Westport proposal wraps apartments around Char Bar, puts park on a garage, builds hotel

Pulse Development LLC has proposed a Westport project that wraps new apartments around Char Bar on Pennsylvania Avenue, puts a public park atop an existing parking garage and builds lofts and a hotel on Mill Street.

Westport Terrace at Manor Square would cost $60 million to $70 million and require no public financial support.

“We’re not seeking incentives on the project,” said Chris Cole, chief development officer of Action Pact LLC, the designer and partner on the project. “It’s not blighted. It’s in an adaptive redevelopment environment.”

The project, posted online by Kansas City Planning and Development on Wednesday, would replace the empty building directly north of Manor Square with 159 apartment units as well as first-floor retail and second-floor office space in a seven-story structure.

The apartment building would wrap around Char Bar at 4050 Pennsylvania, and its construction would coordinate with the restaurant to avoid disrupting its outside seating season.

A public green space will go atop the 700-space parking garage, which Pulse Development owns and is situated behind Char Bar.

“As wonderful as Westport is, there’s no place to sit on a park bench under a tree. So we’re going to put a park on top of the roof of the parking deck,” Cole said.

Directly west of the garage, Pulse will erect a new nine-story building. It will offer 46 lofts and a 120-bed boutique hotel above them.

Real estate broker Sandra Irving also is a partner in the project.

The proposal is a resubmitted version of a plan from earlier this year that was withdrawn.

Those first plans had called for all of the development to come on the Pennsylvania side of the development. It required 14 stories surrounding Char Bar, but feedback from the area led the developers to scale back the height and to add the west-side structure that includes the hotel and lofts.

Although Westport is best known as a bar district, Steve Shields, CEO of Action Pact, said the partners want the project to tap into Westport’s history, its emphasis on independent retail establishments and its “real neighborhood.” Pulse Development and Action Pact have offices in Westport, and Shields said he sees students, residents walking their dogs and familiar neighborhood faces.

“A good number of us at both companies eat, sleep and work in Westport,” Shields said. “I’m 60 years old. It’s a good place to grow old.”

This story was originally published April 25, 2017 at 6:45 PM with the headline "Westport proposal wraps apartments around Char Bar, puts park on a garage, builds hotel."