Every day, on its masthead, The Star proudly blares beside a photo of starch-collared William Rockhill Nelson: “A Paper for the People.”
Well, what we saw yesterday in Kansas City was “A Victory for the People.”
Highwoods Properties, our mostly unwelcome, Country Club Plaza squatter from North Carolina, raised the white flag.
No skyscraper on the site of the Neptune Apartments at the northeast corner of 47th and Broadway.
I almost can’t believe it. Yes, the opponents, Friends of the Plaza, gathered the signatures of 18,000 registered voters, enough to force a referendum in November. And, yes, they waged a smart, ankle-biting fight against the Big Dog.
Neptune Apartments
But still, I know that at least one leader of the opposition was skeptical about the group’s chances of winning a citywide election. Highwoods seemed to be prepared to throw hundreds of thousands of dollars into a campaign. And, really, I didn’t sense that the opposition was resonating widely outside the 4th Council District.
But it looks like Highwoods finally recognized that it had badly screwed up its introduction of the plan a year ago, with its roughshod proposal to raze the Balcony Building and plop a high-rise office tower right on the corner.
With that presumptuous and high-handed move, Highwoods put itself behind the eight ball and never recovered.
It appears that the thick heads and money grubbers in Highwoods’ home office in Raleigh, N.C., might have learned something:
That money and political influence don’t always carry the day; that the little guys, when they are pesky enough and ample enough in numbers, sometimes win.
Still up in the air, however, is the fate of the Neptune building, which has 96 units and opened in 1988. Anticipating victory, Highwoods gave all tenants notice months ago, and the building is empty.
In a front-page Kansas City Star story about the Highwoods decision today, development reporter Kevin Collison quoted a Highwoods lawyer as saying, “Highwoods is exploring its options, which could include refurbishing the building, demolishing it for a new apartment project or staying the course.”
***
Now, where to put the Polsinelli Shughart law firm?
I think another factor in the Highwoods decision was, simply, that they couldn’t stomach the prospect of losing the law firm and its 500 employees. The firm’s main office is now located in a high-rise on 47th West of Broadway — an area designated for taller buildings by the city’s 1989 Plaza Urban Design and Development Plan.
I had heard that, with the uncertainty about the Neptune site, Polsinelli Shughart was looking seriously at the glaringly vacant site of the former Mission Shopping Center.
Jim Polsinelli
It would have been crushing all around — still would be — if the firm left Kansas City. We just can’t have that. Jim Polsinelli, founder of the firm, is a diehard Kansas Citian (lives just off Ward Parkway), and I think he would vote to leave the city only as a last resort.
The obvious, most convenient spot for Polsinelli Shughart appears to be a site called Valencia II, which now is a vacant lot north of the Valencia Place high-rise. Valencia Place, which opened in 1999, houses Charles Schwab and Lockton Insurance, among other businesses.
Valencia II was originally included in the same TIF plan approved for Valencia Place.
In a sidebar to his main story this morning, Collison wrote:
“The site (Valencia II) is ready for development with perhaps some minor modification of its commercial zoning. It also has plenty of garage parking with the potential for more.”
On the down side, he noted that Polsinelli Shughart executives had earlier rejected Highwoods’ proposal to build at Valencia II because it was “too far removed from 47th Street and the core of the Plaza.”
Well, like Highwoods, maybe Polsinelli Shughart is ready to give some ground, too.
What the hell is the matter with being 100 yards from 47th Street? Those fat-cat lawyers need to get out of their fine leather chairs once in a while and take a walk down to where the common folks are. Then, they can huff and puff their way back up the hill; that’s where the exercise comes in.
In the meantime — while we wait for Highwoods and Polsinelli Shughart to come up with a reasonable plan (subject to veto by Friends of the Plaza) — hearty congratulations are in order to Dan Cofran, Vicki Noteis, Michael Koon and other key leaders of Friends of the Plaza, as well as each and every Kansas City voter who signed the petition.
It’s a kick-ass day for Kansas City.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
What the hell is the matter with the same building being 100 yards to the east?
I’m sorry…the same building minus $11 million in TIF money from the city. I guess it is totally worth $11 million to move the building catty corner.
Welcome to the Comments Dept., O.C.
REgarding ‘A Victory For The People’ and a bigger local issue.
Do you think print media in general and the Kansas City Star / Times in particular, is / has been quilty of ‘know it all’ preaching. to the ‘sheeple’ [no matter the owner or political orientation] ??????
I remember the ubber shock I had as my family became more mobile. We went from vacations in the Ozarks and the Carolinas to visiting FLorida, Israel, Hawaii. Other dailies had less preaching ——— and different slants on the same [‘hard news’] stories.
The sorry, sorry crippling of non Democan and non Republicrat ‘third parties’ by the mid west MSM [main stream media] is a prime example.
Losing needed economic generators like new buildings is a loss for us all. The status quo cannot be maintained and will probably come to ruin faster than you might think. Liberal Kansas Citians will not have the nerve to defend the Plaza from black, underclass mobs, and the upper-class flight to joco will continue. The idea that you know better than they as to where best to locate their building is laughable.
your opening is what is so sad about KC….something about unwanted out of towners in Highwoods…mini minds, midwest bumpkins, thinking about yesterday as the step forward…..that is what your piece says…mixed w/no facts..people mostly with way too much time on their hands and paper thin in most every way possible…you and them should just say; we don’t trust change, we don’t own a home in the Plaza area, don’t own a business there, really can’t afford and rarely go there but we know it all..yup. We know what is good for you that do as well. This group won nothing but pats on the back in front of a mirror…I have written this before but facts really throw off a good story…one: out of the ten locally owned business on the Plaza we have spoken with, not one was aganist the building, two: my neighborhood, up Ward Parkway/Wornall that is a prime part of the area value..well in 3 homeowners groups out of 80 folks only two felt it a bad move, three: Highwoods ran off no one that was not a drain on image or having a better tenant, four some of you all maybe not you ran around saying Highwoods charges some of the highest rent in US for Plaza..not even close to a fact….
If Polsinelli Shughart wanted to make a serious impact on Kansas City, they could build a huge, architecturally radical, LEEDS certified building along the Troost corridor. Yes, I know that area has been depressed and neglected for some time but there are numerous small community groups working on renewing the area. They could use the help of a giant like Polsinelli. If the law firm were bold enough to make this move, they could have all the parking and building space they dream to have. Polsinelli Shughart would make the history books for helping to build community in Kansas City.
Perhaps a battle has been won but the war is not over. Ultimately I think the firm heads to Kansas. I guess the vacant space can be used as a holding center for the curfew violators.
To me the “soul’ of the Plaza has been dead for a long time. Nothing more than the hoo-haw of American Retail but certainly no rival to Chicago’s Michigan Avenue. Seems like the Apple Store is the busiest space there.
Whatever allure it had for raising ones esteem has to be sought vicariously from 40 years ago.
For cryin’ out loud Fitz I met some friends at the Raphael Bar two weeks ago and ordered a gingerale and rye and they told me they didn’t have gingerale! Odd since the usual reply on the Plaza is we don’t have rye….or, more commonly the reply is in the form of a Jeopardy answer, What is rye?
Our premier shopping and dining district absent the liquids to make a civilized man’s chosen libation? Please
And for the record my favorite smoke is the Avo #5
Now we’re getting down to the important matters, Smartman. I used to smoke the Avo #9 (liked Love Potion No. 9, too), but I’ve switched to Ashtons — the short variety. See Tom Foster at Fidel’s and tell him I sent you. Maybe you already see him????