There are not any real details in that article other than these guys have no real plan. So they were prosing to tear down a city block and they won't even come up with a plan for it till 2025 which means best case scenario is "something" might go up in 2026--2030.
Why can't they find an empty block to sit on for a few years and play developer?
I HATE developers that tear shit down that don't have a real plan for it. In KC it means it will be a vacant lot or parking lot for at least a decade. There should be a tower crane sitting next door ready to be assembled before they start tearing things down. The 1400 building is an example of how it's done.
I got to take a walk through of the buildings this afternoon. Really, they’re in poor shape. The corner building’s floors are slanted and windows are becoming detached from the walls. The smell of mold is present as well. Some floors are super soft. Copper and HVAC units were stolen. And some homeless call the building home with recent instances of vandalism present. The floor line up issue is worse than I thought it would be. Learned a little bit more about the tower as well, but won’t go into too much detail. That’s for them to do
I'm sure the updated rendering has nothing at all to do with tomorrow's deadline for public input before the next CPC meeting on the 20th.
While I'm likely one of the few people living in this neighborhood who'd be fine if that tower as currently proposed got built (in a timely manner), my Spidey-Sense tells me 31st & Main will either wind up as a parking lot for decades or yet another crappy pad site if that corner gets demolished.
Chris Stritzel wrote: ↑Wed Sep 14, 2022 4:16 pm
I got to take a walk through of the buildings this afternoon. Really, they’re in poor shape. The corner building’s floors are slanted and windows are becoming detached from the walls. The smell of mold is present as well. Some floors are super soft. Copper and HVAC units were stolen. And some homeless call the building home with recent instances of vandalism present. The floor line up issue is worse than I thought it would be. Learned a little bit more about the tower as well, but won’t go into too much detail. That’s for them to do
Here are some photos I took and two more renderings. This is a case where I think if the historic designation passes, something should be included that says that the buildings can only be demolished if rebuilt facades are of the same quality and the tower/housing portion is of high-quality architectural design. It's a fair trade off. I know they want the buildings gone and, seeing first hand, I can see why.
beautyfromashes wrote: ↑Wed Sep 14, 2022 6:23 pm
That rendering literally made me laugh. It’s the “take a proposed Fort Lauderdale condo project and paste like clipart” rendering! Yeah!
There are a few peer market projects I’ve worked on that look similar. Not un-achievable for KC!
^I don’t think he’s saying it’s real, but I think what’s being said is that something like this isn’t impossible here.
Personally, I can only see this project happening if cut in half and done with a partner, but I’d like to be proven wrong. There are a lot of hoops to jump through with this one anyways and while I like to be optimistic, this is one where I can’t get optimistic about it in its current form. It’s cool though and neat to dream.
Everything about this rendering made me just think this is a total waste of time even reading anymore about this project. This is total vaporware. Not even vaporware like other projects because this is not even a project or a proposal. Any developer that that would put out such a ridiculous rendering like this is probably not worth taking seriously. This would only make me clamp down on not letting this developer demolish the buildings on that corner.
I wish a project like this was possible in KC, but come on. This is an Atlanta/Nashville/Austin/Miami/Denver type project. KC is just not in that world yet and may never be. Not that there is anything wrong with that and maybe it's good to see people at least trying to think big, but does anybody realistically think a project like this would actually be built in KC anytime soon? The Light towers which are basically 15 story block buildings on 10 story city funded parking structures is where KC is at right now.
I will say that although this does look like something cloned from Miami Beach, it would be nice if downtown KC had something as contrasting as this.
I’m not saying this design is gonna happen at this site- but the 4 Light design *should* look something like this to not just copy that glass look. I wish they’d pick this design.
If that's not vaporware then the city should force some guarantees for a deal, they have leverage. That would be an insane amount of density at that corner. Doesn't matter matter though because that rendering is just a PsyOp until proven otherwise.
There's much more that I want to say that I was told, but can't since that gives too much away. Whether or not it's all true, I don't know but it was well thought out.
Regardless, the city should use this as leverage that if they want to demolish the structures, they must propose a plan, get approvals and have financing in place before being allowed to demolish. It would be a stipulation and the city has the power to do that. It's a reasonable request as well and I think by applying that type of pressure would force a project to happen here. But if that path is chosen, I'd hope it would be within the year since the condition of the sagging floors and windows concerns me that the turret portion could just fall off. Same with the large crack in Main facade's southern edge of the Lutfi's building.
I’d just not negotiate with this developer at all. Your reputation as a developer has to have something to do with the response from the city and this one doesn’t have a good track record. Steps toward them just get you closer to demolition with almost zero chance of actual development.