Samuel Rodgers Apartment Plan ‘Capstone’ of Paseo Gateway Redevelopment

By Kevin Collison

A 62-unit apartment project is in the works for the Samuel D. Rodgers Health Center campus, the final phase of the Paseo Gateway redevelopment initiative that’s added more than 300 residences to the area, many of them affordable.

The Samuel Rodgers Health and Wellness Campus project is planned for a five-acre site northeast of Ninth and Euclid by Brinshore Development in partnership with the health center.

It’s the final phase of a redevelopment plan that began in 2017 with the help of a $30 million federal grant. It’s helped build mixed-income apartment projects to the Pendleton Heights, Paseo West and Independence Plaza neighborhoods.

“We have taken an obsolete and distressed public housing site (Chouteau Courts) and given residents an opportunity to live in a mixed-income neighborhood,” said Tod Lieberman, Brinshore executive vice president.

“This final phase will really be the capstone of that effort, linking one of the oldest federally guaranteed health centers with an integrated housing component built on vacant land.”

Rendering of the Propeller Building, the planned community center at the development. (Rendering from Brinshore Development planning application)

The $16 million Samuel Rodgers apartment development will include a 4,300 square-foot community center that will include event space and other neighborhood health and well-being services.

“It’s very exciting because it’s the culmination of a dream,” said Catherine Wiley, communications director for Samuel Rodgers.

“The big thing about Samuel Rodgers is we believe in taking care of the community.”

In addition to the latest development, other projects in the Paseo Gateway initiative include the 57-unit Quinlan Place apartments and 22-unit Quinlan Row townhomes; 33-unit Rose Hill townhomes; 30-unit Pendleton Flats, and 38-unit ArtsBlock.

Brinshore, which is headquartered in suburban Chicago, also developed the 72-unit Maple Flats project in the Northland.

The firm’s partners have been the Kansas City Housing Authority, City of Kansas City, Missouri Housing Development Commission and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Private financing has been provided by US Bank and Horizon Bank.

The apartment development planned for the Samuel Rodgers Health Campus will be northeast of Ninth and Euclid. (Map from Brinshore Development planning application)

The new project will include two five-bedroom apartments among its mix of units, a rare housing option. Twenty-seven of the units offer opportunities for low-income households with rents no larger than 30 percent of their income.

There will be 20 market-rate units with monthly rents ranging from $700 for a one-bedroom to less than $1,000 for a three-bedroom. The remaining affordable units will included one-bedroom units renting in the mid-$500s.

Lieberman said all the units will be energy-efficient and will “look and feel like the best market-rate housing in Kansas City.”

Wiley said the community center, which will be called the Propellor Building, will allow her health center to offer healthy living and eating programs as well as other wellness opportunities.

A fundraising effort has been launched by Samuel Rodgers to raise $1 million for the community center.

Lieberman said construction is expected to begin in late Fall on the apartment development with completion by the end of 2022. The project was unanimously endorsed by the City Plan Commission last week.