urbanSTL

^That reminds me a bit of a comparison I did a few years back of the two cities "downtowns." "Greater downtown" Kansas City has vastly more population than "greater downtown" St. Louis, but it's also the best part of twice as big. To get a roughly equivalent area in St. Louis I had to extend downtown to Sarah. (It's still very slightly smaller. But it's close.) We do fine in apples to apples comparisons (as does KC), but it can be hard to make those when things that sound so similar on paper are so different in reality.

Here's the map I'd quickly ginned up for the project, if you're curious. Both "greater downtowns" were semi-official things from the usual civic booster suspects, though I forget where I got them at this great remove. Possibly Wiki? Not sure.

https://www.google.com/maps/@38.6081994 ... 54-dqFoKRY

KC's greater downtown measured out to 7.04 square miles. Ours was 4.08. Simply stretching it to Sarah along Cass, MLK, and Park made it 6.91.

New Katz on Main renderings. Roof amenity deck still being looked at due to structural implications. This is a LuxLiving project.

A condition of approval is that the first 4 floors will be red brick unlike the renderings.

Official news release and specs for the proposed Americo Plaza development site.

https://www.flatlandkc.org/news-issues/ ... -and-main/

Dubbed the “Museum Tower” the site will contain the following.
- Valuation of $116 Million
- 300 apartment units (50 studios, 157 1-bedroom units, 93 2-bedroom units with rent averaging $2500)
- Retail/restaurant component designed to complement the classic and modern artistic elements of the Plaza and Nelson-Atkins Museum.
- 460 underground parking spaces
- 293,000 sqft

I’ll be honest that I’m a little underwhelmed. I was under the impression that the site would be home to a complex of mixed use towers ranging up to 30 stories. I believe the tower is still subject to the Plaza Bowl height restrictions but I’m not certain. Restrictions or not, how many stories do we want to speculate?

Loscher94 wrote:Official news release and specs for the proposed Americo Plaza development site.

https://www.flatlandkc.org/news-issues/ ... -and-main/

Dubbed the “Museum Tower” the site will contain the following.
- Valuation of $116 Million
- 300 apartment units (50 studios, 157 1-bedroom units, 93 2-bedroom units with rent averaging $2500)
- Retail/restaurant component designed to complement the classic and modern artistic elements of the Plaza and Nelson-Atkins Museum.
- 460 underground parking spaces
- 293,000 sqft

I’ll be honest that I’m a little underwhelmed. I was under the impression that the site would be home to a complex of mixed use towers ranging up to 30 stories. I believe the tower is still subject to the Plaza Bowl height restrictions but I’m not certain. Restrictions or not, how many stories do we want to speculate?

This could technically be a “phase 1“. The site is quite large. So I doubt that the building will be a short and sprawling apartment complex. They’ll want to do something grand on that corner.

We will see the full extent of the project in probably the next few weeks if this information got out. I guess just keep an eye on Compass to see if anything is submitted

Another tower proposed for the River Front.

Name: “The Defeo”.
Valuation: $45 million
Developer: Maxus Properties
Units: 235
Stories: 10 stories (8 new floors on top of an existing 2 story garage podium)
Location: southeast corner of Oak and Third streets


Project Updates

1650 Broadway is reportedly taking steps towards construction. JeDunn has been selected to build the project and a construction fence is going up on the site according to Kcrag. In addition, the neighboring plot containing the now shuttered Denny’s will under go demolition. I’m hoping this is a sign that Copaken Brooks is moving forward with their long dormant mixed use proposal that would border 1650 Broadway.

North Plaza Hotel is now well underway. A dual brand hotel, it will contain an Aloft along with an independently branded 4 star hotel dubbed “The Cascade”.

The Defeo Tower is one that I'm looking forward to seeing the renderings for mostly because of the "planned roof decks and stair stepped apartments".

Copaken commissioned finish photography for Reverb.

New rendering for Milhaus Development's Tracks project in the Crossroads. 193 units.

