Kansas City streetcar line drew developers to build apartments on Main Street

Scott Richardson read something about a streetcar line being installed in Kansas City and smelled a development possibility.

“I came and spent an afternoon walking the entire route, writing down notes about potential properties,” said the Denver-based real estate developer with Linden Street Partners.

His investigative stroll in 2014 brought Linden Street into the Kansas City market with two purchases, a parking lot bought from a bank that had foreclosed on it and a former newspaper warehouse.

The former parking lot, now with an address of 1914 Main St., has become a new five-story, 44-unit apartment building that overlooks the streetcar line. Units are expected to be ready for tenants March 1.

The vacant warehouse, at 1721-1723 Walnut St., will be converted to apartments, with an expected 10-month renovation timeline starting in April.

Despite the competitive flood of new apartments in the River Market, Quality Hill and Crown Center and the tsunami of residential conversions in historic downtown and River Market buildings, Richardson is confident in Linden Street’s investment.

“It’s the first ground-up apartments to open directly on the streetcar line,” he said. “We’re not as amenity-rich as some of the apartments that have pools and health clubs, but we’re counting on the city location as our amenity.”

The 1914 Main apartments offer open floor plans, big windows and first-floor retail, a Simple Science Juices store. The units, ranging from about 700 to 900 square feet, will rent for $1,250 to $1,450, with the highest prices tied to upper-floor units.

KEM Studio designed the apartments, and Centric Projects is the general contractor.

The Main Street apartments received a 10-year, 100 percent property tax abatement through the Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority, one of several economic development agencies that are granting public incentives for redevelopment.

The Walnut Street conversion went through the Planned Industrial Expansion Authority, which approved a 10-year, 95 percent property tax abatement followed by a 50 percent abatement in years 11 through 23. The developer will pay $4,000 a year in lieu of taxes for the first 10 years on the Walnut project.

This story was originally published January 28, 2016 at 10:38 AM with the headline "Kansas City streetcar line drew developers to build apartments on Main Street."