Demolition has begun on Nelle Peters apartments row

A row of small apartment buildings west of the Country Club Plaza is becoming rubble, testimony to inattentive ownership over the years and preservation attempts that came too late.

The three Green Gables apartment buildings, designed by architect Nelle Peters in 1927, were deemed too far gone to save. Preservationists’ attempts to protect the buildings on the 4700 block of Summit were overcome by economic realities.

Developer Doug Price, who bought the buildings in 2014 for $3.6 million, told the City Council last month that he’d exhausted all efforts to find a redeveloper who could return life to the apartments. The buildings already were in poor shape when Price acquired them.

The council voted Jan. 21 against granting historic designation for the properties, a status that might have halted demolition. The Historic Kansas City Foundation had temporarily delayed the razing, but a majority of council members agreed with Price that there was no financially feasible way to rehabilitate the tiny, antiquated apartment units.

The Price Brothers development company intends to build new multi-family apartments on the site, which abuts the Bloch Cancer Survivors Park.

This story was originally published February 15, 2016 at 1:08 PM with the headline "Demolition has begun on Nelle Peters apartments row."