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QuikTrip and Waddell & Reed: Could we end up with a more congested 39th and SW Trafficway and an unfinished Downtown building?

December 4, 2020 by jimmycsays

In the past couple of days, two major development deals — one prospective and one underway — have cropped up, posing problems to a neighborhood in one case and to the well being of Downtown in the other.

Let’s start with QuikTrip, which is the Amazon of Kansas City. It’s based in Tulsa and is the best convenience-store chain I’ve ever seen. At the same time, it’s a behemoth, whose heavy foot sometimes comes down on neighborhoods resisting its attempts to build or expand.

But QuikTrip usually gets what it wants. A few years ago, for example, it won a big battle to double the footprint of its store on Westport Road just west of Southwest Trafficway. The only battle it truly lost locally was in 2014, when neighbors beat back its attempt to build at 33rd and Southwest Trafficway. But QT never took its eye off the Trafficway and now is back, seeking to build on the northwest corner of Southwest Trafficway and 39th Street.

QT proposes to demolish a massive, two-story building that appears vacant and apparently is or was part of a pharmaceutical services support company called UBC.

Pictured, looking east to west on 39th Street, is the two-story building QuikTrip plans to raze to build a new store just blocks from another QT on Westport Road.

Having a QuikTrip on incredibly busy Southwest Trafficway seemed like a bad idea back in 2014 and still seems like a bad idea. Southwest Trafficway is THE biggest artery from downtown to points south in Kansas City and eastern Johnson County. And that particular intersection is already very difficult to negotiate, especially if you’re going east-west and turning south onto the Trafficway from westbound 39th Street.

The Star reported that Patrick Faltico, president of the Volker Neighborhood Association, said most residents he had heard from were against the plan. They had concerns about traffic flow, loitering, trash and petty crime. Faltico pointed out that QT already has the store, apparently thriving, several blocks south on Westport Road, and, of course, there’s the Main Street store at 44th.

The Roanoke Homes Association, also opposed, issued a statement, saying in part: “This intersection is already a nightmare…Moreover, the new location would likely divert traffic onto nearby residential streets where speeding cars are already a threat.”

QuikTrip issued a statement, saying: “Our goal is to meet with the community and listen. We want to be a part of the community and we want to be good neighbors. Opening dates have not yet been determined.”

The fact that QT says “opening dates have not yet been determined” is a clear signal that the process is well underway and that the chances of QT backing off are very small.

I’m with the neighbors who are opposed, but I don’t like their chances of beating the Amazon of Kansas City.

**

Next we turn to the puzzling case of Waddell & Reed, the Overland Park-based, mutual fund company that is supposed to occupy an 18-story building under construction  at 14th and Baltimore. The news this week, however, was that Waddell & Reed is being acquired by an Australian company for $1.7 billion. The building’s developer, a firm affiliated with insurance magnate Michael A. Merriman, is in line to get about $100 million in city and state tax incentives, provided the project is completed and Waddell & Reed moves in.

Now, though, the company’s future is uncertain, and today The Kansas City Star published a story under this headline, “Kansas City says Waddell & Reed’s tower will be built. But will they actually move in?”

If and when it’s finished, this building is supposed to house 1,100 Waddell & Reed employees. (I took this photo from the corner of 14th and Wyandotte, looking southeast.) The glass building in the right background is the recently opened Loews convention hotel.

For its part, Waddell & Reed issued a statement that was not particularly encouraging: “We will be working with all the appropriate parties and reviewing plans closely, carefully and collaboratively and will provide updates over the coming weeks and months.”

My fear is we’ll end up with a half-built building that will be an eyesore for years. Remember what happened back in the mid-2000s when Bob Bernstein, of the marketing company Bernstein-Rein, tried and failed to construct The West Edge on the Country Club Plaza? The unfinished project sat vacant for several years until VanTrust real estate bought it in 2010, tore it down and started over on a new building that it leases to the Polsinelli law firm. The project ended up as a big winner, but it sure caused a lot of angst and hand wringing while in limbo.

The last thing Downtown needs is a white elephant next to the convention center on one side and the new Loews convention hotel on another.

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Posted in Uncategorized | 17 Comments

17 Responses

  1. on December 4, 2020 at 6:46 pm Mike Rice

    Why can’t Quik Trip build something Downtown or along Broadway? A Main Street location between Crown Center and 39th Street makes more sense than the 39th Street/Southwest Trafficway location. QT already has its expanded store on Westport Road and a smaller one at 31st and Southwest Boulevard. Why saturate an area that is already being served?


    • on December 4, 2020 at 6:57 pm jimmycsays

      Downtown would be great, but I don’t know that that’s in their M.O.


    • on December 4, 2020 at 7:32 pm Bill Hirt

      The Star article said that they can not build on Main St. because of it being on the new street car route. I agree building one at 39th and Southwest Trafficway would be a traffic nightmare.


  2. on December 4, 2020 at 6:54 pm bill roush

    A new QT station will bring more toxic, cancer-causing vapors, no renewable fuels and a non-LEED certified building. Doesn’t seem like progress.


  3. on December 5, 2020 at 10:38 am Pete Browne

    “I’m with the neighbors who are opposed, but I don’t like their chances”…???…. Don’t bet against Midtown’s resilience Jimmy!


    • on December 5, 2020 at 11:42 am jimmycsays

      That’s funny, Pete…With people like you in the field, the battle could be won.


  4. on December 5, 2020 at 12:48 pm jimmycsays

    Last night, my wife Patty made what might be the the strongest argument against putting a QT there: It would clash terribly with the tenor of the neighborhood, with its old, stately brick buildings and modest residences. The lights, the sounds, the commotion a QT would bring would be terribly disruptive.


    • on December 5, 2020 at 1:49 pm Tom Shrout

      You married a smart woman.


      • on December 5, 2020 at 2:41 pm jimmycsays

        I’ll pass that on, Tom…Patty will appreciate it.


    • on December 5, 2020 at 2:01 pm gayle

      Since when has such logic and consideration stopped developers??


      • on December 5, 2020 at 2:42 pm jimmycsays

        Right. Make way for the wrecking ball.


      • on December 6, 2020 at 1:40 am Edward E Scott

        That corner was a 24 hour mecca for ever with Nichols Fine Foods diner. (Many a newspaper man hung out there.) What is in that area now, and across the street? Not exactly family entertainment. QT will be a civic upgrade, plus tax-generating businesses are hard to come by. Traffic will figure itself out. Pollyanna Pulitzer to Jimmycsez on this one.


  5. on December 6, 2020 at 10:12 am jimmycsays

    Our correspondent from western Overland Park weighs in.


  6. on December 8, 2020 at 9:52 am John Blakeney

    Pollyanna Pulitzer…Wow, that’s a new one!


  7. on December 8, 2020 at 9:53 am John Blakeney

    I hate to bring it up, but how is that new single-terminal airport coming?


  8. on December 8, 2020 at 9:54 am John Blakeney

    How about a status check on that new single-terminal airport.


  9. on December 9, 2020 at 8:41 am mikaelnelson

    >What is in that area now, and across the street? Not exactly family entertainment.

    Oof. Homophobia in the year of our lord 2020.



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