Apr

7

Midtown, the new hotness?

April 7, 2006 | 8 Comments

Sandwiched in between the booms happening Downtown and on the Plaza, Midtown is now gaining some redevelopment momentum of it’s own. Several small infill projects are already going on around the area, and now two big ones might be on the way.

First is the news that someone is making yet another attempt to redevelop Armour Boulevard and its stately old apartment buildings. These grand dames were once fashionable addresses, but more recently became home to an unbelievable 20% of the city’s Section 8 housing. However, this project is not without controversy. The developers propose entire buildings of subsidized or market rate housing, while the city’s plan for the area calls for incomes levels to be mixed within the buildings.

Second is the hope that Uptown Theater owner Larry Sells might finally be on the verge of redeveloping parts of Broadway Boulevard. He has been sitting on TIF redevelopment rights to the area around the theater for years, but has failed to start any real work. Late last year Larry posted some renderings of a mid-rise, mixed-use project to replace the skeezy Broadway-Valentine strip mall.

broadwayvalentine.gif

Proposed replacement for the Broadway-Valentine strip mall.

Categories: Business, Midtown/Plaza, Real Estate


Comments

8 Comments so far

  1. worstweatherever on April 7, 2006 8:10 am

    skeezy is a great description of that place. replacing that thing alone could change the whole feel of that area

  2. thurston on April 7, 2006 9:03 am

    It would be great if Larry Sells could find a new grocery store along the lines of a Barrons for his development. There are very few grocery store choices in the Midtown area.

  3. Bob Asher on April 7, 2006 9:12 am

    This topic is a barroom favorite.
    Taking out that “skeezy” shopping center would be great! Now if someone could get all of the crackhead zombies out of the Ambassador, and surrounding fleabag dumps, that would be even greater.
    Anyone remember the controversy surrounding the Uptown Theater TIF? Didn’t Joe Serviss have something to do with that? There was a lot of city-connected insider chicanery, if I heard correctly.

  4. BlogKC on April 7, 2006 9:21 am

    Bob, that was the TIF we were referring to. Larry got lots of extra property included in the Uptown TIF, and then never did anything with it. For example, the vacant Chatham apartments across the street.

    Don’t think you’ll have to wait too much longer for some of the “fleabag” buildings to get gentrified. There’s one on Main that’s going condo, and others are sure to follow. Most of the vacant buildings Downtown have already been renovated, and developers are looking to the south to find their next projects.

  5. Mark on April 7, 2006 12:19 pm

    Larry Sells should fix up the buildings that he has”saved” I’m sure that the new building will be paid for by some one else, probably more subsidy. Isn’t the Uptown another of our nonpreforming TIF. In other words it isn’t performing like Larry said it would.

  6. Gabe on April 7, 2006 2:58 pm

    Here is an interesting article about the Armour Section 8 stuff.

    http://hydeparkkc.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=391

  7. rasher on April 7, 2006 4:26 pm

    You mean someone actually audits TIF programs for performance? Wow!

  8. Tim on April 14, 2006 7:38 am

    I heard that some woman from Florida bought the Chatham from Larry with the intention of renovating it. I heard she might have bought the Valentine building too.

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