Why Midtown KC buildings could be demolished despite push for historic status

Four more buildings could face demolition in Kansas City’s Valentine neighborhood, despite an ongoing push for protection, if the company that owns them successfully gets the city to designate them as dangerous.

Kansas City Life Insurance, based in Valentine, owns the four vacant properties — two colonnades and a house off Southwest Trafficway/Summit Street and an apartment building on Jefferson Street — and sought earlier this year to demolish them.

The company has said the buildings are unsafe and has presented early plans for redevelopment, including building a new “colonnade court” with dozens of units to replace the two old colonnades on Summit Street. Formal building plans have yet to be filed.

The four demolitions have been on hold until at least October as the Valentine Neighborhood Association seeks local historic status for part of the neighborhood around the Norman School Lofts, which would add stronger protections against demolitions of structures in the area, including possible three year delays.

Neighborhood organizers have pushed against the wrecking ball in Valentine for decades and mourned after KC Life demolished more than 20 homes last fall. The company said those homes posed a safety risk and that it planned to redevelop the properties in the future.

The City Council’s neighborhood committee is expected to discuss creating the Norman School historic district later this month. The historic preservation committee and the planning committee have already held hearings.

But if the city considers a building to be dangerous, meaning it’s in poor enough condition that it poses a risk to the public’s safety, it may become easier under city code to obtain a demolition permit, even if the building has local historic status or could receive it.

In early August, an attorney representing KC Life filed pre-demolition inspections on the four buildings, saying that engineering reports confirm that the structures are dangerous and pose a significant risk of deterioration, collapse and injury. The filing says that their condition has continued to decline since the reports were made and asks that the buildings be deemed dangerous.

Records show that the city has since opened dangerous building cases on the four KC Life-owned properties previously eyed for demolition. The reports say that all four are in “major disrepair.” The review is ongoing.

An inspector found that on one of the colonnades, for example, porch columns are beginning to separate from the brick; exterior walls have wood rot and water damage; and the floors on the inside are beginning to sag and could collapse. Other issues with rotting, sagging and deterioration were present in other buildings, according to the inspections.

“The damage to the floor is so severe that it does not have sufficient strength to be used for its purpose and is at risk of failure and further collapse,” the inspector wrote about one of the buildings. “The plumbing, electrical, and heating all are in disrepair. Building is dangerous.”

Follow-up inspections have been scheduled. If the city officially adds the structures to the dangerous buildings list, an inspector will issue orders to demolish them or repair them.

Ethan Starr, executive director of Historic KC, said the news is unfortunate amid the push for local historic status in the Norman School area.

He said all four buildings have spent their decades in existence as affordable housing for working people and that demolition can be a personal tragedy to neighbors and the generations of former residents.

It’s also a public policy tragedy to allow long-standing affordable housing stock to fall to the wrecking ball, Starr said.

He noted that tools exist to bring buildings back from an endangered state, such as financial incentives and tax credits, but what can be missing is the will of a property owner to maintain their holdings.

Starr calls for creating an environment where it makes more sense to reuse buildings, even when they’ve deteriorated.

KC Life representatives did not provide a comment for this story by Thursday afternoon. The company has said that creating the Norman School historic district could stall its building plans and prevent future needed redevelopment in the neighborhood. Historic districts come with additional rules and regulations for renovations, construction and demolitions.

“The Valentine Neighborhood Association has consistently opposed the demolition of

buildings within the neighborhood unless a clear and viable replacement plan is in

place, accompanied by a firm commitment to fully execute that plan,” the Valentine Neighborhood Association said in a statement.

“We also believe it is essential that the development of such plans actively engage the surrounding community to ensure they reflect shared priorities and long-term neighborhood vitality.”

That includes the four buildings that could face demolition, the statement said.

The historic preservation commission voted to recommend creating the historic district, while the planning commission voted against recommending it. The City Council will have the final say.

“It is a loss to the fabric of the neighborhood when any buildings are demolished, especially if they might have been maintained and preserved. We are hopeful that the Norman School Historic District will be approved by the city, which will protect the remaining homes in this historic area by providing review of any demolitions or new construction,” the statement said.

This story was originally published September 5, 2025 at 6:05 AM.