Office Tower Proposed Near Planned 27th and Main Streetcar Stop Land Rush Along Streetcar Line Continues

An $83.4 million office tower is in the works for vacant property owned by Crown Center near the planned 27th and Main streetcar stop.

A preliminary plan for what appears to be a 12- to 14-story tower on a site northeast of 27th and Main streets has been filed with the Kansas City Economic Development Corp. by an entity called CC Main Property Holding LLC.

This is the second major development proposal that’s surfaced in recent weeks related to the planned extension of the streetcar along Main Street from Union Station to the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

An entity associated with the Merriman family and Burns & McDonnell has proposed a $116 million, 300-unit apartment project called Museum Tower by the planned 45th and Main streetcar stop.

CC Main Property Holding has the same address as the Stinson law firm at 1201 Walnut and David Frantze, a partner at the firm, is listed as its attorney.

Frantze declined to comment.

The application states the building would be six levels of office space totaling about 154,000 square feet, above a multi-level, 400-space garage. The garage would be available after work hours and weekends to the public.

Dan Moye, an official with the EDC, said the developer is expected to seek a property tax incentive at the new limit recently set by the City Council, 70% for 10 years and 30% for five years.

The application states about 100,000 square feet in the tower would be used by an anchor tenant, which was not identified, with the remainder reserved for speculative office tenants.

A small logo depicted on the upper floor of one of the renderings is the one used by Fidelity Security Life Insurance Co., which is currently based at 3130 Broadway.

FSL officials were not immediately available for comment.

The developer plans to seek state tax incentives from the Missouri Works program for retained jobs, according to the application. About 300 jobs would be relocated to the project at an average salary of $82,498.

The property tax abatement incentive is necessary because of the increased cost for building structure parking and the “increased cost for high quality design,” according to the application.

Preliminary renderings accompanying the EDC application indicate BNIM as the architectural firm and McGownGordon as the contractor.

A timetable accompanying the plan estimates the application for incentives will be made to the city in May with City Council consideration anticipated in October.

If approved, construction would being in spring 2022 with completion anticipated in February 2024.

Crown Center Redevelopment listed the 2.7-acre site with Newmark Grubb Zimmer real estate in April 2018.

The master plan for the property called for it to be developed as a high-rise, Class A office building with up to 400,000 square feet of space, according to NGZ’s initial listing brochure.

“The site is immediately south of the existing 2600 Grand office building and park, and is ideally suited to become a headquarters location, offering amazing views of downtown Kansas City, Liberty Memorial and Union Station,” the NGZ release stated at the time.

The EDC application stated that CC Main Property Holding would be paying $6.9 million to acquire the site.

The last office building to be developed at Crown Center was the 24-story tower at 2555 Grand occupied by the Shook Hardy & Bacon law firm. It was completed in 2003.

Officials at Crown Center Redevelopment declined comment.

Update: This story has been updated to note the corporate logo of Fidelity Security Life Insurance Co. on a rendering for the project.

Flatland contributor Kevin Collison is the founder of CityScene KC, an online source for downtown news and issues.