to save the apartments, why didn't they get involved before they reached the current state?

Yeah! And while "these people" are at it, have them come over and fix up my house.

I don't think people realized until they saw windows being removed. In most cases, property owners don't send out press releases announcing they are demolishing a building. We also don't know if the current property owners had been approached by parties interested in renovating them, and simply been turned down.

City leaders also don't automatically know when demolition permits are issued. Some buildings are flagged on the system if they are on the National Register, or designated a local landmark by the City.

I have known of houses and buildings in this City where parties did contact the owner and make an offer on them, and they were turned down. In some cases, several times. You can't always convince someone to sell. This is even in cases where the structure might be abandoned or vacant, and the property owner is still paying taxes on it. Some adjacent property owners often offer to buy neighboring run-down properties because they want to fix them up and improve the neighborhood, or the value of their property. The run-down building is affecting their property value, or they simply are tired of looking at a deteriorating building.

I've also heard of situations where local buildings are owned by out-of-town investors, who are using them in real estate portfolios as collateral to get loans on other buildings in other cities. They use them in fraud schemes by overvaluing the KC-based building to get a loan somewhere else. They do little maintenance on them, and are just using them as equity on paper. Again, people offer to buy these buildings so they can improve a neighborhood, but the out-of-town investor won't sell because they are using them for that purpose. They over-leverage their crappy buildings to purchase buildings of greater value in cities where real estate prices are going up dramatically. A building in Los Angeles may double in value in six or ten years, but its' purchase was based on the equity of a bunch of crappy overvalued buildings in other cites. Sometimes the investor will buy several of these buildings at tax auctions at bottom barrel prices just for the purpose of using them as collateral to buy into a hot market. This is a problem for a lot of cities. The fines cities place for code violations aren't significant enough to worry these investors. And it's a very long, difficult process for municipalities to seize the properties outright.

Out-of-town property owners and developers are also less inclined to be interested in the architectural merits of a building in a city they don't live in--or the appeals of a local populace.

JBmidtown wrote:"chipping away at the Plaza's charm" lol

Big story with a beautiful photo of the apartments made it to the paper the other day. I noticed they used my same phrase..."chipping away at the Plaza's charm." Humm...

This situation getting that kind of press is good. Maybe the developers will be scared off into selling!

This is an interesting scenario. Those buildings sit on a block that was essentially decimated years ago when the decision was made to build those massive garages up and down the street.

While they are charming buildings, and the Nelle Peters connection is neat, I would have no problem with them coming down if replaced with something much larger, denser, and suitably upscale.

The big problem for me is the lack of a development plan in place pre-demo. Can't stand seeing that happen, especially in that location. Plaza has a surprising number of very dated apartments in the area, however, not sure why there hasn't been a much greater push to restore or build high-end multifamily over the years (until recently).

I've asked a friend at the National Trust for Historic Preservation to take a look at this proposal. While this proposed demolition is on a smaller scale than the Glover Plan/ Warner Plaza catastrophe back in 1989, it strikes me as similarly bad for the urban fabric.

Panel recommends historic designation for Nelle Peters apartments on the Plaza

A campaign to delay demolition of three picturesque buildings near the Country Club Plaza got a boost Friday when Kansas City’s Historic Preservation Commission recommended their inclusion in the Nelle Peters historic district.

The commission voted 5-1 in favor of local historic designation following three hours of impassioned debate over the value of the apartment buildings in the 4700 block of Summit Street.

The commission’s vote is just a recommendation. It must still be considered by the City Plan Commission and the City Council. If the council grants the historic designation, it could potentially stave off demolition for up to three years.

http://www.kansascity.com/news/governme ... 08293.html

event tonight to celebrate these buildings: https://www.facebook.com/events/401627736709797/

Drove past these apartments on Saturday - they had fencing up along the cancer park and a quick glance showed at least one of the buildings was in the initial stages of demo work. Are they going ahead with the tear down?