Film Row building threatened with demolition

[smh]

This probably is the truth/reality of the situation. I do, however, feel there should be an immense amount of planning/thought/restrictions on how and where a garage is built and what they look like.

Parking is infrastructure. The City should handle all planning of parking, imo, and be responsible for building public garages to mitigate the need for private parking. This has been discussed a few times in the River Market thread re: the parking lot due west of City Market.

[KCMax]

I get what you're saying and I'm a bit sympathetic to this argument, but good grief, how many 60+ people live in real cities like NYC and walk miles and miles every day?

But yea, someone that has lived in the burbs for decades probably is going to balk at walking two blocks. Good heavens.

Kansas City is not a real city like New York. This is a fundamental, rudimentary principle. Our urban development issues are unique to a sprawling, midwestern city built - out of necessity - on automobiles. Obviously, cities on the East Coast are not the same. KCMO, like all similarly situated midwestern cities is AUTO DEPENDENT. And this isn't going to change in our life times.

Relative to the urban core, the question is whether we are fine turning our nose up at suburbanites and adopting a "we don't need your kind anyhow" type of attitude. Or, in order for downtown to thrive, do we need to find a way to bring these suburbanites back into the fold. I think the answer is clearly the latter. We absolutely need suburbanites to frequent downtown. We need their money. We need their buying power.

The real question is how to cater to suburbanites without sacrificing those things that make the urban core so unique and, frankly, so much better than the suburbs.

I believe the answer is the Country Club Plaza. autos can be catered to in an intelligent way. obscured, tucked-away garages are possible. even if you want to build them up, instead of down, street-level retail or offices go a long way toward mitigating the negative affect of a parking garage.

Shame on Shirly if she just wants to plop a garage onto the site of a former building. But, if she can be talked into a garage with street level retail, that doesn't sacrifice the street-level pedestrian experience, than I've not got a huge problem.

Oh I completely agree. I just think suburban whining about walking two blocks is silly in the grand scheme of things. But I absolutely agree with every word of your post.

[AJoD]

From Facebook:

Open letter to Shirley Helzberg, sent Jan 21 in response to her plan to demolish a historic building to put up an ugly, entirely unnecessary parking garage:

Greetings Shirley,

This is just a quick message to say thank you for all you've done to restore Kansas City into a world class destination, and to offer up a few unsolicited ideas to please consider before demolishing your historically significant Film Row building at 17th and Wyandotte.

At today's CCA infrastructure committee meeting, Jay and Joe did an excellent job conveying your plan for your Film Row building, and giving the committee a clear understanding of the goals you hope to achieve through additional parking across from your Webster House. As always they showed the signature thoughtfulness and composure Helix brings to their projects. Their reasoning was crystal clear and it seemed as though everyone in attendance understood why you need the extra parking.

Based on their presentation, it's clear that Webster House patrons tend to belong to a socioeconomic & demographic group whose members strongly value parking as close as physically possible to their destination. It is also clear from their presentation that your goal with this project is to raise the economic productivity of the Webster House, and therefore need more parking across from Webster in order to meet the demands of its patrons.

While a few of us in the room had a hard time believing that someone of your means really wants to build a garage to increase Webster's cash flow, ALL of us understood without question that it is both your right as a property owner and your duty as a businesswoman to do so. It goes without saying that you can and should make the most of Webster House, especially in the context of the generosity and vision you've brought to its restoration. Everyone wants you to do as well as you can with all of your interests along 17th, since you've always contributed back manyfold to the community with your time and resources. We genuinely want you to make the most of your assets and hear loud and clear that you need more parking support to do so.

It is with your economic and philanthropic interests in mind that we ask you to please give additional thought to non-destructive alternatives for achieving your parking needs. Some of us who live and work around 17th and the PAC have wondered whether you will please consider a distributed, valet-operated parking solution involving a combination of your 17th St. surface lots and the 980 space public garage adjacent to the Webster House.

From today's presentation, it sounds as if no study has looked at the number of nights per year that the public garage adjacent to Webster fills up to capacity. As someone frequently near or in that garage, I can tell you that capacity is rarely approached, even on the occasional weekend night when both halls are in use. Enough people either walk to the PAC or prefer free on-street parking nearby to keep the fee-based garage from reaching full capacity, even during the handful of nights per year when both halls are in use.

