KCRag Forum

LenexatoKCMO wrote: You mean the additional competition?  Those are all established areas this development will have to compete with - its only real advantage is proximity. 

same can be said about Lawrence.

trailerkid wrote: same can be said about Lawrence.

Sure - but as I mentioned the Oread development is dealing with a way bigger captive market. 

LenexatoKCMO wrote: Sure - but as I mentioned the Oread development is dealing with a way bigger captive market. 

yeah the oread feels 100% like an extension of the KU campus.  even the rooms feel kind of like dorm rooms in a way.  the student-focused quick dining and service options on the ground level, along with the KU gear shop, only reinforce this.  that place has a laser-like focus on parents and alums visiting lawrence for KU events - although we stayed there the week after it opened as a convenient way to have an overnight trip to lawrence for our anniversary (and we wouldn't stay there again).

The developers of the 39th and rainbow development said they were breaking ground in fall 2010 and start opening the following year. They would seem to be behind schedule. Anyone know what the status is on this?

Per Joice Smith, the 39 Rainbow project will include a 5 guys burgers opening late 2011. 

It's too bad the 68 apartments have been scrapped.

Stockton wrote: It's too bad the 68 apartments have been scrapped.

I don't get why either. Seems like you'd have a pretty big demand for housing for Med students and employees of KU Med, and there aren't a ton of great rental options in that area.

Looks like the hotel is completely down.  I noticed driving by this morning that the KFC is also empty, not sure what happened there.

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/n ... enant.html

It also looks like the CVS down the street at 43rd and Rainbow is moving along nicely (some sort of steel frame going up).

Only another tourist would notice.

I was more focused on Mermaid Debbie.

That huge new medical building on Rainbow opens tomorrow.

http://www.kansascity.com/2011/07/13/30 ... dical.html

KCMax wrote: That huge new medical building on Rainbow opens tomorrow.

I puke a little in my mouth every time I drive past the new KU Endowment building on Rainbow.  So sad.  It is good they planted new street trees on Rainbow to help mask that eyesore.

pics?  i must not get over that way very often, because i have no idea what this building is!

I don't think this is the "huge building" -- that is still working, lots of cranes, etc., although part of it appears to be opening soon (the frontage on Olathe Road).  It think this refers to the smaller, standalone building south of the main complex.  They knocked down a true eyesore to build this office, which is a huge improvement on the building that was there before.

heatherkay wrote: They knocked down a true eyesore to build this office, which is a huge improvement of the building that was there before.

Referring to the KU Endowment building on Rainbow: True that the old building was nasty.  Too bad the new one is only marginally better.

Actually, I re-read the article when I hung up on the $85M.  They are talking about the new wing that opens on to Olathe.

ETA -- based on the campus map, the new building at 4100 Rainbow houses the KU Endowment.

The cranes are for adding floors to the hospital...which is seperate from the huge glass wing opening on Olathe, which is seperate from the new building built down the street on Rainbow.

The glass extension/wing on Olathe is what is opening.  The Building on Rainbow looks done and is probably opening.  The additional floors being added atop the hospital are clearly in progress...ie cranes, steel beams, and what not...

Ah, sorry for the confusion. They're building so much out there I get confused.

Yeah, this is basically the new main entrance to the hospital on Olathe BLVD.

Still a shitty-looking building, kind of PacNW-style blue/grey and glass, but its better than the previous main entrance, which was dinghy, labrinthine and kind of podunk, considering KU is our largest urban -- and for that matter metro -- hospital and our only academic medical center.