Crown Center (Streetcar Adjacent):

A new office building is being proposed for South Crown Center. I think this will be next to a new streetcar station.

The application states about 100,000 square feet in the tower would be used by an anchor tenant which was not identified, with the remainder reserved for speculative office tenants. A timetable accompany the plan estimates the application for incentives will be made to the city in May with City Council consideration anticipated in October. If approved, construction would being in Spring 2022 with completion anticipated in February 2024.

ldai_phs wrote: ↑

Mar 30, 2021

Crown Center (Streetcar Adjacent):

A new office building is being proposed for South Crown Center. I think this will be next to a new streetcar station.

The application states about 100,000 square feet in the tower would be used by an anchor tenant which was not identified, with the remainder reserved for speculative office tenants. A timetable accompany the plan estimates the application for incentives will be made to the city in May with City Council consideration anticipated in October. If approved, construction would being in Spring 2022 with completion anticipated in February 2024.

Not bad but could use more street activation. Is this the mystery tower that was discussed briefly the other year? It appears to be part of the Crown Center redevelopment plan.

^I know they've been accused of just moving the same project around, but boy does that tower across from the Mainstreet/Empire look like the BPV tower. Still, maybe that means the rest is a hint of what the next phase of BPV will be. Not super-exciting, but not terrible, either. Congrats to KC for the next phase of this project.

symphonicpoet wrote: ↑

Apr 09, 2021

^I know they've been accused of just moving the same project around, but boy does that tower across from the Mainstreet/Empire look like the BPV tower. Still, maybe that means the rest is a hint of what the next phase of BPV will be. Not super-exciting, but not terrible, either. Congrats to KC for the next phase of this project.

Yeah, definitely cookie cutter design.  At least they shield the ugly stuff installed on the roof.  100 I'm looking at you.

Golden Plains Tech Park (Northland, Semi-near the airport):

Incentives and $103.5 billion Industrial Revenue Bond Sale are going before the full council. The project has grown to $4.5 billion in real property investment and $99 billion in equipment. Operations will start next year and full operational capacity will be reached by 2032.

“The commitment is there to move (the campus) forward now by a large tech company that is keeping confidential for now. ... We don’t see anything derailing that,” the CEO of Black & Veatch said. 

Data center experts have said the Golden Plains site occupies the sort of central location that would appeal to multibillion-dollar “FAAMG” companies — Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Google — as they pursue “hyperscale” facilities in secondary markets.

Diode Ventures counts those sorts of companies among its partners and clients, Hardin said during the virtual meeting.

https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/news/2021/04/14/golden-plains-technology-park-diode-ventures-bonds.html

^At over 5M sqft planned it may become one of the largest data center complexes in the world.  With plenty of room to grow.

Wow that's huge, but the jobs numbers are always startling. This place is going to be bigger than a square mile and receive $8.2 billion in incentives, yet is only expected (likely inflated) to employ 325 people full time.

Where the land is, probably wouldn't generate significant property tax long term anyway.  Having the major cloud providers locally may attract biz who use them (AWS, Azure, GCP, etc), very low latency locally.  Startups in particular tend to rely on cloud providers rather than building their own data center, though F500 and mature companies moving to cloud more and more too.  Google also has land leased in KC for a GCP data center.  Though wouldn't be surprising if they end up in this project.

AWS doesn't have a core region in the inner West so could see them expanding in this DC complex.

^ I think it is interesting to note that all the big Cloud providers have in one fashion or another embrace renewable energy to drive their data center and this location is also very centralized in terms of central plains wind power from Dakotas to one of the biggest renewable energy generators being the state of Texas.  In same breath, Missouri has done everything it can possibly do as state to stop the grainbelt express from being built and delivering renewable energy from the plains to midwest markets.

So what is a win win for Kansas when your conservative state next door hinders a stronger electric grid built for renewables?  Find a developer and clients who can use the renewable wind power  to make those investments in house  Yes, the job numbers are not that great but investment is investment.  More importantly, any increase in jobs or presence for a given sector lends to more jobs and greater presence in that sector for the region.    

