Plans move forward for new apartments, music venue, hotel at this blighted KC corner

Plans are moving forward to fix up a historic building on a struggling downtown Kansas City corner with new apartments, a music venue and a hotel.

BR Companies and UMusic Hotel’s proposal would redevelop the Scarritt Building and Arcade, 818 Grand Blvd., into a hotel while adding a new 24-story tower with more than 300 units, retail space and a new music venue that developers say could attract new artists to Kansas City.

The project would remake a blighted downtown corner, potentially helping nearby properties too, and preserve a historic building that’s seen problems with vandalism and damage.

But tax break plans for the project have sparked lively debate among city officials about how they should approach using financial incentives for development projects going forward.

This month, the City Plan Commission and the Board of Zoning Adjustment signed off on a special use permit to allow for a 169-room hotel in the Scarritt Building, which was built in 1907.

“We’re going to help enrich the heart, the arts and the growth of the community” while bringing an abandoned historic building back to what it once was, project consultant Travis Torres said this week.

The new tower was first announced in fall 2024. The hotel in the Scarritt, one of the city’s earliest skyscrapers, emerged last summer under the UMusic brand. There could be a restaurant on the ground floor.

The two-phase construction could run through 2030.

This story was originally published June 25, 2026 at 11:34 AM.