Developers have flocked to the Kansas City’s southern streetcar extension ahead of construction with investments along the route.
According to the Kansas City Business Journal, multiple large commercial projects have emerged including at least $25.6 million in real estate transactions directly along the 3.5-mile extension down Main Street, from Union Station to the University of Missouri-Kansas City, between 2018 and December 2020. $412.8 million in private investment is expected along the future streetcar route before its scheduled 2025 service start.
The Kansas City Business Journal has listed several standout proposals along the new streetcar, from north to south including:
- 27th and Grand office tower — Fidelity Security Life Insurance Co. seeks to own and anchor about two-thirds of a $79 million, 11-story office tower. It will be built by VanTrust Real Estate LLC near Crown Center, at Main Street and Grand Boulevard, south of 27th Street.
- Main and Armour mixed-use — Mac Properties recently kicked off neighborhood meetings on a $105 million mixed-use development with both new construction and adaptive reuse components across most of a full block it owns southwest of Main Street and Armour.
- Armory Block redevelopment — By this year’s end, pending a state historic tax credit award, Exact Partners LLC eyes starting interior renovation of the former Kansas City National Guard Armory, which is poised to house a Shop Local KC makerspace and 40-room boutique hotel.
- Katz on Main — City Council in July approved incentives for Lux Living to build a $37.6 million multifamily project with 192 apartments above a 165-space parking garage behind the former Katz Drug Store building.
- Museum Tower — A team of Americo Life and Burns & McDonnell earlier this year submitted an application to build a $116.2 million, 293,400-square-foot mixed-use tower where the former Country Club Plaza Holiday Inn was demolished southeast of 45th and Main streets.
- New UMKC apartments — The University of Missouri Board of Curators in late June endorsed a master plan with two student apartment buildings totaling 500 units, retail amenity space and recreation fields along Brookside Boulevard, near the future streetcar’s southern terminus.
A partial list of streetcar-adjacent properties where further developments could surface includes the undeveloped balance of the Park Reserve condominium site, up for sale northwest of 31st and Main streets; tracts housing Main Street Buick GMC’s dealership and auto body shop, listed for sale at 3200 Main St.; and an Office Depot store at 4201 Main St. acquired this summer by Drake Development LLC.
To find out more, check out the full article from the Kansas City Business Journal here.