Page 1 of 1

Two Light (24 story apartment in KC)

Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2015 8:54 am
by Greg S
2nd apartment tower going up in KC. According to this article, KC now has 21,000 downtown residents and another 5,000 on the way.

http://www.kansascity.com/news/business ... 76980.html


Greg

Re: Two Light (24 story apartment in KC)

Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2015 9:26 am
by RNcyanide
Oh come on. It was mentioned earlier about how all the five story apartment buildings downtown were a good thing, but I'd gladly trade in a few of those for one of these.

Re: Two Light (24 story apartment in KC)

Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2015 1:49 pm
by Linkin5
RNcyanide wrote:Oh come on. It was mentioned earlier about how all the five story apartment buildings downtown were a good thing, but I'd gladly trade in a few of those for one of these.
Those towers aren't worth the crappy financial situation they are in with Cordish.

Re: Two Light (24 story apartment in KC)

Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2015 2:27 pm
by MadMartin8
Linkin5 wrote:
RNcyanide wrote:Oh come on. It was mentioned earlier about how all the five story apartment buildings downtown were a good thing, but I'd gladly trade in a few of those for one of these.
Those towers aren't worth the crappy financial situation they are in with Cordish.

In reference to P&L? Or are there more craptastic dealings where the city is paying an arm and a leg now?

Re: Two Light (24 story apartment in KC)

Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2015 3:07 pm
by Linkin5
MadMartin8 wrote:
Linkin5 wrote:
RNcyanide wrote:Oh come on. It was mentioned earlier about how all the five story apartment buildings downtown were a good thing, but I'd gladly trade in a few of those for one of these.
Those towers aren't worth the crappy financial situation they are in with Cordish.

In reference to P&L? Or are there more craptastic dealings where the city is paying an arm and a leg now?
In reference to P&L, Cordish got the craziest best deal ever when they planned P&L, you can look back and see how desparate KC was at the time to try and spur development downtown. As well, you can see how absolutely wrong they were on how much sales tax P&L would renovate, even now at the area's height it is drastically lower than they had predicted.

Re: Two Light (24 story apartment in KC)

Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2015 4:03 pm
by RNcyanide
I guess that's true. I'd be stunned to see that kind of financial clusterfůck happen here.

Re: Two Light (24 story apartment in KC)

Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2015 12:03 pm
by Greg S
Actually we kind of did. Look at the initial funding of Qwest Center Omaha and the promises, along with the intial funding vs now.

Greg

Re: Two Light (24 story apartment in KC)

Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2015 5:48 pm
by Linkin5
Greg S wrote:Actually we kind of did. Look at the initial funding of Qwest Center Omaha and the promises, along with the intial funding vs now.

Greg
There's a pretty big difference between a civic project like the arena and the P&L, apples and oranges.

Re: Two Light (24 story apartment in KC)

Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2015 10:59 am
by Greg S
Linkin5 wrote:
Greg S wrote:Actually we kind of did. Look at the initial funding of Qwest Center Omaha and the promises, along with the intial funding vs now.

Greg
There's a pretty big difference between a civic project like the arena and the P&L, apples and oranges.

My point was on the financial cluster... KC is spending millions in tax dollars that they were told they would not have to. Omaha is spending millions in tax dollars from the general fund that we were promised we would not have to.

Even knowing this, I think both projects were good for their respective cities.

Greg

Re: Two Light (24 story apartment in KC)

Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2015 12:17 pm
by Linkin5
Greg S wrote:
Linkin5 wrote:
Greg S wrote:Actually we kind of did. Look at the initial funding of Qwest Center Omaha and the promises, along with the intial funding vs now.

Greg
There's a pretty big difference between a civic project like the arena and the P&L, apples and oranges.

My point was on the financial cluster... KC is spending millions in tax dollars that they were told they would not have to. Omaha is spending millions in tax dollars from the general fund that we were promised we would not have to.

