Sale of Faultless Linen buildings in the Crossroads is put on the back burner

One year after Faultless Linen put its four Crossroads Arts District properties up for sale, seeking “inspirational” redevelopment of its prime Kansas City location, the company has yet to finalize a plan.

“We decided we’re not actively promoting our KC property sales,” said Faultless CEO Mark Spence. “We informally took things off the market.”

But Spence said the buildings and vacant land centered at Broadway and 19th Street remained “passively on the market.”

Bob Galamba, senior vice president at Colliers International in Kansas City, said interest poured in from all over the country after Faultless announced its redevelopment interest.

And, in fact, the company’s signature white building at the Broadway corner is under contract and in the due diligence phase, Galamba said.

“All the rest is off the market until Faultless tells us otherwise,” Galamba said, noting that it could be months before a transaction is completed on the white building.

The big reason the overall redevelopment quest was put on the back burner is the 120-year-old Kansas City-based company has been consumed with a focus on its St. Louis property.

In June, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency director Robert Cardillo approved the federal agency’s site selection for its new $1.7 billion west U.S. headquarters — exactly where Faultless has its north St. Louis facility.

“We’ve got to build a whole new building in St. Louis,” Spence said. “We’ve got to get out of our current site by August 2017.”

Spence said Faultless has been in “constant negotiation” with the city of St. Louis on a complex relocation deal. That business has been completed successfully, he said, and the company can focus on Kansas City again.

The Faultless properties are a three-story, 36,000-square-foot building at 1915 Broadway; a two- and three-story, 54,000-square-foot building at 1923-1943 Broadway; a one-story, 10,000-square-foot building at 1929 Central; and 13,000 square feet of vacant land at 1805 Washington.

Spence said the company wants to maintain its corporate office in the 1915 Broadway building, whatever happens with the rest of the property.

The laundry operation on Broadway was decommissioned four years ago; that work currently is done at Faultless facilities in Kansas City, Kan., and on Brooklyn Avenue in east Kansas City. The company employs about 165 workers in the Kansas City area.

“We are still excited about the Crossroads,” Spence said. “We have a high-impact location, and we intend to be selective and reflective of the community as we move forward.”

This story was originally published July 26, 2016 at 11:23 AM with the headline "Sale of Faultless Linen buildings in the Crossroads is put on the back burner."