After several months of overcoming topographical challenges along Rainbow Boulevard, a three-entity development team finally will begin site work on a now $64 million, 228-unit luxury apartment project near the University of Kansas Health System campus.
For LANE4 Property Group, Hunt Midwest and KU Endowment, the most challenging and time-consuming part of The Hudson project was deciding how to move forward with the west side due to a cliff and a lot of trees to conserve, said Brenner Holland, senior vice president for Hunt Midwest.
“(We realized) it just didn’t make financial sense and the time it would take to keep going at the cliff, so we’ve had to work around that,” Holland said. “So to take advantage of that topography, as it slopes from south to north, our entry into the garage and into the building is on that north side. It was just the most efficient way to build and get the number of units that we wanted to get and keep parking secure.”
On top of the two-story garage, the complex will have five floors of apartments ranging from studios to two-bedrooms. The complex will include a boutique hotel-style lobby, a 24-hour fitness center, pet-friendly spaces, bicycle amenities and a business center with conference rooms.
On the fifth floor, the developers will include a club room that opens onto an outdoor terrace with a view of the Kansas City skyline.
The Hudson also will feature an outdoor swimming pool surrounded by a plaza with a firepit, grilling stations, wet bar and TV area.
The project expects to start leasing by the summer of 2025.
“The hospital campus has really emerged as one of the most important economic development nodes in the region,” said Mike Berenbom, managing partner for LANE4. “So much has happened around that campus in the last 30 years, but this will be the first new Class A housing in this corridor, and with the Unified Government and with the university in the hospital, I think this will be a great experience and the right product for this area.”
Earlier this month, the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas, approved the developers’ request to add $16 million to its approved bond capacity to help finance acquiring, building, improving and equipping the complex. Previously, the cap on industrial revenue bonds was $48 million.
Alongside the developers, Security Bank is the financier; BRR Architecture Inc. — which acquired Studio A Architecture last fall — is the architect; MW Builders is the general contractor; and Olsson is the civil engineer.
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