BTW, Missouri's pitch for growing data centers state wide, which this project refers to...
http://www.missouripartnership.com/wp-c ... ters-2.pdf

Sky Development and Cordish filed plans for 2 more towers in downtown KC.

Plans call for 506 apartments, 85,000 square feet of office and 830 structured parking spaces. These buildings will go at the 2 southern corners of Main & Truman road. Plans say Construction is expected to start in 2022


This will be Cordish’s first step outside P&L in KC. Je Dunn is likely an equity investor. Sporting KC owns one of the lots and had previously mentioned their involvement with a high rise apartment building on the lot.


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ldai_phs wrote: ↑

Apr 20, 2021

Sky Development and Cordish filed plans for 2 more towers in downtown KC.

Plans call for 506 apartments, 85,000 square feet of office and 830 structured parking spaces. These buildings will go at the 2 southern corners of Main & Truman road. Plans say Construction is expected to start in 2022

This will be Cordish’s first step outside P&L in KC. Je Dunn is likely an equity investor. Sporting KC owns one of the lots and had previously mentioned their involvement with a high rise apartment building on the lot.

This is a big project and I look forward to seeing the renderings for this.

The sites are not that large and with the 506 apartments,  830 parking spaces, and 85,000sf of office space, these buildings will be tall. Just for aesthetics, I doubt they'll go with a twin tower design but instead one will be taller than the other, which makes sense. Overall, these buildings are going to create a visual link from the high-rises and towers of the Downtown core into Crossroads where the Loews Hotel sticks out as the tallest building South of the highway. These two buildings will help blend the Loews in a bit better with the surrounding neighborhood and drag the energy of the Power and Light District further South.

Additionally, the units seemed to be competitively priced with other buildings in the Crossroads and Downtown neighborhoods and so these buildings should have no problems filling up. As the BizJournal reported: "Monthly rent for the planned apartments is expected to range from $1,200 for studios, averaging 375 square feet, to $3,500 for penthouse units, around 1,300 square feet.” There will also be affordable apartments in the building, which is a requirement in the City of KC now for buildings seeking incentives.

Hundreds of more residents, hundreds of more office workers, and much more all along the Streetcar route. This benefits nearby businesses but also businesses up and down the streetcar line.

To end this post, I think it's cool to bounce back to 2014, which was prior to the Streetcar opening and prior to the neighborhood undergoing a significant change. It was pretty dead and depressing back then. In the past 7 years, multiple projects have gone up, and are proposed, that have changed the tide in the neighborhood for the better. Now, it's much cleaner and vibrant with many more parcels to develop. 

Here are the projects built over the past 7 years in the Crossroads.

1. Loews Hotel
2. Residence Inn/Courtyard Hotel
3. Hampton Inn at 16th and Main
4. 1914 Main
5. Terrace on Walnut
6. City Club
7. Reverb
8. Artistry
9. Home 2 Suites
10. Arterra
11. Crossroads Westside
12. Crossroads Hotel (historic redevelopment)
13. And other redevelopments of smaller buildings on Grand and other streets.

Here are the projects currently proposed or in planning in the Crossroads...

1. Main and Truman Southwest (Cordish+Sky)
2. Main and Truman Southeast (Cordish+Sky)
3. The Edison on Broadway (LuxLiving)
4. The Tracks on 22nd (Milhaus)
5. Alle on Broadway (Mashburn)
6. Artistry Phase 2 (Milhaus)
7. Pickle Ball on Walnut Street (3D Development)
8. Freighthouse Village (3D Development)
9. Podium Office Tower (3D Development)
10. Grand Place (3D Development - Historic Redevelopment)
11. 16th and Grand

And surely there are more in the works.

Over 1200 units and >$400M proposed and filed for downtown projects in one day to beat incentives deadline.  These will also fill in some surface lots and get rid of a couple small buildings not worthy of restoring, one a 60's style car service center.