Housing
Flatland covers stories about affordable housing, evictions and tenant rights in the Kansas City metro and surrounding area.
What Will It Take for Banks to Invest in Kansas City’s Low-Income Neighborhoods?
Learn how area lenders want to help rebuild and reinvest in Kansas City’s low-income neighborhoods.
Ridding KCMO Of Blighted Lots
Ellen Boyd, a resident of Kansas City, Missouri’s, Historic Northeast area, isn’t surrounded by vacant homes. But she has counted nearly two dozen of them in a nine-block stretch along the route to 27th Street and Indiana Avenue, where her son’s father lives. And there’s no question in her mind about what the city should…
State Historic Tax Credit Program Threatened, Major Downtown Redevelopment Tool
GUEST COMMENTARY By Elizabeth Rosin In 1998, Missouri enacted a state historic tax credit (HTC) to help property owners rehabilitate historic buildings. The impact of that legislation is evident when you look around downtown Kansas City. Today’s vibrant city owes much to the HTC. Since 2001, historic tax credits secured over $2 billion of private…
$95M Crossroads Apartment Proposal Clears First Hurdle, Challenges Remain
Updated June 28: The Kansas City Council approved the TIF amendment that will allow tax incentives to help build the project’s garage at its meeting Thursday. Renderings of the Track 215 project also were furnished by staff. The next step is seeking a property tax abatement from Port KC) By Kevin Collison Backers of a…
Midland Project Wins Incentive Approval, Work Starts Early 2020
By Kevin Collison Work is expected to begin early next year on redeveloping the historic Midland office building into 117 affordable apartments following approval of tax incentives Thursday. The Planned Industrial Expansion Authority approved a 25-year property tax abatement to help finance the $24.3 million renovation plan for what’s called The Saxon at The Midland…
Midland Affordable Renovation Plan Features Micro-Apartments
By Kevin Collison The Cordish Co. has submitted its plan to redevelop the historic Midland office building into affordable housing, partly by offering some of the more “micro” apartments to date in downtown, as small as 315 square feet. The $24.3 million renovation plan for the 12-story vacant office building at 1221 Baltimore is scheduled…
Keystone Innovation District Seeks to Transform East 18th Street Corridor
(Editor’s note: Updated March 11. The Keystone Innovation District initiative has announced its Governing Board: Doug Girod, Chancellor, University of Kansas; Mauli Agrawal, Chancellor, University of Missouri – Kansas City; Kimberly Beatty, Chancellor, Metropolitan Community College; Elizabeth MacLeod Walls, President, William Jewell College; Denise St. Omer, VP of Grantmaking and Inclusion, Greater Kansas City Community Foundation;…
Pioneering East Crossroads Apartment Project Kicks Off Construction
By Kevin Collison Construction of a $72 million East Crossroads apartment development in the works for 16 months is scheduled to begin today with the first residents expected to begin occupancy by Fall 2020. John McGurk, an official with the Indianapolis developer, Milhaus, said the 341-unit project, which will be called “Artistry KC,” received its…
Designing and Building a Better Kansas City for the Future
GUEST COMMENTARY By Kevin Klinkenberg Coming back to Kansas City has left me excited about the recent changes. The ship has turned, and there’s a strong sense of optimism in the air. But as I noted before, the work is far from done. In fact, we have a long, tough mission ahead of us. The…
Super-Green Apartments ‘Leaping Out of Ground’ in River Market
By Kevin Collison Work has resumed on the 276-unit Second and Delaware apartment development after a lengthy shutdown, its energy-efficient, concrete walls rapidly rising beneath a tower crane visible throughout the River Market. Construction on the $71 million project resumed in November following an 16-month shutdown caused by a contractor dispute. Now, Crossland Construction has…