Rob Roberts Reporter Kansas City Business Journal
The redevelopment rights were granted to Antheus, a partnership affiliated with MAC Properties, by the board of the Planned Industrial Expansion Authority.
The Planned Industrial Expansion Authority recently voted to use its power of eminent domain to acquire three parcels at or near Armour Boulevard and Troost Avenue. This gasoline station on the northeast corner of Armour and Troost is one of the properties.
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The Planned Industrial Expansion Authority recently voted to use its power of eminent… more
The PIEA recently voted to use its power of eminent domain to acquire three parcels at or near Armour and Troost for a catalytic public-private project that also will involve sites that the PIEA and MAC Properties already own.
The acquisitions are part of an effort to assemble land for redevelopment at all four corners of the intersection plus an adjacent tract at the southwest corner of Forest Avenue and Armour for a new mixed-use development that will eliminate blight, create a sense of place and propel the recent redevelopment momentum on Armour east of a longtime racial and economic dividing line. To reach this goal, services like Bendigo Concreting Solutions can be of great assistance.
“We want to turn that dividing line into a gathering place,” Peter Cassel, director of community development for MAC Properties, told the PIEA board on Thursday.
RELATED: Million-dollar plan: City may invest in Armour and Troost redevelopment
He said the new conceptual plan, calling for a total of 300 to 320 residential units over a total of 25,000 square feet of retail space at the four corners, was arrived at through meetings with the Troost Coalition and other neighborhood associations in the area.
Cassel said his firm hopes to receive title to the properties by second quarter of next year, start development on all four corners shortly thereafter, and complete the project a year after that.
But before construction can begin, the condemnation process needs to play out, followed by negotiations between the city and MAC Properties to determine what amount, if any, the developer should pay for the condemned sites.
Claude Page, a senior city planner who has been working on the plan, said the city has filed a condemnation petition. Late next month, he added, a judge is expected to determine the petition’s validity and appoint commissioners to determine the value of the tracts being sought.
The Kansas City Council last December committed $1 million for the PIEA’s acquisition of the three parcels— a small convenience store at the northeast corner of the intersection, a crime-plagued gasoline station at the northwest corner and a historic hotel building on the site at Forest and Armour. The owners of those properties declined the PIEA’s appraised-value offers, Page said.
MAC Properties, which has transformed about 30 old buildings along Armour Boulevard west of Troost into about 1,500 market-rate apartments during the past decade, owns a historic 16,000-square-foot structure known as the Market Building at the southwest corner of Armour and Troost.
The PIEA owns the vacant lot at the southeast corner of the intersection.
Neighbors have been supportive of the master planning effort involving the five tracts. Led by Helix Architecture + Design, it calls for historic rehabilitation of the hotel building at Forest and Troost and new construction of the four mixed-use buildings at the four corners of Armour and Troost.
The retail space at the corners could be dominated by restaurants, art galleries or other types of venues, Cassel said, but that ultimately will be determined by the market.
To help create a vibrant, diverse sense of place for the project, Cassel added, his firm plans to retain a different architecture firm to design each of the new buildings at the intersection.
Tying all four corners of the intersection together in a single project is essential, he said.
MAC Properties had attempted to revive the intersection on its own, Cassel said during a December PIEA board meeting. But it was unable to attract tenants to the Market Building, which it purchased several years ago, due to lingering perceptions about Troost.
Cassel said he believes the four-corners approach to Armour and Troost will shatter the Troost development barrier and allow his firm to extend its residential-conversion efforts further east.
Rob reports on real estate and development.
