Five years on, KC’s ‘Katz on Main’ historic facade is finally coming together
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Historic Katz facade work resumes after years of delay and stabilization.
- Lux settles liens and resumes rooftop pool and roof work in 2025.
- Federal charges dropped Aug 2025 after restitution and DOJ rationale noted.
The steel has been erected. The roof is up. The swimming pool and deck, in the shadow of the Moderne clock tower, will soon be put in place.
Five years after the Kansas City Council voted to provide Lux Living of St. Louis significant tax breaks to turn the 1934 Katz Drug Store site into luxury apartments, the adaptive reuse of the project’s historic facade is finally making progress.
Renewed construction at 3948 Main St., on the southwest corner of Main Street and Westport Road, comes following many months in which little to no construction occurred on the facade, leaving it as an empty shell, and raising doubts over whether the historic portion of the development would ever be finished.
“By mid-year, the historic Katz Building will be fully completed,” Lux’s owner and operator, Sidarth “Sid” Chakraverty, told The Star by email Thursday. “Restoring and repurposing a landmark like Katz is never easy or inexpensive, but we made a commitment to bring the building back and have stayed focused on delivering it the right way.
“While it may not always be visible from the outside, millions of dollars have already been invested to rebuild and stabilize the structure.”
Chakraverty said construction of the rooftop swimming pool is set to begin next week.
“Ultimately, the finished building will speak for itself,” Chakraverty wrote. “The rebirth of the Katz building represents a meaningful reinvestment in Westport and a project we believe Kansas City will be proud of.”
Indictments for fraud, slow progress
Opened in December 1934, the 20,000-square-foot Katz Drug store (air-conditioned, a rarity at the time) was said to be the then-largest drug store in the world. Its exterior clock tower and curved front, like the prow of a ship would remain a local landmark even as the building aged, becoming an Osco Drug in 1985 and, in 2006, a CVS, before it closed.
The building sat vacant for years until, in March 2021, the City Council approved a tax incentive package — abating 75% of the project’s property tax bill for 10 years and 37.5% for 15 more — for Lux Living to build a six-story $37.6 million luxury apartment complex to include 192-units and a 175-stall parking garage.
Even now, the Lux Living website, outdated, speaks of Katz on Main being completed in 2024.
“Lux Living is preserving the beautiful historic clock tower and foundation of the building while creating the perfect juxtaposition of old and new,” the website reads. It goes on to say, “Walk through the front doors of the Katz building to be greeted by a massive TV wall lobby with a Bistro serving up fresh coffee every day.
“No need for gym memberships because our state-of-the-art gym will be sure to leave you breathless. After you crush your workout, rejuvenate your muscles in the Float Pod Relaxation Room. Celebrate your workout by hanging on the pool deck, with fireplace and hot tub. If the weather is nice, the pool deck Nano Doors will be open, revealing the Arcade Bar.”
Construction began in 2022 and was still underway when, in September 2024, Chakraverty, along with Lux chief executive Victor Alston and the company’s chief accountant, Shijing “Poppy” Cao, were indicted on one count each of conspiracy to commit fraud and 11 counts of wire fraud in U.S. District Court in St. Louis.
The charges alleged that the defendants aimed to defraud the City of St. Louis’s minority-owned business enterprise (MBE) program and women-owned business enterprise (WBE) program to gain millions of dollars worth of city sales tax and property tax incentives on certain projects in St. Louis.
Defendants hire Pam Bondi’s brother
Construction on the Katz project, and on another Lux project in Kansas City, The Wonderland apartments, at 1923 Broadway Blvd., ground to a crawl. Subcontractors filed court papers placing more than $1 million of liens on Katz for unpaid bills.
For much of last year, while construction on the apartments continued (tenants were allowed to occupy as of January 2025) the historic Katz Drug Store facade sat as an empty shell.
Then, in August 2025, the new U.S. Attorney of the Eastern District of Missouri, Thomas Albus — nominated by President Donald Trump and sworn in that month — dropped the charges against Chakraverty and the other defendants.
The charges were dropped after the defendants, one month earlier, became represented by attorney Bradley J. Bondi, the brother of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The U.S. Attorney, in his federal filing, said that Chakraverty and the other defendants had agreed to make restitution of the taxes abated on their St. Louis projects between 2021 and 2024. The U.S. Attorney also argued that because the Department of Justice “has determined that government programs that use race- and sex-based programs . . .are unconstitutional” that they would not continue to prosecute Chakraverty and the other defendants.
In Kansas City, Lux and its related companies, Big Sur Construction and Shasta III, settled with their lien holders, including Contract Services Corporation of America, a family-owned steel fabricating company in Raytown, which said that Lux owed them $3950,000 for steel to be used to support the Katz roof and swimming pool.
The lien on the steel was settled in August 2025. Three months later, Lux’s other Kansas City project, The Wonderland in the Crossroads began taking in its first tenants in November.
‘Anxious to see it done’
Kevin Klinkenberg, the executive director of Midtown KC Now, an economic development agency whose offices at 3931 Main St. sit across from Katz, was glad to see the steel return to the site several months ago and begin to go up.
“They actually have been working this week on the historic building,” he said. “They moved a bunch of lumber up onto the roof. Now it’s raining the last couple of days, but it looks like they’re finally about to finish the roof.”
The hope is that the rest will follow.
“We’re anxious to see it done,” Klinkenberg said. “We’re glad that they’re moving and that there’s activity. Kind of hope that means they’re actually going to get it done here in the next few months.”
This story was originally published March 5, 2026 at 10:53 AM.