We heard today that you have explored use of this garage in the past but the city hasn't entertained requests made for a sensible joint use agreement. If it helped in any way, many of us would be happy to help petition the city for a joint use agreement. Also, there is that curved piece of land between your Webster (outlined in purple on the attached map) -- I think many of us would strongly support a petition for the city to lease that otherwise-unused strip to you for 99 years to make a dedicated Webster House lot out of it.

We also realize you own several surface parking lots along 17th, including two across the street from Webster. Without vacating allies, would it be possible to add a structured garage or a hydraulic lift system to one or both of these lots? The western-most lot you own south of the Webster appears to have about 72 spaces in a surface lot and appears to be roughly equal in length and width to the building you plan to demolish soon. It is the same distance from Webster, and the building that once stood there was already demolished long ago.

A combination of these existing facilities together with a curbside valet system would let you accomodate those patrons who absolutely must park as close to the Webster as possible. They'd be closer in fact than if they parked themselves across the street, in a way that lets you keep your historically significant 17th St. building.

We ask that you please remain open to seriously considering alternatives that do not require destroying another piece of Film Row. And our rationale for asking this isn't just historic preservation. Though it's important to preserve as many of the precious few links to the past we have remaining as a city, it also can make better economic sense for you to pursue a non-demolition alternative. You will almost certainly do better overall by preserving all of your buildings and focusing on a people-first corridor along 17th for a variety of reasons:

* Thanks to preservation and adaptive reuse efforts like those you've led in the past, our downtown is currently surging in population with inhabitants who strongly favor dense, walkable blocks over driving and parking structures. Three years from now, the streetcar running two blocks east of Webster and the region-wide transportation renaissance it will inspire will multiply the number of such inhabitants, and will enable their preference to be car-free. KC is a little late on this shift, but it's been trending this way in US cities for awhile now as the cultural and generational preference for cars continues to diminish. In cities the size of KC or larger throughout the United States, the automobile continues to take a back seat to other forms of mobility as the preferred means of transport. From a land use perspective, parking is less and less a value concern moving forward. So a garage built today will become less and less valuable for you, especially in a downtown already awash with parking.

* What is being valued nowadays over easy automobile access is walkability, rich texture and vibrant activity at the street level, plus a sense of belonging to a city that, despite continuous evolution, remains firmly rooted in vestiges of its past as can only be observed through the creative reuse of structures from bygone eras. Your Orion building perfectly embodies all of these values and more: it's gorgeous (alright it needs some polishing but so did Webster before you started), it's historically relevant, and it has the bones for what could be an extraordinary ground level retail use limited only by imagination. For instance, a Helix-designed gastropub with those magnificent doors open on a spring's evening, sidewalk seating filled with people out front, music and aromas swirling up and down the street. A perfect complement to Webster, and a huge booster to the value of your other 17th St. parcels. With the Orion renovated, 17th could become the most desirable nook in downtown, tucked away at the foot of the PAC, hugged on all sides by aesthetically pleasing and culturally meaningful buildings. Such a rewarding environment commands a premium. You could realize more in real estate value appreciation over the long run by leaving it intact and letting it serve a new life.

* We know that building a parking garage will be expensive and would require a significant increase in Webster House activity in order to justify the cost. From today's presentation it sounds like you want 100 dedicated spots for Webster purposes. Without knowing specific numbers, it's easy to imagine you'll spend $2,000,000 or more of your own dollars to demolish the Orion and to build a garage in its place. If you instead paid a valet $2 per car for every one of those 100 spots across 100 Webster events per year, it would take you a century before the garage made greater economic sense. In the year 2113, the Orion might still be standing if you let it. But given the fast-changing cultural preference shifting away from cars combined with the dwindling global oil supply, none of us can say with any certainty whether the automobile will even be the dominant mode of transport then. On the other hand, we can say with absolute certainty of the Orion and any other building destroyed to park cars: once it's gone, it's gone.

You've probably already thought through all of the above many times but we just wanted to let you know how much we appreciate all you've done to restore KC and that we hope to help you keep the history you've worked so hard to protect along 17th. Please be in touch if you want to discuss further or if you want any help lobbying the city for an agreement with the PAC garage.

Thank you,
Jase Wilson

[smh]

Can we get a link to this? Is this being distributed?

[slimwhitman]

From Facebook:

For instance, a Helix-designed gastropub with those magnificent doors open on a spring's evening, sidewalk seating filled with people out front, music and aromas swirling up and down the street. A perfect complement to Webster, and a huge booster to the value of your other 17th St. parcels. With the Orion renovated, 17th could become the most desirable nook in downtown, tucked away at the foot of the PAC, hugged on all sides by aesthetically pleasing and culturally meaningful buildings. Such a rewarding environment commands a premium. You could realize more in real estate value appreciation over the long run by leaving it intact and letting it serve a new life.

