KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Kansas City Power & Light District is driving a downtown makeover. City Center Square, a 650,000 square foot Class A office building, started preparing for the opening of the Sprint Center Arena and Kansas City Live more than a year ago. (Request a tour: smoore@winbury.com)
Phillip Gesue, director of acquisitions and development for Time Equities Inc., the company that owns City Center Square, said a new parking garage and expanded services for tenants such as a full service fitness center, yoga, Starbucks, improved food court and valet parking was critical to the downtown redevelopment. "City Center Square has always played a vital role in downtown Kansas City. The high-rise office building is literally at the center of the city at Main and 12th street," Gesue said. "The rehabilitation of this magnificent building and the construction of a new parking garage to accommodate the modern parking demand have been critical in preparing the building for large additions such as the Power and Light District and the needs of modern office tenants."
(Watch video of Phillip Gesue: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwDKV1EpDJ4 )
Time Equities has focused on the architectural design of City Center Squares improvements and so wanted to make a big splash with its construction of a new parking garage. Time Equities selected Rees Masilionis Turley Architecture, a Kansas City firm, to design the six-level parking garage. Matt Masilionis, principal architect, said infusing design with the limited space was the biggest challenge for their team. "Kenny Miller, our project designer/architect, did a tremendous job balancing the limited space in this tight urban site (the Old Italian Gardens restaurant) while creating a futuristic looking urban infill parking structure that is fun, seamless with the streetscape, and a contemporary, timeless statement for Kansas City," said Masilionis.
City Center Squares once dated food court has been modernized with a lounge like feel created by HNTB architecture. Bright modern colors and a patchwork carpet were custom designed for the building. The renovated food court is also home to downtowns only Jasons Deli along with food favorites such as Starbucks, Antonios Pizza, Bumblefish, Smokin Joes and Subway.
For working professionals seeking a healthy lifestyle, a 3,800 square foot state of the art fitness center was created in City Center Square. This space offers tenants weekly access to yoga and pilates classes as well as full service changing rooms equipped with showers, towels and lockers so they can work out any time of day.
"Real estate is not exclusively about amenities, its about location, location, location -- something City Center Square has in spades. Its central loop location means its literally across the street from the restaurants of KC Live -- three short blocks from the Sprint Arena and a majority of the downtown hotels. Most importantly, it is at the center of the greatest concentration of parking in downtown KC," said Gesue.
Rick Hughes, president of the Kansas City Convention and Visitors Association said the new attraction will be a significant perk for businesses that want to be a part of this exciting urban redevelopment. "The perfect name for the building is City Center Square," said Hughes. "Someone was wise years ago when they named it that. Its even more City Center Square-ed up today because of all the development thats happening around us right now," said Hughes. "As we move into the future, City Center Square really is in the middle of it all."
(Watch video of Rick Hughes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cw37GEfDzKU, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HV_xw3SQ00w)
The Power and Light District is a nine city block mixed-used retail, entertainment, office and residential district. The $850 million entertainment district is part of a $2 billion urban renaissance that includes the new Kauffman Center for Performing Arts, convention center expansion, 10,000 new urban loft units and the recently opened Sprint Center Arena.
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