KCRag Forum

Downtown Kansas City, Kan., tasting revival

The Unified Government of Wyandotte County has been undoing the ugly 1970s zigzag makeover of Minnesota Street that choked traffic and terrorized tires with its sharp steel-edge curbs. It’s been replaced by softer landscaping, diagonal parking and a new bus transit center at Seventh Street dominated by the historic Winkler Clock.

The Chamber of Commerce recently renovated its offices at 727 Minnesota. Just around the corner at 824 State Ave., Foutch Bros. recently renovated the old Horace Mann school into 30 apartments, and down the road, at 10th and Minnesota, Mayor Mark Holland wants to develop a “healthy campus” anchored by a new YMCA.

Across Minnesota from the spiffed-up Chamber building, Loretto Commercial Properties of Prairie Village — a real estate venture founded by Lamar Hunt Jr., a son of the late Chiefs’ founder and owner — is about to tackle the renovation of a couple of old buildings at 730 and 736 Minnesota.

I haven't been to downtown KCK in forever. Is it enjoying a nice revival? What more can be done?

I don't know that I would call it a revival, but city leadership seems to have become aware of the gem this could be and they are taking steps to encourage change in the right direction.

I would not call it revival but at least the city finally put some money in Downtown. It seems to me that all the $$ is going to the legends.

I was in downtown KCK shortly after the bus terminal opened.

Overall it needs LOTS of work. looking at it from a bringing professional business standpoint it's too 1970s and too sketchy feeling.

they have a long way to go. the bus terminal was a good first step

Downtown KCK has been held back by an insular, good-old-boy approach to business.

They have held themselves back, by keeping good out.

loftguy wrote:Downtown KCK has been held back by an insular, good-old-boy approach to business.

They have held themselves back, by keeping good out.

This, very much so. It seems to be changing, but they have a ways to go.

Lamar Hunt Jr. kicks off downtown KCK revitalization effort

Loretto Properties LLC, a real estate development firm owned by Lamar Hunt Jr., has kicked off efforts to help revitalize downtown Kansas City, Kan.
The firm has begun renovating the former Katz Drugs building, a three-story, 20,000-square-foot structure at 730 Minnesota Ave. that it purchased from out-of-town owners for $180,000 earlier this year.
In addition, Loretto Properties has reached an agreement to purchase the adjacent 30,000-square-foot, two-story building at 736 Minnesota Ave. for $100,000 from the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kan.

KCMax wrote:Lamar Hunt Jr. kicks off downtown KCK revitalization effort

Loretto Properties LLC, a real estate development firm owned by Lamar Hunt Jr., has kicked off efforts to help revitalize downtown Kansas City, Kan.
The firm has begun renovating the former Katz Drugs building, a three-story, 20,000-square-foot structure at 730 Minnesota Ave. that it purchased from out-of-town owners for $180,000 earlier this year.
In addition, Loretto Properties has reached an agreement to purchase the adjacent 30,000-square-foot, two-story building at 736 Minnesota Ave. for $100,000 from the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kan.

And, survey says: Members of the UGoWC are already balking at assisting this interloper. (not kidding)

KCMax wrote:KCK got a pile of federal cash to invest in its downtown. Most of it went into a money-pit hotel

Old News. This was built under the KCK city council back in the 90's long before the UG was ever even proposed /considered.

The Pitch, or "Bitch" Weekly as I like to call it is a worthless rag that likes to get people riled up over nothing by "reporting" / bitching about old news or trying to make stories out of nothing.

My favorite part of the article is the comments though, the guy who supposedly worked for the city of KCK back then and compiled a comprehensive file of golden economic development investments that was lost forever when he was fired. I was heartened to know that he handed a copy of his file to Mayor Kay Barnes, who unfortunately never acted on any of it. Which may have something to do with her being the mayor of the wrong city. This guy didn't even know what city he worked for LOL LOL!!! Sureeeeeee.....

There is a reason that this "news" paper is given away for free. My suggestion is to read the adult personal ads in the back, much more entertaining to read than their so=called "news".

justin8216 wrote:

KCMax wrote:KCK got a pile of federal cash to invest in its downtown. Most of it went into a money-pit hotel

Old News. This was built under the KCK city council back in the 90's long before the UG was ever even proposed /considered.

The Pitch, or "Bitch" Weekly as I like to call it is a worthless rag that likes to get people riled up over nothing by "reporting" / bitching about old news or trying to make stories out of nothing.

My favorite part of the article is the comments though, the guy who supposedly worked for the city of KCK back then and compiled a comprehensive file of golden economic development investments that was lost forever when he was fired. I was heartened to know that he handed a copy of his file to Mayor Kay Barnes, who unfortunately never acted on any of it. Which may have something to do with her being the mayor of the wrong city. This guy didn't even know what city he worked for LOL LOL!!! Sureeeeeee.....

There is a reason that this "news" paper is given away for free. My suggestion is to read the adult personal ads in the back, much more entertaining to read than their so=called "news".

