KC could force dilapidated, historic Federal Reserve tower downtown into new hands

Kansas City could move to force a historic downtown building that has languished for years into the hands of a new developer.

Mayor Quinton Lucas filed a resolution this week that would begin a process known as receivership on the former Federal Reserve Building, 925 Grand Blvd., a legal maneuver aimed at dealing with blighted properties by prompting action from current owners or ordering control over the property to change hands.

“Since 2008, the old Federal Reserve Bank building has sat empty, left open to the elements, vandals, fires, neglect, and decay,” Lucas said in a statement. “No more. We’re taking action to ensure accountability from property owners and new life in this tower in the heart of our downtown.”

Once the tallest building in Missouri at nearly 300 feet, it’s the former headquarters of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City before the agency moved south of Crown Center in 2008.

The building has been vacant ever since, and various announced plans for redevelopment — condos, a hotel, apartments — have not come to fruition as the property has faced nuisance complaints for years.

Lucas’ resolution calls out the property’s “progressive decay and deterioration” since its closure in 2008.

“Residents and property owners near the site lament the nearly two decades of inactivity and decomposition, citing both aesthetic and security concerns involving the site’s crumbling exterior, graffiti covering the interior, broken glass and refuse strewn throughout, exposed ceilings with materials left dangling, an unsecured elevator shaft, and the site’s serving as a haven for squatting, fires, and other chronic nuisance activities,” it says.

The Federal Reserve building’s current owner is Delta Quad Holdings, which has faced several foreclosure proceedings on the property over the past two years and filed multiple bankruptcies in federal court.

The City Council’s finance committee is expected to discuss the proposal later this month. If approved by the full council, the measure would direct the city manager to start the receivership process.

The process, lined out in city code, includes giving the owner 60 days to address the site’s conditions. If the owner doesn’t take adequate action, the city could go to court and ask for the appointment of a receiver: someone who could take control of the property and pursue rehabilitation instead.

Lucas’ resolution notes that a similar blighted building downtown that had sat vacant since 2020 but was purchased in 2024 and has already been turned into housing — an apparent reference to Zach Molzer’s rehab of the Aladdin building into new apartments at 1215 Wyandotte Street.

Molzer told The Star last year that he wanted to buy the Federal Reserve Building and had relayed an offer.

Last fall, the City Council started the receivership process on the former Paul Robeson Middle School building, 8201 Holmes Rd. in south Kansas City, in response to blight concerns there. The city did not ultimately appear to carry out receivership on the Robeson School in court after the owner started demolition in January.

But with the Federal Reserve building, city officials would likely want to see it restored, not knocked down.

The Federal Reserve Building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, meaning a developer could access tax credits to help support redevelopment.

The city says it will work with residents in surrounding neighborhoods to plan the future of the building.

Lucas has also proposed a trio of rule changes meant to prevent “demolition by neglect” and address blight from vacant buildings.