Even knowing this, I think both projects were good for their respective cities.

Greg
No, KC knew they would be paying millions in bonds for this project, they just thought that the taxes from sales and business would offset those.

Re: Two Light (24 story apartment in KC)

Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2015 2:34 pm
by Greg S
That's exactly my point. In both cases, the proposed funding mechanisms failed by millions and the taxpayers (city) general funds had to make up the difference.

Greg

Re: Two Light (24 story apartment in KC)

Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2015 4:09 pm
by Linkin5
I guess I'm failing to see how you are likening a city financing a civic arena which attracts events, spurs development, generates more customers for local businesses and a private retail/restaurant development.

Re: Two Light (24 story apartment in KC)

Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2015 6:43 pm
by Greg S
For me, 2 large projects that were meant to generate downtown growth. Both in the hundreds of millions. Both had bonds issued. Both promised that the mechanisms laid out at time of proposal would cover the costs of the bonds and make the payments, without additional taxpayer help. Both turned out to need millions in taxpayer help for years.

Both failed to generate the funds needed to make the bond payments. Both depended heavily on generating additional sales taxes and revenues in the surrounding development to help pay for them and these projections fell tremendously short.

Greg

Re: Two Light (24 story apartment in KC)

Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2015 11:05 pm
by Linkin5
Greg S wrote:For me, 2 large projects that were meant to generate downtown growth. Both in the hundreds of millions. Both had bonds issued. Both promised that the mechanisms laid out at time of proposal would cover the costs of the bonds and make the payments, without additional taxpayer help. Both turned out to need millions in taxpayer help for years.

Both failed to generate the funds needed to make the bond payments. Both depended heavily on generating additional sales taxes and revenues in the surrounding development to help pay for them and these projections fell tremendously short.

Greg
The difference is with P&L you can exact the sales and property taxes paid. With Centurylink, the taxes made off of new businesses and extra sales from surrounding businesses is a lot harder to quantify.

Simply put, P&L was/is a financial nightmare for KC no matter how popular it is,Clink is NOT.

Re: Two Light (24 story apartment in KC)

Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2015 10:27 pm
by S33
If my math is correct (and I'm no math scientist), this development generates roughly 5 million dollars annually toward the general fund, but requires nearly 20 million dollars to exist, mainly from paying debts.

If this is true, this isn't a cluster |expletive|, this seems like a developer and their cohorts either duped city leaders, and/or worked in collusion the screw the tax payers. The numbers seem too far off to blame it on incompetence. Instead of reaching solvency at their promised 25yr goal, they wont reach it for 100 years.

That is getting bent over a stool and someone driving a Volkswagen up your |expletive|.

Re: Two Light (24 story apartment in KC)

Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2015 8:57 am
by Greg S
Linkin5 wrote:
Greg S wrote:For me, 2 large projects that were meant to generate downtown growth. Both in the hundreds of millions. Both had bonds issued. Both promised that the mechanisms laid out at time of proposal would cover the costs of the bonds and make the payments, without additional taxpayer help. Both turned out to need millions in taxpayer help for years.

Both failed to generate the funds needed to make the bond payments. Both depended heavily on generating additional sales taxes and revenues in the surrounding development to help pay for them and these projections fell tremendously short.

Greg
The difference is with P&L you can exact the sales and property taxes paid. With Centurylink, the taxes made off of new businesses and extra sales from surrounding businesses is a lot harder to quantify.

Simply put, P&L was/is a financial nightmare for KC no matter how popular it is,Clink is NOT.

Clink's numbers were off by millions right from the start. Within a couple years we were back down at the legislature trying to redo them. I went to a couple of the community meetings when they were selling it. They kept insisting that there was no way money would ever come from the general fund to help with the bond payments. Might have been hard to quantify, but the numbers never even came close to what was promised. How are the millions KC is having to spend that they were not supposed to a nightmare, but the millions Omaha is spending that they were not supposed to not a nightmare?

