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Power & Light District


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At 2:30 CST on December 18th H&R Block announced at the Hyatt Regency that they would be moving downtown and bringing a large entertainment district with them. The project is being developed by Cordish (out of Louisville) and being designed by a local firm CDFM2.

It is to cost $400,000,000 and is a total of 650,000 square feet of office space, 425,000 square feet of retail/resteraunts.

The tallest building will be H&R Block's main building at 13-14 floors. With a green box on top.

Possible tenants may include Hard Rock Cafe and ESPN Zone.

Just at the end of December plans were announced to preserve the Hotel President, a 13 floor building next to the Power & Light Building, the rendering shows it as a Chiefs/??? sign.

This project is to start construction in summer of this year and is to be complete/continued by 2006.

Kansas%20City%20Liveexhalf.jpg

Here are photos of the area:

kcpl_hotelpres.JPG

downtown%20from%20westin%2003.jpg

Here are two Business Journal articles from mid January

Kansas City Live entertainment district takes step forward with TIF application

Jim Davis

Staff Writer

Kansas City Live's birth was scheduled to take a crucial step Jan. 14, when the Tax Increment Financing Committee of Kansas City was to hear a financing request for the proposed downtown entertainment district.

The application, which also includes a new headquarters for H&R Block Inc. at 13th and Main streets, will help bridge a $150 million financing gap in the anticipated $400 million project.

TIF captures taxes generated by a development to reimburse the cost of public improvements such as parking garages.

Additional public support is expected to come through the new Missouri Downtown and Rural Economic Stimulus Act, which makes a similar diversion of state taxes.

The Cordish Co., a nationally known urban entertainment expert, will develop the project. The company agreed to take the Kansas City assignment after being lobbied by Kansas City Mayor Kay Barnes and Andi Udris, CEO of the Economic Development Corp. of Kansas City.

Udris has known David Cordish, chairman of the company, for a quarter-century, since Udris worked for Cordish at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

When Cordish announced his plans for Kansas City Live in December, he said his golden rule for choosing projects is government's ability to work with business.

"If the mayor and governor don't get it, you can't succeed," Cordish said.

Property acquisition and demolition is to begin in the spring. Construction is expected to start in the fall.

Kansas City Live is to open in the summer of 2006 with about 425,000 square feet of stores and entertainment space. The project's budget is $280 million. A second phase is to add 1,000 apartments and about 1 million square feet of offices. No timetable has been set for the second phase.

Block's $120 million headquarters, containing 500,000 square feet, is to open in late 2006.

Cordish welcomes visitors and locals to fill its projects

Jim Davis

Staff Writer

Conventioneers and downtown loft dwellers could mingle with suburbanites escaping mall-driven sameness in Kansas City Live, the downtown entertainment complex that's to open in less than three years.

Simultaneously appealing to middle-age pinstripers and young professionals who have turned the Crossroads' First Fridays into a monthly must-do for the local creative class beckons a recipe that has energized cities such as Baltimore.

The Cordish Co., developer of Kansas City Live, begins with nationally recognized tenants and seasons them with local flavor. Kimber Goodwin, Cordish's marketing director, said projects cater to the market.

"There are no cookie-cutter solutions," Goodwin said. "Kansas City Live will be specific to that region."

Andi Udris, CEO of the Economic Development Corp. of Kansas City, said he wants to emphasize themes familiar to Kansas City -- "barbecue, steaks, jazz, country (music) and sports."

These elements already are readily available throughout the area. Their interaction in Kansas City Live is what will distinguish the district, Udris said.

Food and beverage purveyors will comprise about fourth-fifths of the district, he said. Retailers that also provide entertainment, such as bookstores, will occupy the remaining space.

With its other projects, Cordish has announced tenants with national name recognition to build interest. Hard Rock Cafe populates many projects, including The Power Plant in Cordish's hometown of Baltimore. Also in The Power Plant are Barnes & Noble, ESPN Zone and Gold's Gym.

The energy of this mix sparked Power Plant Live, an adjacent collection of bars, clubs and restaurants.

Power Plant Live's roster, containing more homegrown destinations, also is proving a potent draw. Power Plant Live ranks No. 6 on a list of top tourist attractions compiled by the Baltimore Business Journal, an affiliated publication. The Power Plant ranks No. 3.

Anirban Basu, CEO of Optimal Solutions Group in Baltimore, said Power Plant's opening in 1998 revived the Inner Harbor.

The harbor's far side, where Power Plant Live is, had confounded others. The Power Plant provided momentum, said Basu, whose economic and policy consulting firm has worked for the Baltimore mayor's office but not Cordish.

