KANSAS CITY, MO-Atlas Properties, based in Fort Worth, TX, is asking local residents here what kind of mixed-use development they would like to see on the historic Pabst-Pendergast site. The company bought the property at auction for just more than $1 million, from the estate of the late developer Tom Levitt.
Atlas now owns the 105,700-square-foot Pabst-Pendergast building, and two parking lots in the Crossroads Arts District here. The building, at 21st and Central, is the former site of the Pabst Saloon, Pendergast Liquors and the Pabst Brewery warehouse operated by Tom Pendergast. According to Atlas, the site was used as a bootlegging headquarters during Prohibition, and the buildings share connected floors, hidden rooms and secret tunnels.
Levitt had planned a $17.8 million redevelopment of the site into retail and office space, but he died suddenly in September 2009, right after he earned about $4 million in TIF funds for the property from the city. Atlas now has a right to those funds for its project, as well as state and federal historic tax credits that total 45% of qualified redevelopment costs.
The company has set up a Web site to gain community feedback for the redevelopment, www.pabstpendergast.com. "We think there is a great opportunity to redevelop these large buildings into something really special that everyone can benefit from and support," says Atlas on its site. "We want to get as much input from as many people as possible." A checkbox questionnaire on the Web site asks visitors to select if they want residential (or affordable housing), office, industrial, or a mixed-use with retail.
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