Greg

Re: Two Light (24 story apartment in KC)

Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2015 9:37 am
by iamjacobm
KC is paying off an arena too.

Re: Two Light (24 story apartment in KC)

Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2015 9:40 am
by iamjacobm
I think the biggest issue with P&L is that the city is paying over $10 million a year to the development while Cordish continues to get their profits off of it. No one is getting rich off of CLC or Sprint, there are people in Baltimore getting a portion of their income supplemented by the people of KC for P&L.

Re: Two Light (24 story apartment in KC)

Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2015 1:52 pm
by MadMartin8
Greg S wrote:
Linkin5 wrote:
Greg S wrote:For me, 2 large projects that were meant to generate downtown growth. Both in the hundreds of millions. Both had bonds issued. Both promised that the mechanisms laid out at time of proposal would cover the costs of the bonds and make the payments, without additional taxpayer help. Both turned out to need millions in taxpayer help for years.

Both failed to generate the funds needed to make the bond payments. Both depended heavily on generating additional sales taxes and revenues in the surrounding development to help pay for them and these projections fell tremendously short.

Greg
The difference is with P&L you can exact the sales and property taxes paid. With Centurylink, the taxes made off of new businesses and extra sales from surrounding businesses is a lot harder to quantify.

Simply put, P&L was/is a financial nightmare for KC no matter how popular it is,Clink is NOT.

Clink's numbers were off by millions right from the start. Within a couple years we were back down at the legislature trying to redo them. I went to a couple of the community meetings when they were selling it. They kept insisting that there was no way money would ever come from the general fund to help with the bond payments. Might have been hard to quantify, but the numbers never even came close to what was promised. How are the millions KC is having to spend that they were not supposed to a nightmare, but the millions Omaha is spending that they were not supposed to not a nightmare?

Greg

How often do Arena projections ever hit the mark, honest question as I am curious? How often do Civic sites/venues not need public assistance in building and financing them? Most people worth their weight knew it was a marketing tactic and new a restructing was coming... but are happy to have it anyways because of what it does for the city. The Centurylink Center has a huge economic impact to the city, and I'm happy to pay for it. Without it, we don't have Swim Trials, NCAA Events, concerts...anything.

The P&L isn't a Civic center. Kansas City is bearing the burden and Cordish is reaping the rewards... with the CLC, Omaha is bearing a burden but also reaping the rewards.

Re: Two Light (24 story apartment in KC)

Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2015 2:02 pm
by iamjacobm
The closest thing for Omaha to P&L would be the city backed Hilton hotel.

Re: Two Light (24 story apartment in KC)

Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2015 11:35 am
by Greg S
P and L has been a big catalyst for DT KC and works so well with the Sprint Center. When I go to events there or in Lincoln at PBA, you've got options right outside. At CLC Omaha, it's not the case. Usually we drive somewhere else.

TD Ameritrade Park seems to be hitting it's financing numbers. Sprint Center in KC as well....

Look, I'm not saying we should not have built CLC (I'm a huge fan). My point was when people say Omaha would never screw up financial projects on a large city backed project, I think that is not true. I'm glad we built CLC, it's just a fact that the projections and mechanisms that were touted before it was built failed miserably. Knowing that, I still would have built it. I do wish though, we had something like P and L in Omaha (even if we had to subsidize it) or even what has developed around PBA in Lincoln.

Greg

Re: Two Light (24 story apartment in KC)

Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2015 11:39 am
by Greg S
With all of the development around P and L, KC is reaping rewards. If you look at downtown KC 10 years ago vs now. Their housing is skyrocketing. Downtown KC was a ghost town after dark 10 years ago. That's not the case anymore.


Greg

Re: Two Light (24 story apartment in KC)

Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2015 1:40 pm
by MadMartin8
it's just a fact that the projections and mechanisms that were touted before it was built failed miserably
I believe the original plan was to pay it off using just sales taxes and parking fees, correct? Then as those shortfalls appear property taxes needed to be used?

