KC's History is going condo
Every old building in this town represents an opportunity for Master Realty Properties to turn it into a condo and possibly make a fortune off of people who forget that schools, water infrastructure, neighborhoods and crime are also concerns when deciding on how much a luxury living space is worth.
An interesting article in The Star today detailed the local company's history in Kansas City's Condo craze and listed some of the historic buildings with units that will soon spend more than 24 months on the market until a sucker with deep pockets comes along. Here are my favorite buildings:
With all KC's history up for sale in a sketchy real estate market I wonder of earlier generations ever had to deal with a similar glut of luxury housing . . . Also, I think the best thing about condos is that they are impervious to crime!!!
posted by Tony Permalink
The 712 broadway project is DOA or on ice for now.
They are located across the street from a folgers coffee plant that does roastings so there is a nuisance right across the street.
The company hopes that by the time they are offering up the condos for sale the plant will have been gentrified out of downtown.
The 700 broadway condos are going to be failures. You have to walk up a giant hill to get anywhere of interest, or cross a busy interstate to get to the river market, and it looks over the 670/35/169 interchange. Lovely.
The freight house lofts are really nice and in a much better area.
You are right on, how dare they try and find a use for these old buildings. The better idea is to let them rot for another couple of decades and then hand them over to a religious organization in order to be turned into homeless shelters and food kitchens.
I'm afraid that the Folgers plant will just have to go. A productive factory: standing in the way of progress.
On the other hand, that Folger's building looks like it'd work great for condos!
Maybe a grocery store or two would be nice?
How's the Folgers plant a nuisiance? It makes that area smell great. And walking 2 blocks up a "giant" hill, oh, that must be rough. (So I guess The Majestic, The Peanut, Red Dragon, and The Phoenix don't count as being anything of interest?)
scooterj, I live in the area a few blocks south. My original post was pointing out that even within a 1-mile radius there are better places to buy a 400k condo.
I like the folgers plant smells but I'm three blocks away from it. I don't know how much I'd love it if I was across the street.
I just don't know how those condos are going to sell. I could go back a few blocks to the quality hill area or north to the river market and find cheaper places with the same size that are more walkable and less noisy because of folgers plants and off-ramps.
I love the downtown to death, most of my posts on here are mocking tony for thinking people won't come downtown for activities. But I'd never pay 400k for a nuisance, the interstate, and the bottom of a 3 block long hill. There are better historic lofts and apartments downtown.
my favorite part about the downtown condo bonanza is the view condominum's. when i lived at university tower across the street, that place was a gutted, piss filled, pigeon and bum infested squat. now WASP's pay out the ass to live there.
question: why is it okay to give some people that can afford a half million dollar condo, a 25 year tax abatement, but not give the stuggling poor folk on the east side a tax break? seriously, can someone explain that to me?
Because those half million dollar condos with tax abatement are really bringing in the tax revenue for the city...
Oh wait, no, they're helping to pay for the KCMO school district...
Oh wait, no, they're helping to pay for police, fire, snow plowing, etc. etc...
I propose a new "downtown sidewalk tax" which will tax building owners for the sidewalks in front of their building. This tax would be EXORBITANT and would be split between the owners of all of these new condos. Maybe it would also tie into a residents-per-linear-foot equation. This tax would last for 10 years at 100% of the taxable amount and 15 years after for 50% of the taxable amount.
The revenue generated would be strikingly close to the revenues lost due to TIF and other similar tax abatements...
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