Gerald Smith of Plexpod said his company thinks the redeveloped Westport High School would be a perfect site for a co-working space. But developers of the project say their latest plan won’t work unless restrictions on parking in the track and field area of the former school are lifted.
Neighbors were asked last night to weigh in on a new wrinkle in the three-and-a-half-year discussion of the future of Westport High School. Developers offered an update of the proposed Westport Commons including a major new co-workspace partner. But Sustainable Development Partners also said its plan is now contingent upon additional parking space on the school’s track and field area, which the school district had restricted in its agreement to sell the property.
A recent Google Maps image of the site.
Here’s where the deal stands right now: The Kansas City School District, as part of its repurposing program, has a contract to sell the former high school to Sustainable Development Partners. That group is already redeveloping Westport Middle School, just across 39th Street. But the district put a restriction on the sale of the property, saying that the track and field could not be developed.
District Repurposing Director Shannon Jaax explained the district originally imposed the restriction because community members at several meetings about redevelopment of the site said it was a community asset and should be protected.
“We are back here today to see if you are comfortable with additional surface parking” in the track and field area, she said last night.
Based on community feedback at last night’s meeting, she said, the repurposing office may make a recommendation to the school board at its meeting on Wednesday, March 23 on whether to lift the restriction. (By the way, that’s the last meeting of the current school board; voters will elect four new school board members who will begin their duties April 13.)
Developer says project has changed
“Many things are exactly the same” as they were almost four years ago when Sustainable Development Partners first began imagining redevelopment of the site, according to partner Bob Berkebile. “Many things have changed.”
Changes have included the elimination of a school within the project and plans for 85 housing units to a new major focus on co-working space. Berkebile also said the Health Care Foundation of Kansas City will occupy the 4th floor of the building under the current plan.
He also introduced Gerald Smith of Plexpod, which operates a co-working space in Lenexa and would operate a similar space in Westport Commons. Smith said co-working has become very popular in other parts of the country. The current plan is for companies to share “maker,” event, coffee, food and fitness spaces, and to make some of those areas available to the community as well.
“It’s also very important in the entrepreneurial community for people to gather,” he said, adding that Plexpod is in “active conversations” with 40 companies interested in sharing the space.
Changing space needs changes parking needs
Berkebile says over the years, Sustainable Development Partners has constantly been talking to potential tenants and to the community, and the project has constantly been evolving. But he told the audience that co-working and co-living spaces as currently envisioned require more parking spaces than his group can find without adding parking in the track and field area.
He showed two preliminary options.
The first option would create parking at the far west end of the track.
The second option shows parking within the track.
Berkebile said that his group originally estimated 200 parking spaces would be needed, but now believes that banks being asked to finance the project may want the developers to provide at least 400 spaces. Sustainable Developer Partners says the only way it can find that many spaces on the site is to use the track.
The developers showed video testimonials from civic, business and neighborhood leaders, including the presidents of the Old Hyde Park and Southmoreland neighborhoods and 4th District Councilwoman Katheryn Shields, saying they supported the need for additional parking to make the project viable.
Berkebile said if the community or the school board turn down the request to drop the restriction, “we won’t continue. We are at the end of our rope.”
What he hopes will happen, he said, is that his group will be released from the requirement restricting parking on the track area, and that Sustainable Development Partners can keep working with the community and potential tenants to refine a parking plan.
Reaction to the request to drop the parking restriction varied. One neighbor who lives just across the street said that community use of the track and field has increased over the last 3-4 years. Another neighbor pointed out that housing in the neighborhood had been destroyed to create the school athletic fields, and there is continuing concern about commercial and institutional encroachment.Others expressed concern over surface parking.
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