The Sprint Center raised taxes on hotels and car rentals to pay off the Sprint Center from the start. We didn't try something similar until...er...2010 or 2008? Lincoln had a restaraunt tax to finance partly theirs. (I could be wrong here, feel free to correct as needed)

To me, I knew taxes were going to be raised one way or another, those arenas just did it before we did. Why in the world does it rustle people's jimmies so much that Omaha had to do the same just later on? Was not raising taxes the only reason people who are still burned on the fiancing issue voted for the arena in the first place?
Greg S wrote: I do wish though, we had something like P and L in Omaha (even if we had to subsidize it) or even what has developed around PBA in Lincoln.

Greg

That's what we're getting with Shamrock...if it ever is built. Wouldn't surprise me if they try to get that subsidized too.

Re: Two Light (24 story apartment in KC)

Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2015 3:42 pm
by Greg S
The big thing on the Clink was the city's general fund was not going to be used, it was stated over and over that the financing and payback on this project were solid. It was a big deal then, no property taxes would be used. Again, either way I am glad it was built.

Totally agree on Shamrock. Of all of the proposed projects in Omaha now, I think it is far and away the most important, and needs to be done right the first time. It will really get that area moving closer to it's potential.



Greg

Re: Two Light (24 story apartment in KC)

Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2016 9:36 am
by Greg S
The 24 story Two Light apartment tower has broken ground with a scheduled opening in March of 2018:

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/n ... rings.html


Greg

Re: Two Light (24 story apartment in KC)

Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2016 3:57 pm
by RNcyanide
*sigh*

One day...

Re: Two Light (24 story apartment in KC)

Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2016 5:22 pm
by U R my Helix
One light and soon two light have some of the very best photography and CGI tours for a new development you may ever see. Worth looking at even if you are not moving to KC. Here is the video show https://youtu.be/5fQ7bDRZyp8
http://onelightkc.com/

Re: Two Light (24 story apartment in KC)

Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2016 8:26 am
by iamjacobm
Here is a rendering of 2 Light with the future 3 Light and 4 Light behind it.

Image

Re: Two Light (24 story apartment in KC)

Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2016 8:35 am
by Greg S
I was just in KC earlier this week. Three Light is supposed to break ground before Two Light is completed in a couple years. They are also going to be testing their light rail cars again this weekend.

Greg

Re: Two Light (24 story apartment in KC)

Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2016 4:08 pm
by NEDodger
Very cool!

Re: Two Light (24 story apartment in KC)

Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2016 12:18 am
by RockHarbor
Wow....That's awesome. I love KC. I've watched the first tower of that set go up. I have pictures of it.

KC is just a great town and urban accomplishment on the plains & prairies of the West. I think that now because last summer I was in NYC, and eventually drove back to Omaha, passing through St. Louis and KC on the way. Getting into town, and seeing the skyline, I was reminded it has urban elements of the East incorporated into it (for example, the old art deco skyscrapers are much like ones you see in NYC, ect). Still, it is a very "Midwest Town", too. It took me a long time to get out to KC from NYC (of course), as it sits far out on the edge of the Great Plains. So, I had this real sense of the "Manifest Destiny" of the USA, thinking about how people moved west, and started new cities on the continent, and brought the "East" with them.

Re: Two Light (24 story apartment in KC)

Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2017 11:19 am
by Greg S

Re: Two Light (24 story apartment in KC)

Posted: Tue May 08, 2018 2:35 pm
by Greg S
It's completed. Cool slide show:

https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/ ... /434343/30



Greg

Re: Two Light (24 story apartment in KC)

Posted: Sat Jan 11, 2020 4:44 pm
by strangerthings
Building leased up well sooner then expected. Two Light currently sits at a 97-98% occupancy rate which is considered well above full occupancy.