Implosion of Johnson County office building to close Interstate 435 early Sunday

Johnson County residents near Interstate 435 and Nall Avenue shouldn’t be alarmed if they hear a loud bang Sunday morning.

Crews will be using explosives to take down the former CenturyLink building at 5454 W. 110th Street to make way for a new office development. The building is on the southeast corner of I-435 and Nall Avenue.

The first implosion in Overland Park’s history will require that Interstate 435 be closed in both directions from Roe Avenue to Metcalf Avenue from 4:30 a.m. to 6 a.m. Sunday.

In addition, both directions of Nall Avenue, from College Boulevard to 107th Street, will be closed between 12:30 a.m. and 6 a.m. Sunday.

Traffic will be detoured along College Boulevard and 103rd Street in Overland Park. Eastbound traffic will be forced to exit at Metcalf while westbound traffic will be forced to exit at Roe.

There will be no formal public viewing area. However, the implosion will be posted on the Burns & McDonnell Facebook page.

VanTrust Real Estate bought the building CenturyLink after it moved its employees in Overland to offices in New Century. The building previously was occupied by Embarq, a local phone division of Sprint until it spun the business off in 2006. Embarq was then purchased by CenturyTel in 2009, which then became CenturyLink.

VanTrust, a prolific Kansas City real estate development firm, plans to build a major office development on the site called Overland One.

Earlier this month, the Overland Park City Council approved a revised plan allowing VanTrust Real Estate to move forward with the development.

Originally, the developer had asked for two buildings — one 10-story and four four-story buildings. The revised plan calls for two five-story buildings and one four-story building, increasing the size of the development from 251,000 to 355,500 square feet.

The council approved the revised preliminary plan and bonds on each building so the purchase of equipment will be exempt from sales tax.

This story was originally published January 19, 2017 at 9:36 AM with the headline "Implosion of Johnson County office building to close Interstate 435 early Sunday."