Basu said Cordish targets free-spending people in their 20s and 30s "looking for a bit of sophistication but also a lot of fun."

This appeal doesn't sap other destinations, he said. Locals after authentic experiences celebrated in movie director Barry Levison's "Diner" continue to frequent places unfamiliar to most out-of-towners.

Here, residents and visitors have long flocked to the Country Club Plaza. Its owner's top local official said he doesn't view Kansas City Live as competition.

Barry Brady, a senior vice president with North Carolina-based Highwoods Properties Inc., said he anticipates little overlap. Kansas City Live looks to emphasize nightlife more heavily than the Plaza, he said.

Some Plaza tenants' leases contain exclusivity clauses barring them from Downtown, but restrictions can be tweaked, as Barnes & Noble did to enter the Northland.

Udris said he's more interested in making sure Kansas City Live contains certain categories than specific names. If Barnes & Noble can't come, for example, Borders would do equally well. Similarly, he said, Fox Sports Grill would be an acceptable substitute for ESPN Zone.

Bill Lucas, president of Crown Center Redevelopment Corp., said the downtown district ought to boost occupancy of Crown Center hotels.

A leasing expert said Kansas City Live must paint regionally unique scenes.

Danielle Short, who marketed the ill-fated Power & Light District, said previous attempts to revive downtown shopping failed because they tried to replicate the suburbs.

"Whether people are coming in from the 'burbs or driving down from Des Moines," Short said, "they're not going to do it unless something new is delivered."

More recent articles from the KC Star and Business Journal:

Block picks Houston company to develop new HQ

H&R Block Inc. said Monday that Houston-based Hines will manage development of the company's new headquarters in downtown Kansas City.

Hines is an internationally prominent real estate company. The privately held firm was chosen from 11 companies that received requests for proposals from Block (NYSE: HRB).

The requests were issued shortly after Block announced plans Dec. 18 to build a headquarters at 13th and Main streets. Six firms responded.

Block's 500,000-square-foot building is to open in the summer of 2006. A 250,000-square-foot expansion is tentatively planned for 2013.

Block will own its new headquarters, spokeswoman Linda McDougall said.

H&R Block ranks No. 2 on The Business Journal's list of area public companies.

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Posted on Thu, Mar. 04, 2004

Vote on downtown renewal is today

By KEVIN COLLISON

The Kansas City Star

The Kansas City Council today is expected to approve a roughly half-billion-dollar downtown redevelopment plan that includes a new world headquarters for H&R Block Inc.

The sweeping plan, which also includes an entertainment district to be developed by the Cordish Co. of Baltimore and the renovation of the President Hotel at 14th Street and Baltimore Avenue, was endorsed Wednesday by the council's Planning, Zoning and Economic Development Committee.

Councilman Troy Nash, the committee's chairman, predicted that the plan, which is expected to transform a seven-block swath of blighted properties into a major destination with more than 3,500 employees and dozens of entertainment venues, will win easy approval from the full council.

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Good news:

TIF Commission OKs bonds for Block HQ, President Hotel

The Tax Increment Financing Commission of Kansas City approved two big bond issues Wednesday to finance a much-anticipated downtown redevelopment.

 

The commission approved an estimated $150 million in bonds for H&R Block Inc.'s new headquarters at 13th and Main streets and a surrounding entertainment district on the south end of Downtown.

The bonds are to be repaid with new local tax revenue the project generates. The headquarters and district, valued at $400 million, are to open in late 2006.

The bonds will be issued in two or three sections. The first issue, for $50 million, will come in the spring. Remaining bonds will be sold by the fall.

Also approved Wednesday was as much as $18 million in TIF bonds to reopen the President Hotel at 1329 Baltimore Ave. The hotel, in the entertainment district, is owned by a group led by Ron Jury, an Overland Park real estate executive.

Jury has said he expects to resume renovations of the hotel, closed since 1980, after receiving a $24 million construction loan in April. Work halted in the fall of 2002 after Jury's group lost financing from another private lender. The $44 million renovation is to be complete by late 2005.

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ORDINANCE NO. 040350

Authorizing the Director of City Development to enter into an agreement with

the Tax Increment Financing Commission of Kansas City, Missouri for relocation

services for the 1200 Main/South Loop Tax Increment Financing Plan.

BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KANSAS CITY:

Section 1. That the Director of City Development is authorized the enter into

an agreement with the Tax Increment Financing Commission of Kansas City,

Missouri, for relocation services for the1200 Main/South Loop Tax Increment

Financing Plan, under which agreement the Commission will pay the City on a

unit cost basis. The agreement is approved in substantial form as that on file

with the Director of City Development.

