Developer wants to demolish, replace Armour apartments

The design for a new 40-unit apartment MAC Properties wants to build after demolishing four buildings along Armour Boulevard.

A developer has a new plan for several buildings on West Armour between Broadway and Main in the Old Hyde Park neighborhood.

MAC Properties, the developer of many apartments on Armour, is now proposing to  tear down one existing apartment and three duplexes and replace them with a new 40-unit building.

In 2012, MAC Properties notified the Old Hyde Park neighborhood that it planned to demolish the four buildings in order to build a parking lot. But the company also said it would sell the properties to a developer who could find a way to reuse them.

Detail of the large apartment.

The neighborhood said that losing any historic buildings on West Armour would destroy the streetscape of the broad street, and in January the developer took the properties off the market and withdrew the application for demolition.

“Motivated by the strong desire of the neighbors to save the buildings and preserve the street front, we are working with City Council members and KC economic development staff to find a redevelopment solution for the buildings,” MAC Properties spokesman Peter Cassel said at the time.

Now Cassel has come back to the city with the proposal for the new building.

“The building has been designed by Hufft Architects, one of Kansas City’s best architecture firms. The design was specifically intended to be both 21st Century in its conception while remaining contextually appropriate within the Old Hyde Park neighborhood,” Cassel said in a letter to the city.

The proposal calls for the construction of 40 three-bedroom apartments, which MAC says would be provide large units for families or multiple adult households that are not otherwise available in Midtown. The request says MAC will not ask for public subsidies or assistance from the city. It would include 48 parking spaces.

The next step is for the developer to meet with the neighborhood. That meeting is scheduled for next Wednesday, July 24 at 7 p.m. at the MainCor offices, 3215 Main. Then the city Historic Preservation Commission will hear a request from the developer to move ahead with the project on September 27.

 

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