Mission: On May 1, 2000 there were approximately 10,000 citizens residing in housing in Kansas City’s Central Business District (CBD). The Heartland Apartment Association (HAA) believes that more downtown residents are necessary to help ensure the viability of the CBD and to make it possible for retail to succeed. The HAA has launched an initiative to help increase the CBD 24-hour population to 20,000 residents as quickly as possible. This initiative involves the development of a specific plan that will promote the creation of additional housing stock in the central core and attract residents to occupy it. The initiative will also determine a date by which the increase population goal is to be achieved.

Subcommittee: The HAA CBD Housing Initiative Subcommittee shall be comprised of the following individuals:

R. Lee Harris - Cohen-Esrey Real Estate Services Inc.

Jerry Miller - Signature Real Estate Services, Inc.

Chris Erdley - Tower Properties Inc.

Sam Alpert - HAA Executive Director

Fact Finding: Several fact-finding steps must be undertaken to include the following:

Determine more precisely the number of people living downtown on a year-by-year basis through the 1990s.

Determine the number of housing units in inventory in the CBD on a year-by-year basis through the 1990s.

Calculate the absorption rate on a year-by-year basis for downtown housing through the 1990s.

Identify other cities with significant and strong downtown housing markets and determine how they have succeeded.

Prepare a map of all public (city or county-owned) parking facilities in the CBD.

Develop financial models that demonstrate the need for public assistance to create an adequate number of new CBD housing units.

Hold a half-day brainstorm roundtable with a variety of interested parties including:

Mayor Kay Barnes

HAA representatives

Chamber of Commerce representatives

Urban housing developers (JPI, Habitat, etc.)

Kansas City Business Journal representatives

Midwest Real Estate News representatives

Potential Initiative Components: There are a number of potential components that should be studied by the subcommittee and incorporated into the final recommendation as appropriate.

Building Codes and Plan Review - the plan review and building permit process needs to be expedited and there needs to be more flexibility relative to codes interpretation and enforcement. Consideration should be given to the city outsourcing this function to a credible, independent third party.

Parking - the city should consider agreeing to allow any multi-family housing project (new or renovation) that is located within a certain distance from a city/county-owned parking facility, to capture a certain number of parking spaces in that facility for use by apartment residents. The apartment community or residents will pay for the spaces.

Subsidies - in all probability, it will be necessary for an apartment developer to receive some form of subsidy in order to create a product that is affordable. Subsidies could take the following forms:

Property tax abatement - properties could be excused from paying property taxes.

Davis-Bacon - apartment developers could be exempt from Davis-Bacon requirements on CBD housing projects.

Earnings tax abatement - residents could be attracted to the apartment properties through an abatement of the Kansas City earnings tax. This abatement could last for a number of years after which time it could be phased in once a property is stabilized.

Tobacco money - a portion of the tobacco settlement money could be earmarked for loans and/or grants toward the development of new or renovated CBD housing.

Casino money - a portion of the taxes generated by Kansas City, Missouri casinos could be earmarked for loans and/or grants toward the development of new or renovated CBD housing.

Revolving Housing Equity Fund - the HAA and the local apartment industry should explore establishing strategic alliances that will create a revolving housing equity fund for use by qualified CBD housing. Financial support for this could come from a number of large downtown companies such as Commerce Bank, UMB, Bank of America, DST, Kansas City Southern Industries, Transamerica and other large employers.

Mixed-Use Development - the HAA and the local apartment industry should explore establishing strategic alliances that will create a framework for complementary mixed-use developments.

District Scale Projects - the HAA and the local apartment industry should explore establishing strategic alliances that will package district scale projects.

Large National Urban Housing Developer - the CBD housing initiative must not only promote the renovation of existing office and warehouse buildings for housing use, but also encourage the development of larger scale new construction projects. This will probably require the recruitment of a large national developer that has experience in developing bigger apartment communities in central core environments.