OFFICIAL: Port Authority Riverfront Project

[GRID]

This project needs to come back before I can take the riverfront seriously again.

[AlkaliAxel]

It’s incredible logic by the council voters or whatever-

“Hey let’s build a $150 mil stadium with streetcar line and then kill all the fucking apartments around it!!”

Just geniuses aren’t they. Such great logic and rationality they use.

[TheLastGentleman]

My sense of scale was completely thrown off in the original drawing so I hope this helps place the site for anyone else

[FangKC]

This project needs to come back before I can take the riverfront seriously again.

Agreed. This needs to get built at this scale. A solution must be found.

[AlkaliAxel]

Going on third week in a row now with zero news on the downtown forum...exactly 3 weeks since Lux got killed. Since I've joined the site a year ago the downtown forum usually has 6-7 news bits per day. And this is June.

If there's nothing by Friday still then I'm gonna declare that killing Lux getting killed has destroyed all the downtown momentum. It literally has come to a screeching halt since that exact day.

[KCPowercat]

Dramatic much?

[daGOAT]

It may be dramatic but also partially true. A small city like KC with low publicity and moderate growth rates, in its hottest years, make it quite easy to kill momentum. Then again good leadership and a willingness to subsidize development easily can get the city back on track if its aggressive with its own RFPs, which is not even close to what's actually happening.

[AlkaliAxel]

Dramatic much?

Couple it with Mac & that river market development death recently too

[SilentSpades24]

Dramatic much?

No, it's not dramatic, it's true. The city has killed off major project after major project in a years time, what makes anyone think that this trend won't continue?

Frankly, it's embarrassing and it isn't going to achieve the "equity" KC Tenants and the rest of these activists think it will. It certainly isn't going to suddenly drive development to the east side, and even if it did, the activists will then shoot it down again and scream that it's gentrification.

It's a no win situation. I'm not the biggest fan of subsidies, but we can't just sit on our hands and refuse to do anything and kill every development.

[AlkaliAxel]

I think the worst signal to developers was when Mac actually complied with the affordable housing mandate and they *still* killed the project.

If you kill a project even after they meet your ridiculous standards...then what do u expect?

[GRID]

Not dramatic at all. You can tell urban development in KC is in big trouble. Not only has the city killed most projects that have been recently in the proposal stages, but nothing is coming down the pipeline. Developers have shelved many projects that were in the planning stages that were not public yet I hear due to the political environment. So just when KC was starting to get national developers attention, they have shut it down. Those developers will move on to other third tier cities to find places to build new projects.

And KC sees very little development as it is, so it's a pretty big deal when the momentum grinds to a halt as it could take years for things to heat back up again. Think about how far back the the city was set back when Funkhouser was in office. The city basically lost four years while developers just pulled back and waited or moved on to the suburbs.

[KCPowercat]

I hear the city may just disband. That's what I'm hearing.

Guys this has happened over and over. This isn't simply due to the city standing up and not rubber stamping every developers plans. Hell look around at some we did that still sit empty today. Come up with better plans.

I get it we are all development focused. Ffs I created a site just to track new projects believe me I get it. The chicken little sky is falling is over the top though.

Success of a city isn't only measured in cranes in the sky.

[GRID]

This should also make people pause a bit about a downtown stadium. I still don't think you will see much development around a downtown stadium, just like hardly anything has happened near the Sprint Center outside Cordish. KCMO just does not have the political climate for stuff like that. It never has and a stadium won't change that.

[KCPowercat]

Imagine freaking out over the riverfront and it's disjointed suburban apartments and one not being built.

[GRID]

I hear the city may just disband. That's what I'm hearing.

Guys this has happened over and over. This isn't simply due to the city standing up and not rubber stamping every developers plans. Hell look around at some we did that still sit empty today. Come up with better plans.

I get it we are all development focused. Ffs I created a site just to track new projects believe me I get it. The chicken little sky is falling is over the top though.

Success of a city isn't only measured in cranes in the sky.

Explain to me why the city rubber stamped a bunch of crappy suburban style apartment complexes on the riverfront and then kills a project that actually should be approved even after they did everything they were told to and basically were told it was a go? I mean the project they killed was the game changer for the riverfront. It would have totally changed the entire feel of the area from what looks like a suburban off ramp development to something more urban.

Same with the big MAC plan in midtown. That would have been a game changer for midtown all by itself and they were trying to be creative so they could make the project work with the new affordable housing rules.

Then you still have areas like the plaza that everybody in that city wants to stay the same as it was in 1980. No matter what is proposed down there, you have NIMBYs from hell.

All while any delays what so ever pretty much will kill projects right now with the cost of everything going up etc. KCMO has seen a ton of great progress, but the city always finds a way to take a few steps back after taking a couple forward. Always. And you can't deny that.

[KCPowercat]

That new project is no game changer nor dead. If it was approved you'd be here telling us why it sucks and KC can't build anything properly

[GRID]

That new project is no game changer nor dead. If it was approved you'd be here telling us why it sucks and KC can't build anything properly

Now you are just making stuff up. And KC does have a history of urban planning blunders. That's why this project is so important to the riverfront. Like I said, it's hard to take the riverfront seriously. Lenexa City Center is doing a much better job so far, but when this project was announced, I was like FINALLY. Something that actually makes sense and will help justify running the streetcar down there.

[KCPowercat]

It's the same type of project as the others.

[CrossroadsUrbanApts]

The doom and gloom might be overexaggerated but the recent political climate around development incentives certainly has a chilling effect, most notably on non-KC-based developers who want to invest in Kansas City. I'm sure the Blocks are thrilled that non-KC developers are effectively being run out of town. They know they will still more or less get their way due to their connections and knowledge of the inside game, but it keeps their competition out.

Don't get me wrong - I don't think you should just give developers whatever it is they ask for. But as frequently noted above, some development companies have been putting forward projects that ostensibly meet what the city council and staff have been asking for, and they are still losing painfully public votes for seemingly idiosyncratic reasons - whoever shouts the loudest carries the day. That certainly makes it tough to invest the hundreds of thousands of dollars up front that it takes to even get to the point of a public vote for requested entitlements or incentives. Money that could be invested elsewhere.

The more that city council members and the city manager's office hear directly from people like those on this board, the better. Please don't be shy to speak up. You know KC Tenants isn't. So send an email to City Planning when you see a rezoning to UR come through. Call a council member's office and just say you support a particular project. Any little bit helps.

[earthling]

It's a short term problem but once these streetcar extensions are complete, the infill will happen one way or another. It might not be at the pace of other fast growing markets but nearly complete infill along streetcar line will eventually happen, likely this decade. The fight is annoying but in the long run things will be fine.

I'm more concerned about improper development along streetcar not conducive to pedestrian engagement, such as creating isolated islands.