Wait a minute....this gastropub idea sounds like it might attract more people, which requires more parking, which will take away parking for the Webster House. Hurry up and tear down the Orion before this potential people and car generator idea takes hold!!

[pash]

.

[Pork Chop]

From Facebook:

We heard today that you have explored use of this garage in the past but the city hasn't entertained requests made for a sensible joint use agreement. If it helped in any way, many of us would be happy to help petition the city for a joint use agreement.

Ok, I am not usually a conspiracy theorist, but could she be maneuvering for just that...to get the city to enter a "joint use agreement" for the city owned garage?

[smh]

From Facebook:

We heard today that you have explored use of this garage in the past but the city hasn't entertained requests made for a sensible joint use agreement. If it helped in any way, many of us would be happy to help petition the city for a joint use agreement.

Ok, I am not usually a conspiracy theorist, but could she be maneuvering for just that...to get the city to enter a "joint use agreement" for the city owned garage?

Here's hoping?

[Pork Chop]

Ok, I am not usually a conspiracy theorist, but could she be maneuvering for just that...to get the city to enter a "joint use agreement" for the city owned garage?

Here's hoping?

Yeah, I hope, but it seems like a waste to use Helix for just that.

[chaglang]

She's got a standing relationship with Helix. After the Vitagraph project she probably knows they will bend over backwards to keep her happy. And I'm sure she isn't sweating the design fee.

[KCMax]

From Facebook:

We heard today that you have explored use of this garage in the past but the city hasn't entertained requests made for a sensible joint use agreement. If it helped in any way, many of us would be happy to help petition the city for a joint use agreement.

Ok, I am not usually a conspiracy theorist, but could she be maneuvering for just that...to get the city to enter a "joint use agreement" for the city owned garage?

Or tax incentives for a garage on the surface parking lot?

[AJoD]

Can we get a link to this? Is this being distributed?

https://www.facebook.com/jasewilson

Maybe?

[smh]

Can we get a link to this? Is this being distributed?

https://www.facebook.com/jasewilson

Maybe?

Thanks. Just hoping it actually makes it to her eyes.

[loftguy]

Can we get a link to this? Is this being distributed?

https://www.facebook.com/jasewilson

Maybe?

Thanks. Just hoping it actually makes it to her eyes.

Seeing as how Taxi gives Shirley her pedicure the last Thursday morning of each month, it is safe to anticipate that he shared the details of the letter, along with the sentiments expressed by this forum, while massaging in the extra virgin Bulgarian glycerin.

[taxi]

Seeing as how Taxi gives Shirley her pedicure the last Thursday morning of each month, it is safe to anticipate that he shared the details of the letter, along with the sentiments expressed by this forum, while massaging in the extra virgin Bulgarian glycerin.[/quote]
This is uncalled for. Surely you are joking.

[taxi]

She's got a standing relationship with Helix. After the Vitagraph project she probably knows they will bend over backwards to keep her happy. And I'm sure she isn't sweating the design fee.

Or forwards?

[IraGlacialis]

To ask the obvious: why not build the garage on top of the Film Row Building and integrate the structures? How much of the interior is original?

Then turn the old building into street-level retail/gallery space. It also shouldn't be too hard to continue the yellow-brick-with-art-deco-accents design on a garage.

[DaveKCMO]

From Central Parking, who manages the city's publicly-financed (all $48 million) 950-space garage that's *right behind* Webster House: "The Arts District Garage only reached capacity 9 times all of last year. Furthermore, the garage only reaches 50% of capacity on approximately 80% of all shows. We will have close to 275 public events here, this year, so as you can see the garage is under utilized for the majority of shows. There are only a select few Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays in which we fill up and almost all of those occur October through March. One final note is that the Kauffman Center understands the need to spread out the performances and plans to avoid full situations."

via https://www.facebook.com/SaveTheOrion

pay a valet for event bookings and weekend and use the garage that already exists. problem solved + we save shirley $5 million and a world of embarrassment.

[chaglang]

That effectively torpedoes SH's core argument.

Edit: Dave beat me to the post.

[WinchesterMysteryHouse]

I've been inside that building, it's nothing original or I,mediate lay noteworthy. Like an 80's call center.