Plan expands for redevelopment south of Crown Center

The Kansas City Plan Commission on Tuesday approved an amended plan that expands a redevelopment proposal for partly vacant land immediately south of Crown Center.

Commissioners agreed that an 18.4-acre site, generally south of 27th Street and between Gillham Road and Grand Boulevard, is blighted and in need of redevelopment. The heart of the revised plan would add more residential units — a mix of market-rate apartments, town homes and condominiums — along McGee Trafficway.

The development team of Milhaus and UC-B Properties is buying property from Crown Center Redevelopment Corp. to expand the total project. About 400 housing units are proposed.

The revised plan also folds in two existing tax abatement planning areas previously authorized for the Union Hill and Crown Center areas into a single planning area, to be known as 27th and McGee, a Planned Industrial Expansion Area.

Planned Industrial Expansion Authority executive director David Macoubrie clarified that the original Section 353 incentive plan for Crown Center north of the new proposal remains separate from the new plan.

The development team emphasized that it has a contract to purchase property “in an outright sale” and that Crown Center and Hallmark Cards are not involved in the development project.

Milhaus is an Indianapolis-based company that specializes in neighborhood infill development. UC-B is a Kansas City-based company that has completed or is working on several local redevelopment projects, including a small apartment complex underway on East 63rd Street.

Attorney Charles Renner, representing the developers, told commissioners that the proposed development could be the single largest new project contributing to the Shared Success Fund proposed by Mayor Sly James to help spur east Kansas City redevelopment. Renner said the 27th and McGee plan could add $1 million to the fund through the developer’s payments in lieu of taxes.

Planners also said the expanded plan would be accomplished without using any eminent domain powers.

This story was originally published April 5, 2016 at 12:00 PM with the headline "Plan expands for redevelopment south of Crown Center."