Yeah man, that Pitch really missed the mark on those old news pay day loan stories....

/s

smh wrote:
Yeah man, that Pitch really missed the mark on those old news pay day loan stories....

/s

they actually missed a lot of detail on that story. it went way bigger than their coverage

Minnesota Avenue's alright, its alot like Independence Avenue.

Instead of using government money to build and subsidize a hotel, KCK would have been better off had they just purchased and renovated many of the old retail buildings along Minnesota Avenue, and perhaps even rebuilt on some of the vacant lots to recreate a continuous streetwall. Then sell the buildings the City renovated, or built, for what it cost to buy and renovate them, which was probably little to begin with since the area is so blighted. Plant some trees, and add nice landscaping. Encourage more housing to be built nearby.

Many retailers and restaurants won't open in a business district that appears rundown. And they don't want to mess with fixing up buildings. If the "market" can't accomplish it, which hasn't happened, then sometimes it just falls to city leadership to do it. People just sit around waiting for the "market" to take care of these things, but sometimes it doesn't. Capitalism is not a perfect enterprise. Political leaders think nothing of throwing money on sprawl and highways to make developers and real estate lobbyists happy, which is basically subsidizing those industries with tax dollars. Thre is no appetite for making policy that limits wasteful sprawl development through land use policies or limiting new highway building, or using infastructure that already exists more efficiently.

Perhaps instead of spending billions on building new highways and streets on raw land, and maintaining them--in less dense neighborhoods that only make the problems worse in the future, spend the money hiring more police officers to reduce crime in the city that already exists, and work on infill development. That will be much cheaper for everyone in the long run. I never hear people running for city office talking about these things.

The other matter that should have been debated more intensely a long time ago is whether Kansas City, Kansas, really even needed to have a convention center to begin with, must less a hotel to serve it. Especially when a much bigger one is just a couple miles east in downtown Kansas City, Missouri.

I believe these downtown KCK improvements started to happen around 35 years ago. The main drag was being modified (as it turned out unsuccessfully) and the hotel/convention center is more like the complex in OP than what is in KCMO's downtown. Much like KCMO's downtown and many downtown areas throughout the country at the time and later downtowns were not the place to be.

Healthy campus' is at heart of new downtown KCK master plan


We have committed $6 million dollars of the UG's annual gaming revenue from Hollywood Casino to development of new downtown YMCA, Grocery Store, Downtown Streetscaping, etc.

And the naysayers on this forum keep trotting out the same old lie that development out west isn't paying dividends in the urban core of KC, KS. I've been saying that was a fiction from the start and as usual I'm right.

These things take time. Village West is now firmly entrenched as an economic engine paying dividends in the form of revenue to the UG to do these kinds of projects to revitalize our urban core.

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/n ... n-kck.html

http://www.wycokck.org/uploadedFiles/Go ... 202014.pdf

http://youtu.be/htowvR590QA

The only things dt kck can attract is wyco government, courts, and public housing. When I was a child it was the #3 shopping district in the metro. When Debbie Barnes of OP became Miss America in 1965 her triumphal parade was not held in JoCo but Minnesota Ave.

justin8216 wrote:Healthy campus' is at heart of new downtown KCK master plan


We have committed $6 million dollars of the UG's annual gaming revenue from Hollywood Casino to development of new downtown YMCA, Grocery Store, Downtown Streetscaping, etc.

And the naysayers on this forum keep trotting out the same old lie that development out west isn't paying dividends in the urban core of KC, KS. I've been saying that was a fiction from the start and as usual I'm right.

These things take time. Village West is now firmly entrenched as an economic engine paying dividends in the form of revenue to the UG to do these kinds of projects to revitalize our urban core.

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/n ... n-kck.html

That's a nice plan. It looks really good. But if it's a serious plan with what they realistically have in mind, I have to wonder where Gate's BBQ (where the parking with solar sheds is) and the 4-plex apartment buildings below Wyandotte Towers went (southeast of 10th and Washington). Pushing out Gate's wouldn't be a good thing. I guess the 4-plex apartment buildings could be redeveloped, but turning over public housing land for redevelopment seems unlikely, doesn't it? Those particular apartments are quite nice and for older people specifically, not troublemakers or anything like that, at least that was the case last I knew.

moderne wrote:The only things dt kck can attract is wyco government, courts, and public housing. When I was a child it was the #3 shopping district in the metro. When Debbie Barnes of OP became Miss America in 1965 her triumphal parade was not held in JoCo but Minnesota Ave.

Well, more recently it's attracted a rather expensive apartment development to a historic school building, as well as other loft development, townhouse condominiums, and quite a few new single family homes that average about $150,000 a piece, as well as an engineering firm and private development by Lamar Hunt. All of that stuff is a drop in the bucket, but should be acknowledged and may be seeding of what is to come. Minnesota is still a fairly busy shopping street, although it's very working class. Thrift stores, bazaars, ethnic food places, used appliances, etc.