7 Projects to Watch in 2022 - including the Kansas City Current Stadium

For those interested in Kansas City's built landscape, the year ahead is shaping up to be at least as electric as 2021, if not more so.

That's not to say questions don't persist that continue to chill activity in certain industries, including workplace preferences, financing and supply chain shortfalls.

But throughout the Downtown area, several projects years in the making look to bear city-shaping fruit in a matter of months. Others could make a splash rearing their heads in tangible fashion for the first time. And still more will lend themselves to lively discussion in the crucible of city and incentive approval processes.

Here are just seven among the coming developments on the?Kansas City Business Journal's?radar for 2022:

1400KC

In March, before?completing its acquisition?of Waddell & Reed Financial Inc., Macquarie Asset Management?announced that it would not occupy?the headquarters meant for the Overland Park-based financial services firm at 1400 Baltimore Ave.

Since then, a joint venture of Americo Life and Burns & McDonnell has plugged away at construction and completed much of the 260,000-square-foot building, a $140 million development with eight office floors atop a 10-level parking garage.

This month, the city approved a street plan and inspected above-ceiling electrical components, as the building — now christened 1400KC — moves toward what broker CBRE has said?could be April availability?for sublease and tenant improvements.

In a recent interview, Mayor?Quinton Lucas?said?he has heard optimism?from 1400KC's developers that the tower soon will have a tenant. The city?has said?that the building must be completed and occupied by an eligible business to maintain a 15-year property tax abatement?approved in late 2019.

Armour-Main redevelopment

During the summer, Mac Properties?began meeting?with neighbors to outline multifamily and mixed-use plans for most of a full block it had?acquired during?the preceding?nine months?southwest of Armour Boulevard and Main Street, next to a future streetcar stop.

The Chicago developer's proposal called for a $100 million development with 385 total apartments and 40,000 commercial square feet. The residences were to be distributed among two towers, two walk-up buildings, and the existing New Yorker Apartments and U.S. Bank branch, both of which were to be renovated.

However, what, if anything happens at the prime 3.2-acre site now is an open question after a Thursday vote by the City Council.

The council voted 7-5 to remove an allocation to Mac Properties from a measure divvying up surplus funds from a soon-to-expire Midtown tax increment financing plan. The developer had sought one-third of the money, or about $10.5 million over a 20-year period, with the remaining two-thirds split between the city's Housing Trust Fund and its Rehabilitation Assistance for Midtown Properties program for housing rehabilitation.

Capping the South Loop

For years, downtown stakeholders have heralded a proposal to construct a cap or deck over Interstate 670, making way for a public park between the Central Business and Crossroads Arts districts.

Park concepts commissioned years ago by the Downtown Council of Kansas City entail four blocks of public green space between Grand Boulevard and Wyandotte Street. Officials?in 2021 ballparked?the initiative's cost at $160 million.

In a November RAISE grant round, the U.S. Department of Transportation did not award $2.4 million that the Downtown Council requested to advance planning for the South Loop cap.

But Downtown Council CEO?Bill Dietrich?said that month that his group would keep its "nose to the grindstone" moving the project forward, including through a future grant round this year. The park has significant private support from nearby property owners, among them The Cordish Cos. and the Loews Kansas City Hotel's ownership.

Fidelity Security Life Insurance Co. offices

The Kansas City Council?in early December approved?a $9.7 million incentive package for Fidelity Security Life, which plans to build an 11-story, 153,800-square-foot office tower near Crown Center, at Main Street and Grand Boulevard, south of 27th Street.

The longtime local insurance company will relocate less than a mile from 3130 Broadway to anchor about two-thirds of the $83.4 million office building, with the remaining square footage built as speculative Class A space.

Officials approved the incentive measure with language that they will "carefully consider" the building's effect on policy goals and community impacts before approving its final design — an approach some felt was not taken with the tower originally slated for Waddell & Reed.

Freight House Village

3D Development won incentives approval in late August for?an $87.7 million multifamily-and-office village?south of 20th Street, along both sides of Walnut Street, in the Crossroads.

The proposal encompasses 230 apartments above a 322-space parking deck, shared with tenants at two former Superior Moving & Storage buildings to be renovated across the street with 75,000 square feet of office and retail, and 12 walk-up and row house dwellings.

In a recent interview, developer?Vince Bryant?said his firm continues to target multifamily partners who can help realize an envisioned intimate neighborhood feel. With a potential groundbreaking on the apartments this year, the Superior Office Lofts could follow in 2023.

Kansas City Current stadium

In late October, the Kansas City Current took the pitch with?its announcement of a $70 million, 11,000-seat stadium?in the Berkley Riverfront area — the first built specifically for a top-division women's team in the U.S. and possibly the world.

Beyond Kansas City Current games, the stadium also will be programmed to host collegiate and national sporting competitions, concerts and community events.

The privately financed venue is expected to be under construction in mid-2022, sure to help drive additional residences and projects to the riverfront. Upon its planned 2024 opening, the stadium could draw as many as 300,000 annual visitors, some via the riverfront streetcar extension set to complete construction in 2025.

Park Reserve Redevelopment

Riverside-based NorthPoint Development in late December entered a real estate purchase agreement for the leftover undeveloped portions of the former Trinity Lutheran Hospital northwest of 31st and Main streets, plus Park Reserve's 12 unfinished condo units, subject to approval by a Jackson County Circuit Court judge.

Although there are no publicly shared plans, demolition of the deteriorating former hospital structures could clear up 5.2 acres for mixed-use development next to a planned streetcar stop. Because the property sits within a "transit node" under the city's?Main Corridor Overlay District, new construction could range anywhere from three to 15 stories tall.