KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The northeast corner of 20th and Main Street in Kansas City, Missouri will look a lot different in the coming months.
City Club Apartments will renovate the two existing vacant buildings there, which includes the old Midwest Hotel, and transform them into a seven-story, 283-unit property.
“This is going to be the best apartment community ever built in the city of Kansas City,” said Jonathan Holtzman, co-chairman of City Club Apartments.
The property will be a mix of apartments, duplexes, townhomes, studios and penthouses. It will also feature a market, bark park, underground parking spaces, a restaurant, a bar and a rooftop pool.
The project will keep the existing buildings in place.
“Nothing is greener than restoring an existing building. To tear down a building just shouldn't happen, so you build a new building and you integrate it into an old building,” Holtzman said.
According to Holtzman, about 20 percent of the units will be affordable. Rents will range from $1,100 to $3,500. Affordability is something city leaders want; they said the city needs a range of housing options downtown.
“We now need to have a good mix. We definitely need workforce housing and affordable housing mixed in as well,” Councilman Scott Taylor said.
Nearby business owners said the makeover for this property will be a positive.
“This has been abandoned for so many years. We had so many troubled people come in and we had police move them out, and now finally it's all going to be a great apartment building,” said Martin Heuser, the owner of Affare, a German restaurant.
But others who live in the area said they think the city should look more into affordable housing instead of luxury apartments.
“We're going to have issues down the road if we have all these high-priced housing. You're going to have more homeless in town,” said Chris Miller, who is against the project.
People can start applying for the units in six months, but it will likely be a year until anyone can move into the apartments.
