KC developer reveals details, renderings for new apartment complex north of Plaza
A Kansas City developer, who is proposing to build a new 278-unit luxury apartment complex just north of Kansas City’s Country Club Plaza, filed plans Tuesday with the city that include artists’ renderings of the project.
“We’re trying really hard to make this something everybody should be excited about,”Mike McKeen, president and chief operating officer of EPC Real Estate Group, said Tuesday.
The proposed $61 million project is be five stories tall and take up a nearly two-acre city block bounded by W. 45th Terrace and W. 46th Street, Broadway Boulevard and Wornall Road. If approved, it would replace a block of structures that contains 11 fourplexes that were built in 1941 and have, of late, been largely deteriorating.
Plans call for the complex to include a two-level underground parking garage, an outdoor pool and a facade with tiles that McKeen said would hint at the Plaza’s Spanish and Moorish-style architecture.
Respect for height?
“We’re not trying to build a high-rise,” McKeen said. “I mean we have the ability within the zoning to go much higher. But we’re not doing that.”
The complex, McKeen noted, will be significantly shorter than the 10-story Cascade Hotel, constructed at 4600 Wornall Road in 2023 and located directly south of the proposed apartments. The 12-story Parkway Towers condominiums are located directly east.
“While we’re not in the Plaza bowl overlay,” McKeen said, “we are working as if we are just because there are a lot of stakeholders in the area. We want to make sure we are respectful of what everybody anticipates in the community and what they want to see.”
The Plaza bowl overlay sets various building height limits in and around the Plaza district from roughly 45-feet to 195-feet depending on the location.
Because the site is on a southward slope, plans show the south part of the complex rising approximately 75 feet from ground level, while the northern, or upper, side rises about 50-feet from ground level.
Rents $1,400 to $4,500
The 278 units are to include studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments, with rents ranging from $1,400 to $1,750 for studios, $1,800 to $2,400 for one-bedrooms, $2,500 to $4,500 for two-bedrooms. The upper end, McKeen said, are two-story apartments with about 1,800 square feet.
The parking garage is to have about 300 spaces.
EPC representatives are scheduled to hold an informational meeting Wednesday evening at 6:30 p.m. at the Cascade Hotel with members of the Plaza Westport Neighborhood Association.
The development firm has listed a project start date as Sept. 1, with anticipated completion by Jan. 31, 2028.
BRR Architecture of Overland Park is listed at the architecture firm. Taliaferro & Browne, Inc. is listed as the project’s engineering firm.
Plaza Broadway Apartments
The 11 fourplexes comprise a complex at the Plaza Broadway Apartments. Each is a square brick residence built in 1941. Four other structures, including a two-story shirtwaist home built in 1916, exist on the block. All the properties are owned by Lewer Properties LP., a company whose family members also run The Lewer Companies, a Kansas City-based insurance and benefits and company.
The Lewer family released as statement Tuesday, saying that Chuck Lewer, the founder of the Lewer family companies, moved his family and business from Fort Worth, Texas, to Kansas City 64 years ago.
He eventually located his company’s headquarters on the Country Club Plaza.
“We remember his excitement when he acquired the first building located on Wornall Road, on what would eventually become the ‘Lewer Block,’ the statement said. He eventually acquired the entire block.
“My father also had a vision for his block on the Plaza, “ Mike Lewer, said in the statement. “He recognized the potential of improving the block for the benefit of the Lewer family, the people living and working on the block, and our neighbors surrounding the block. . . . The Lewer family is now ready to move forward with our dad’s vision.
“We share a sense of stewardship when it comes to the Plaza. . . .The Lewer family has had a strong personal connection to the Plaza for over 60 years, and we understand the passion others have in our community for taking care of it.”
