Kansas City’s former Playboy Club redeveloped as 22-story downtown apartment tower
The century-old building at the corner of West 11th Street and Baltimore Avenue has lived many lives: The Kansas City Athletic Club, Continental Hotel and Playboy Club have all called it home. In the 1980s, it was converted to an office building, but as the decades passed, occupancy dwindled.
Two developers, The Bernstein Companies and Aria Development Group, debuted their historic preservation of the 22-story building, now an apartment complex called The Mark, at an open house and centennial celebration this week.
‘Affordable luxury apartments’
The Mark opened to tenants at the end of 2022, Joshua Benaim, Aria’s founder and CEO, told The Star on a tour this week. Leasing picked up in spring, he said, and the building’s 222 units are now 70% leased.
Since the building has a unique infrastructure because of its historic preservation requirements, it features 67 different floor plans for what the developers described in a news release as “affordable luxury apartments.” For example, one-of-a-kind apartments were crafted out of old basketball and handball courts.
Studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom floor plans are available. Prices vary from unit to unit, but they’re all market rate. In general, studio apartments are priced around $1,200 to $1,300. One-bedrooms run about $1,400 to $1,700. Two-bedrooms are priced around the $2,000 mark.
Six three-bedroom units are currently leased but run from $2,900 to $3,200.
Chandeliers, terrazzo floors and an old empty pool
The building’s fifth-floor ballroom retains many original touches, including terrazzo floors, lead glass windows, chandeliers and a Juliet balcony. It’s now an event venue called The Century Club that can be rented and is run by event planning company Skyline & Co.
Elevators and a shared lounge and co-working spaces on the basement level also have original terrazzo floors.
Hidden away on the seventh floor is the building’s original pool — it sits empty and closed to the public. Benaim said they are focused on getting the building fully leased before figuring out what to do with the pool.
“For now, we’re just kind of preserving it as we’ve committed to as part of the historic fabric in the building,” he said.
In the meantime, though, if someone came along with the right vision, Benaim is open to it. “We could do something with it as long as it met all the historic standards.”
The apartment conversion started in 2016, but the original developers couldn’t get the project off the ground. Bernstein and Aria bought the building in 2018, and sought a city-backed tax incentive to launch the project.
Developers received a 10-year 90% tax abatement from the city for the apartment conversion.
The project cost roughly $60 million, Benaim said.
This story was originally published July 28, 2023 at 2:31 PM.