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Re: Why Can't the West Bottoms Be Redeveloped....?
Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2012 6:17 pm
by KC-wildcat
We should be encouraging growth of WB in the same way XRoads grew organically. local art community looking for cheap space in an inspiring location.
It's the natural progression. Gritty urban area with no development potential. infuse youth and creativity. urban area becomes hip and trendy. full on gentrification. gritty urban area becomes attractive and prohibitively expensive. youth and creativity (with low income) begin looking for new home. possibly WB?
Why don't we promote WB as the next XRoads? embrace it? We're a metro area of +2million. I think we can handle and sustain growth in two separate neighborhoods, less than a half mile away from eachother.
In 20 years, who know, maybe WB will be gentrified.
Re: Why Can't the West Bottoms Be Redeveloped....?
Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2012 6:59 pm
by earthling
I'd rather see developers continue to focus on infill from River Market to Xroads and not focus on W Bottoms. WB is pretty isolated and highly likely won't attract developers anyway. Some artists/creatiavors (I just made that up) are moving into the Bottoms turning some buildings into live/workspace galleries, which picked up when Xroads taxes increased. Some are true warehouse living with large raw open spaces and freight elevators direct to living space, not like what's going on in Xroads/River Market where a developer will cutup a building into modern living spaces with hallways.
Would like to see W Bottoms maintain a more kitschy/less organized true warehouse living style created by onsey-twosey creative individuals and leave the downtown stretch to more refined big ticket yuppie loft development.
It's great to see large investments from major developers when they happen but the core downtown stretch hasn't even hit critical mass yet and is in more need of infill than major investments in WB.
BTW, here are some pics I took last weekend...
http://forum.kcrag.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=18058
Re: Why Can't the West Bottoms Be Redeveloped....?
Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2012 1:50 am
by mgh7676
West Bottoms has been all over the news lately.
An effort to build a new hub for creative culture in the West Bottoms gets a big boost next week when a former New York art dealer opens a major gallery.
The Bill Brady Gallery, opening Friday, is the first tenant in a building under renovation at 1505 Genessee St., in a section of the bottoms coming to be known as the stockyards district. The rest of the building is scheduled to fill up in the coming months with a winery operation, an architectural firm and an advertising agency.
Read more here:
http://www.kansascity.com/2012/02/10/34 ... rylink=cpy
Re: Why Can't the West Bottoms Be Redeveloped....?
Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2012 12:26 pm
by pash
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Re: Why Can't the West Bottoms Be Redeveloped....?
Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2012 2:29 pm
by loftguy
pash wrote:
To answer my own question, from the Star article mgh7676 linked above:
The Haws are planning a major addition to the stockyards district — a mixed-use building on what is now a parking lot between the Telegram Building and the Genessee Royale Restaurant to the south. Stockyards Place will have retail and restaurants on the first floor and residential and possibly office spaces above, Haw said.
“We’re trying to let the space tell us what it wants to be,” he said. “We’re conferring with architects now and hope to finalize a plan by summer.”
So it looks like Stockyards Place is still in the works. If it gets built, wouldn't this be the first new non-industrial building in the West Bottoms in basically forever?
The large office building north of the Livestock X, which was built for use by Gateway Computers 17 years ago?, and is now a prairie dog farm for Sprint.
Re: Why Can't the West Bottoms Be Redeveloped....?
Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2012 3:54 pm
by taxi
Ha! I thought I saw a mongoose down there recently.
Re: Why Can't the West Bottoms Be Redeveloped....?
Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2012 4:40 pm
by loftguy
taxi wrote:Ha! I thought I saw a mongoose down there recently.
No, that was Philo's pet platypus, Patty.
Re: Why Can't the West Bottoms Be Redeveloped....?
Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2012 6:33 pm
by FangKC
pash wrote:
To answer my own question, from the Star article mgh7676 linked above:
The Haws are planning a major addition to the stockyards district — a mixed-use building on what is now a parking lot between the Telegram Building and the Genessee Royale Restaurant to the south. Stockyards Place will have retail and restaurants on the first floor and residential and possibly office spaces above, Haw said.
“We’re trying to let the space tell us what it wants to be,” he said. “We’re conferring with architects now and hope to finalize a plan by summer.”
The
Telegram Building at 1505 Genessee Street.
Re: Why Can't the West Bottoms Be Redeveloped....?
Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2012 10:11 am
by KCMax
Reviving Kansas City's Forgotten Urban Center
Darby Trotter and Adam Jones are a part of a larger group of local businessmen that have taken up this call and have been key investors in the revival of making this part of the city livable once again. Darby Trotter, Vice President of Faultless Starch, was an instrumental figure in retrofitting an old factory into the company’s current headquarters as well as highlighting important historical moments in the area through memorials. The company’s headquarter paid close attention to the historic building details by keeping features such as the old fire wall doors and preserving the original factory wood flooring.
Not all of the revival has been about retrofitting, Adam Jones, owner of Foundation Architectural Reclamation, has been instrumental in helping to save the material history of the area. From his reclamation yards dotted throughout the area, Adam Jones has been a supplier of historic and reclaimed materials being reused both in the West Bottoms and in new projects being constructed through the downtown region. Adam Jones has also helped set up old buildings to be reused as artist studios that are a part of the area’s new fledging art community.
Re: Why Can't the West Bottoms Be Redeveloped....?
Posted: Fri May 25, 2012 11:12 am
by KCMax
Winery gets tasting room in revived Telegram Building
Most people drove right past the building at 1505 Genessee St. without a glance as they headed to Kemper Arena or the Golden Ox Restaurant & Lounge. But West Bottoms redeveloper Bill Haw saw the building’s great bones, its limestone and brick façade, and the double rams-head sculptures over the front door, and he took it on as his latest project.
Now Amigoni Urban Winery is scheduled to open its tasting room and event space there at 11 a.m. Friday.
Re: Why Can't the West Bottoms Be Redeveloped....?
Posted: Fri May 25, 2012 11:15 am
by heatherkay
I rode past there yesterday -- it is a gorgeous building, and they must have been having some sort of soft open or opening party. The 12th Street underpass connecting Beardsley Road to the Bottoms is open again as well. Very cool views of the Bottoms. Expect to be dodging photographers if you are driving on it.
Re: Why Can't the West Bottoms Be Redeveloped....?
Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2012 8:58 am
by KCMax
In the print version of the Biz Journal today, there is an $18 million proposal by a developer to renovate two buildings at 9th and Wyoming into 100 affordable-rate apartments.
Re: Why Can't the West Bottoms Be Redeveloped....?
Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2012 10:47 am
by earthling
I wondering if they are asking for subsidies.
Re: Why Can't the West Bottoms Be Redeveloped....?
Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2012 7:04 pm
by pash
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Re: Why Can't the West Bottoms Be Redeveloped....?
Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 12:17 pm
by loftguy
pash wrote:The article is
here (paywall).
Is the plan for income-restricted apartments?
The article says it will be 100 units of affordable housing, which means the developer is going to pursue tax credits from the state of Missouri, for the development. In return, the developer leases the apartments at a reduced rent.
This is the same program that resulted in the Courthouse Lofts, The Professional Building Lofts, 1006 Grand Lofts, The Pacific House, Star Lofts and also Cold Storage Lofts, which were developed by Hassenflu, the developer noted in the article.
Good luck.
Re: Why Can't the West Bottoms Be Redeveloped....?
Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 5:40 pm
by taxi
loftguy wrote:
Good luck.
There is a huge demand "downtown" for affordable housing. And all those criminals need a place to live, once they graduate from the WB halfway house.
Re: Why Can't the West Bottoms Be Redeveloped....?
Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 6:53 pm
by macnw
Where's the 8th St tunnel when you need it? Would be kinda cool to find a way to use it again.
Re: Why Can't the West Bottoms Be Redeveloped....?
Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2012 3:28 pm
by loftguy
macnw wrote:Where's the 8th St tunnel when you need it? Would be kinda cool to find a way to use it again.
She moved to Independence Avenue.
Re: Why Can't the West Bottoms Be Redeveloped....?
Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2012 4:29 pm
by chaglang
loftguy wrote:macnw wrote:Where's the 8th St tunnel when you need it? Would be kinda cool to find a way to use it again.
She moved to Independence Avenue.
But seriously, when I was on a tour of the tunnel last year, the guide said part of the floor between the two tunnels was near collapse.
Re: Why Can't the West Bottoms Be Redeveloped....?
Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2012 8:33 pm
by DaveKCMO
http://www.kansascity.com/2012/08/02/37 ... g-100.html
Developer Gary Hassenflu plans to convert the vacant Bemis Bag buildings at 925-937 Wyoming St. into 100 affordable apartments. It would be the first residential project in an area once dominated by the Kansas City Stockyards and now known for its eclectic blend of industry, art and the American Royal.
“I’ve been looking down there for years,” Hassenflu said Thursday. “There’s a certain population that really likes that industrial feel.”