Grayson Capital takes early development step for new 18th & Lydia apartments
Kansas City plans to sell two surplus parking lots at 18th Street and Lydia Avenue, and 18th and The Paseo, to Grayson Capital LLC for phased development with apartments and retail.
Thomas Friestad
By Thomas Friestad – Staff Writer, Kansas City Business Journal
Jun 14, 2023
Kansas City and a local builder will start hashing out terms for a phased project that could introduce close to 200 apartments near the 18th & Vine Jazz District.
The City Council last week gave City Manager Brian Platt 90 days to negotiate a development agreement with Grayson Capital LLC and Corbella LLC to build apartments and retail space on respective city-owned parking lots southeast of 18th Street and Lydia Avenue, and southwest of 18th and The Paseo.
The first project phase could entail 144 to 198 studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments, ranging from 500 to 900 square feet, on 1.8 acres, according to a city presentation. Grayson CEO Michael Collins on Monday said his group targets the higher end of that range, at 195 units, 20% of which would be reserved for renters earning up to 60% of the area's median family income (MFI). The complex would have 5,000 square feet of amenities and 120 to 154 parking spaces.
"Our goal is to make all of these (units) affordable as much as possible for everyone who desires to be in the area, and we think we're going to have a very good product for people who really want to be here," Collins said. "We want mixed-income communities. We don't want siloed communities in any of our developments."
This site map shows concepts by Grayson Capital LLC for 144 apartments and 12,400 square feet of retail space on city-owned parking lots at 18th Street and Lydia Avenue, and 18th and The Paseo.
The second phase is further down the road because the site needs environmental remediation, which Collins said stems from past gas station operations. The process is expected to take two years, according to the city. Concepts involve 12,400 square feet of retail on the 0.75-acre site, and Collins said additional multifamily has not been ruled out, though its design would need to account for traffic at the intersection of 18th and The Paseo.
The second phase site also is located just north of a 0.2-acre lot where the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum last month launched a $25 million capital campaign for a potential 30,000-square-foot expansion. Collins said that proximity lends itself to future partnership opportunities with the museum.
"We're doing the work to make sure that what our project is and what theirs are are not only accretive to each other, but also ... helpful in the nature of the design and the aesthetic at the hard corner of 18th and Paseo," he said. "Those are very significant pieces to get right, and that will include significant engagement between the two (parties) as well as engagement of the community."
Grayson's apartment community is planned with transit-oriented components, such as bike share and rideshare services, and a parking ratio under 1:1. It contemplates a shared parking arrangement with the Full Employment Council, which currently uses the phase two lot.
The proposed development is expected to include an incentive request to the Economic Development Corp. of Kansas City. The project also looks to receive equity investment on account of its location in the city's Paseo Gateway Opportunity Zone, according to city materials.
The upcoming development agreement will call for the city to sell Grayson its properties for their appraised value — $603,700 altogether as of this year — the city's presentation shows. The developer then would be required to start construction within 90 days of purchasing the sites and finish work within 30 months.
Grayson plans a different $47 million, 190-apartment complex called The 15 at 1525-1531 Holmes St. in the East Crossroads Arts District. The developer also is looking at multifamily projects in the Austin and Dallas metro areas.