Approved

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H&R Block releases renderings for their tower!

18-floors, elliptical and very modern.

From the Kansas City Star:

image2.jpg

H&R Block unveils design for downtown

By KEVIN COLLISON The Kansas City Star

H&R Block on Wednesday released the design of its planned corporate headquarters, an 18-story, glass-sheathed tower that would add a distinctive curve to the downtown skyline.

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DEFINING SPACE

Design of H&R Block headquarters features inviting public areas

E. THOMAS MCCLANAHAN

I've written often about the need for density in urban environments, but I have to admit that there are spots in downtown Kansas City that cry out for a bit more space and light. Some streets could use a few cannily placed nooks

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Swap would aid plan for South Loop

By KEVIN COLLISON The Kansas City Star

Development officials are pursuing a land swap with UMB Bank that would allow the city to obtain one of the seven blocks needed for the South Loop redevelopment plan.

Andi Udris, president and chief executive of the Economic Development Corp., said Thursday an exchange plan was being crafted that would allow the city to acquire the block between 14th and 15th streets, from Grand Boulevard to Walnut Street, in return for UMB receiving the Shopper's Parkade property. The city-controlled garage is at 11th Street and Grand.

The deal could be advantageous to UMB because it would give the bank control of the block where Shopper's Parkade is located. The block lies between the UMB headquarters and its technology center next to the Civic Mall, and would fit in well with any future expansion plans.

As for the city, it would knock a big item off its acquisition list for the planned Kansas City Live entertainment district. The district, along with a new headquarters of H&R Block and a restored President Hotel, are the key components of the estimated $536.4 million South Loop plan.

UMB President and Chief Executive Officer R. Crosby Kemper III could not be reached for comment, but Udris said his agency believed a deal was achievable.

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The final plans for KC Live are being made:

Kansas City Live moves ahead

By KEVIN COLLISON

The Kansas City Star

The Cordish Co. has signed a final development agreement with the city and plans to break ground next spring on Kansas City Live, its downtown entertainment district.

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http://www.powerandlightdistrict.com/Websi...erial_r1_c1.jpg

there is a rendering showing the project's area.

http://www.powerandlightdistrict.com/Website/aboutArea.htm#

That site has a "rendering" showing various projects around the downtown loop, dark blue buildings are the residential projects

They will also start construction on a 700 space, 95 condo, 40,000 sq. ft. retail spot next to the P&L Tower this year (in the third quarter). Which should take only 18 months to complete.

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CDFM2 officially selected as the architect of the entertainment district. Now we just need to wait on who will design the arena.

A good sign is that CDFM2 is a member of the dream team, a group of local architectural firms who are fighting against Frank Gehry to win over the designing of the arena.

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A pano taken by KCPowercat

13thandmainpano_072004.jpg

On the far left is the jones store block, the northernmost part of the development. To the far right is the Hotel President block, the 2nd last block in the middle west portion of the project.

In dead center is where H&R Block's HQ will rise.

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Now Cordish has decided it will build the first of five residential towers along with H&R Block's Tower... It will be about 200 units and 15 floors...

Plans originally called for the residential units to start construction in 2006 but residential demand is too high downtown...

Cordish has said they will construct the buildings when the market demands it.

So now the proposed buildings for the P&L District look like this:

H&R Block HQ: 18 floors

Res Tower 1: 15 Floors

Res Tower 2: 15 Floors

Res Tower 3: 15 Floors

Res Tower 4: 15 Floors

Res Tower 5: 15 Floors

H&R Block Expansion: 10-11 Floors (will start construction sometime after 2007.

The towers will be on the Former Jones Store Block at 1201 Main, (two towers will be located there)

And south of 14th street from Baltimore to Grand. (about 3 blocks)

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Now Cordish has decided it will build the first of five residential towers along with H&R Block's Tower... It will be about 200 units and 15 floors...

Plans originally called for the residential units to start construction in 2006 but residential demand is too high downtown...

Cordish has said they will construct the buildings when the market demands it.

So now the proposed buildings for the P&L District look like this:

H&R Block HQ: 18 floors

Res Tower 1: 15 Floors

Res Tower 2: 15 Floors

Res Tower 3: 15 Floors

Res Tower 4: 15 Floors

Res Tower 5: 15 Floors

H&R Block Expansion: 10-11 Floors (will start construction sometime after 2007.

The towers will be on the Former Jones Store Block at 1201 Main, (two towers will be located there)

And south of 14th street from Baltimore to Grand. (about 3 blocks)

How impressive. It sounds like DT Kansas City is well on its way.

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