Levitt Estate To Auction 15 Downtown Sites

Levitt died from a short illness in September, just more than one month after the Tax Increment Financing Commission of Kansas City voted to provide almost $4 million in TIF funds one of his projects. Levitt, who had been president of Levitt Enterprises Inc., had planned to spend $17.8 million to redevelop a few of the century-old properties into 113,000 square feet of retail and office space. He was one of the leaders in attempts to rebuild the Freight District.

More TIF funds total about $9.3 million in potential TIF reimbursements, and all the Freight properties qualify for state and federal historic tax credits equal to 45% of qualified redevelopment costs, says Gib Kerr with the local office of Sperry Van Ness. The Freight sites are also within an Enhanced Enterprise Zone, and the Main properties are within an enhanced Enterprise Zone. "They are all adaptive reuse properties. They were industrial and manufacturing buildings, with rail service, the home of our manufacturing in the past century. Now this neighborhood is seeing urban revitalization, with properties being converted to office, residential, retail and mixed-use," Kerr tells GlobeSt.com. The properties also qualify for historic tax credits.

Sealed bids for the dual-bid auction are due April 29, with four of the properties to be sold with "no minimum or reserve, to the highest bidders," Kerr says. These four are deemed the most valuable properties, and include the 90,600-square-foot Pabst building at 2107 Central, the 15,100-square-foot Pendergast building at 2101 Central and a 34-space parking lot at 2114 Wyandotte (all to be sold as a package), as well as a 3,574-square-foot warehouse building at 2000 Washington.

The other Freight properties include the 43,650-square-foot Candle building at 2101 Broadway, the 21,825-square-foot Creamery building at 2100 Central, the 15,000-square-foot Jacobson building at 2030 Central and the 36,676-square-foot Columbia building at 2006 Wyandotte. The Main sites include the 38,164-square-foot Goodenow building at 3710 Main.