This historic KC building is falling apart. Here’s why nothing has been done

Beautiful, towering columns in an airy entrance. Tasteful chandeliers and massive windows overlooking a long mezzanine. A panoramic view of Kansas City’s skyscrapers from the rooftop.

A set of urban exploration YouTube videos shows the grandeur inside 925 Grand Boulevard, the former headquarters of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, which was built over a century ago and, at around 300 feet, was once the tallest building in Missouri.

But the videos also show how much the building has been tarnished from the inside: graffiti painted everywhere, broken glass and refuse strewn about, exposed ceilings with materials left dangling, an elevator shaft left open and unsecured.

The building’s exterior is also visibly in poor condition from the sidewalk.

The Federal Reserve moved out in 2008 to a new location off Main Street near the World War I Memorial, and proposals for redevelopment have floated around since then, including conversion into condos, a hotel or hundreds of new apartments.

None have panned out so far as the historic building has sat vacant for over 15 years.

The City Council voted to terminate financial incentive agreements tied to the building, at the owner’s request, that would have included directing increased tax revenue from redevelopment to help cover the costs of turning the building into a 284-room hotel.

The Kansas City Business Journal reported in 2024 a possible pivot to apartments instead.

The agreements date back to 2016. Nothing has been paid out due to the lack of development on the site, city documents say. The building’s owner is Delta Quad Holdings, LLC, while public records and past reporting in local media show that various developers or groups in different states have been involved with the proposal.

The future of 925 Grand’s future remains unclear.

Robert Lubin, a California-based developer and the contact listed for the owner in city documents, told The Star that a new development group he’s worked with in the past, successfully, is stepping in to run the show. His investment group will still remain a part of the project but he will be more in the background.

Lubin said the intention is to still build out the project, and the new group will be meeting with the city very quickly and making it work out.

He said that the financial agreement, which was specifically for a hotel, isn’t a fit for the project now, anyway.

Mayor Quinton Lucas said earlier this year that the old Fed Reserve building “deserves so much better.”

“I regularly get updates from City staff on dead projects,” Lucas wrote on a Facebook post with photos of the building’s damaged facade.

“Due to developer inattention or over-promising, blocks of our city and once great structures sit idle, welcoming blight and limiting surrounding development opportunity. We remain committed to resurrecting them all.”

Federal Reserve building

The status of the Federal Reserve building stands in contrast to another downtown redevelopment project, the Aladdin KC.

Molzer Development, headed by Zach Molzer, is working to turn the former Aladdin Hotel, 1215 Wyandotte St., into an apartment building with a cocktail bar. Molzer regularly posts updates on social media with a behind-the-scenes look at the building’s gutting and construction. It’s expected to open in 2026.

Molzer said the old Fed Reserve is an iconic building in Kansas City’s downtown core.

“We simply couldn’t build that today,” he said.

Molzer said both the state of the building and the lack of progress on the site are sad, and that as buildings like it deteriorate, possible redevelopment becomes more costly while the pool of possible buyers shrinks.

It’s expensive to maintain a building, but it’s even more expensive to let one go into disrepair for yourself, for the city and for a new buyer, he said.

“It’s just going to keep deteriorating,” Molzer said. “In theory, the building’s worth less and less every time that nothing happens to it.”

But Molzer is looking to be that new buyer: he told The Star that his attorney has his offer, which has been relayed to the parties involved with 925 Grand.

“I would love to play a role in helping restore that building and bring it back, especially as the timing could maybe potentially work out with wrapping up the Aladdin,” and other redevelopment work in the city, he said.

The Aladdin is proof of concept, Molzer said, of yes, things can be done.

925 Grand Boulevard

Not long after the Federal Reserve of Kansas City moved out of 925 Grand, a proposal emerged to turn the building into The Reserve, a luxury condo building with 150 units, The Star reported back in 2008. A developer bought the building in 2005 and leased the space to the agency until its move.

By 2011, as the condo market dragged, plans had shifted to turning 925 Grand into a 306-room Embassy Suites hotel instead. Neither proposal came to be, and the building was bought back by the lender in 2013.

Plans emerged once again by 2015 under new owner Delta Quad to convert the building into an Embassy Suites. The city approved the financial incentive plan in 2016. Construction was estimated to be completed in 2018. The completion date was later revised to 2021.

The COVID-19 pandemic then presented another hurdle to the timeline, while the developer had invested about $42 million in the building by April 2021, the Business Journal reported, including for asbestos removal and interior demolition. Work continued to secure financing for construction.

The building’s owner avoided a foreclosure sale in 2022 following a loan dispute. In February 2024, a proposal reportedly emerged to pivot the project into apartments, while a lawsuit arose between individuals involved with the development over payments owed. The case was later dismissed and closed.

By March 2025, the Economic Development Corporation’s TIF Commission voted to recommend that the City Council end the agreements with the city at the owner’s request. The City Council did so on Thursday.

In the meantime, the city has received several reports of property violations in recent years on 925 Grand: piles of bird droppings, falling debris, people entering through unsecured entrances.

Police reports since 2023 include a call to clear the building, a property damage report, a trespassing arrest and a reported robbery in March.

Council member Eric Bunch, whose district includes downtown, said at a committee meeting on Tuesday that “this remains one of the biggest blighting factors in downtown right now, and it’s frustrating that this continues to persist.”

He noted that the building has faced fires, people with mental illnesses living inside and crime issues as pigeon droppings and a platform blocking the sidewalk remain. The building has been stripped of elements such as its copper and brass, he said.

Bunch suggested that the city look into its rights to take properties when they become a persistent blight on the community.

He called on Thursday for city staff to work on a solution and that the building is at risk for demolition if something doesn’t happen.

This story was originally published May 26, 2025 at 5:00 AM.