KCRag Forum

flyingember wrote:It would benefit drivers and pedestrians and the streetcar to move all parking away from 5th.

Hear, hear. Someone tell the city.

flyingember wrote:

kboish wrote:

DaveKCMO wrote:900 parking stalls!

Is this on the 3rd and grand site or the northwest site where Veoila is vacating?

This is the KCATA project

Veoila site is at 2nd/Grand.

I am aware. 4 posts prior Dave informed us that ATA is considering moving parking for the project from the 3rd and grand site to 2nd and Grand (northwest), the Veiola site...so I am clarifying if he knows where the 900 spaces for the project are going to be located.

DaveKCMO wrote:report from KCATA board meeting last month that the project has increased in size by 100K square feet and the garage may be relocated to the northwest on the veolia site that's being vacated.

all structured parking for 3rd and grand has been (tentatively) moved to the veolia site.

ordinance: http://cityclerk.kcmo.org/liveweb/Docum ... %2bZOOcbxm

Thanks for getting us the facts Dave. Lot of posts on here stated as facts and just confuses everyone.

Apparently we live in a post-fact world these day.

It's a good solution. The Veolia site is probably full of contaminants, and not suitable for permanent residential, or any other building that people might occupy. Putting a parking garage there is probably the best use. It frees up space at 3rd and Grand for an interior court, pool, or apartments crossing mid-block from one side to the other. It also negates the expense of excavating down for parking levels under ground--at 3rd and Grand, or filling the interior of the block with an above-ground parking structure.

of course, the big concern with 900 stalls at 2nd and grand is that most of those cars would dump right onto the streetcar tracks (non-revenue track in the current configuration and revenue track if the riverfront extension is built).

DaveKCMO wrote:of course, the big concern with 900 stalls at 2nd and grand is that most of those cars would dump right onto the streetcar tracks (non-revenue track in the current configuration and revenue track if the riverfront extension is built).

Would it help if they spilled out onto 2nd? Is that even an option?

I would think folks could enter that parking garage from 1st St., underneath the Grand viaduct. There's a major elevation change and there's really no other traffic down there, so it makes sense.

The bums are going to pissed with all that extra traffic.

KCPowercat wrote:The bums are going to pissed with all that extra traffic.

Probably would be fenced out. They did that at the streetcar maintenance building where they lived under the HOA bridge

Better news and higher hopes for this - possibly 300,000 sq ft of office in 2 towers.
There's now a "270 day" window just to find office tenants from outside the KC area.
http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics ... 15304.html

The goal is to build two new office towers along with a multimodal transportation hub, more retail and a new parking structure that could provide some park-and-ride spaces for bus and streetcar riders. ..... it chose Briarcliff out of a field of five companies to come up with a higher and better use. The KCATA liked the fact that Briarcliff focused on offices, while the other four proposals were residential.

Since that time, the plan has grown and evolved as it kicks into a higher gear, said Dennis Hays, vice president for economic development for the KCATA.

It was originally envisioned as two office towers, each 100,000 square feet, with an underground parking garage.

But then Briarcliff and the ATA learned that land for parking might instead be available just to the north and west of Third and Grand, because the nearby Veolia energy company was giving up use of its 4-acre coal yard at First and Grand. ...negotiations are underway to possibly use that land for a 900-stall decked parking structure. That parking alternative allowed Briarcliff to increase each six-story office tower to 150,000 square feet, or 300,000 square feet total, Hays said.

The project is also supposed to include a transportation hub benefiting the downtown streetcar, bus connections, bike-share stations and possibly future commuter rail.

Might take a while to fill, delaying the project. Available parking along with streetcar will help but downtown Class A office vacancy still a bit high with over 1M sqft available. Wonder what % commitment they need to start construction. OTOH, if it fills quickly and draws general downtown interest from several companies maybe it will at least reduce vacancy.

http://www.colliers.com/-/media/files/m ... office.pdf

Spec built with a chance for tons of contiguous is a better deal than finding space in another building and needing to retrofit.

Corrigan Building has had decent luck finding tenants so far.

NorthOak wrote:Better news and higher hopes for this - possibly 300,000 sq ft of office in 2 towers.
There's now a "270 day" window just to find office tenants from outside the KC area.

I don't see anything that says the tenant can't be from within the metro, the ATA just won't use incentives to lure them.

Sounds like they need an anchor tenant committed before starting construction so not 'spec' built.

Downtown needs to go after national companies that have local offices without providing incentives. Tech leaning companies/services like IBM, HP, Microsoft, Apple, Cisco, EMC etc have their local offices along College Blvd. Downtown boosters should pursue them as leases expire, not with incentives with but pushing streetcar and trend that millennials prefer urban worklife. Once you get the attention of a few, more will naturally follow. But until there is metro wide transit like commuter rail, many dedicated parking spaces will still be needed.

Based on the context of the rest of the comment, I think what was meant was specifically built to suit a tenant, not speculatively built.

mean wrote:Based on the context of the rest of the comment, I think what was meant was specifically built to suit a tenant, not speculatively built.

yep. spec = to specification. didn't think of that other meaning of spec.

Ah, yeah the industry uses 'spec' term meaning speculative, built before any anchor tenant signed up. Looks like this project won't start until getting an anchor tenant, which could delay project - maybe.

Old news about the proposed upgrade but thought I would post the new rendering.
http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/n ... oject.html