Developers are preparing to hold court again on a large-scale redevelopment in and around a 125-year-old yellow limestone castle in Kansas City's 18th & Vine Jazz District.
UrbanAmerica, the Miami-based builder behind the upcoming SouthPointe at 63rd Street project, looks to meet with the city's development assistance team over a proposed rehabilitation of the Kansas City Workhouse Castle at 2001 Vine St., plus new hotel and energy-efficient housing construction on the block, northwest of Woodland Avenue and 21st Street.
Those components are considered the first phase of Enterprise Village Ecosystem (EVE), a master planned development that also could introduce co-working spaces, a "living laboratory" for academic institutions and entertainment and commercial uses, across 21.5 mostly vacant acres in the Wendell Phillips neighborhood, according to UrbanAmerica's website.
Businessman Vewiser Dixon, who controls significant acreage in the vicinity through his nonprofit Kansas City Business Center for Entrepreneurial Development, in 2015 told The Kansas City Star of aspirations to build a "Black Silicon Valley," or a tech-friendly village meant to nurture minority startups. The Eighteenth and Vine Redevelopment Corp., of which Dixon is president, and UrbanAmerica partnered several years ago to bring EVE to fruition.
"What we've now done is refined that (plan) and really started putting some better definition to what we think are the uses on a per-block basis, and then really started to drill down," UrbanAmerica Senior Vice President Robert Farmer said.
EVE plans call for preservation of the Workhouse Castle as an anchor feature. The historic structure was built in 1897 as a city jail and later had other uses, among them city storage, Marine training and dog euthanasia, before its abandonment in 1972. The castle was listed on the Kansas City Register of Historic Places in 2007 and in recent years has been sprayed with graffiti.
UrbanAmerica's site concepts depict 6,000 square feet of event space within the castle and another 6,000 square feet for events outside. There would be room for a winery or other commercial use.
Attached to the castle just south, the developer proposes a 60-room boutique hotel. In tandem with the renovated castle spaces, Farmer said the facilities could host weddings, corporate events and community functions. The project includes 75 surface parking spots in front of the castle, fronting Kansas City Terminal railroad tracks.
To the east, along Woodland Avenue between the tracks and 22nd Street, UrbanAmerica looks to build about 60 for-sale houses, planned as three-bed, three-bath residences between 1,800 and 2,000 square feet, in a community christened The Views.
Farmer said the homes are designed to have a net-zero carbon impact, with energy efficient systems and appliances, high performance building envelopes and the option for solar panels optimized to maximize power generation.
"Through all metro areas across the board, there has become a tremendous focus upon the environment in the communities, and with the targeted buyers ... they're absolutely concerned for this generation and future generations," he said. "It's not only a net-zero impact on the community, it's also creating a value to the homeowner because, if your home is energy efficient, it's going to create a lower energy bill. You'll have the ability to sell (excess energy) back to the power company and, at the end of the day, the impact on your wallet is much less."
The development team is evaluating what, if any public assistance EVE will need as it finishes the design for its first phase, Farmer said. The City Council in 2019 conditionally approved $1.2 million in Central City Economic Development sales tax revenues for the project.
Contingent on upcoming plan approvals, work — including site clearing and castle structure stabilization — could begin this summer.
KEM Studio is architect for the development.
