Kevin Tubbesing, the Shawnee developer behind Stag’s Creek on Shawnee Mission Parkway, has just submitted a new project plan for downtown.
Tubbesing plans to build a 67-unit luxury apartment complex on 2.72 acres just east of Old Shawnee Pizza between Roger Road and Ballentine Avenue. He submitted those plans — which he unofficially named Stag’s Spring — to the Shawnee planning commission on Tuesday.
“There’s just a lot of energy moving forward towards this project,” he said. “We’ll be breaking ground as early as November on that.”
In a letter Sept. 9 to the Shawnee planning commission, Tubbesing said the 18-month process consolidating the site from six landowners has pushed his deadline for financing the project.
“This schedule has pushed the viability of this project to a timeline that cannot vary from the October 7th Planning Commission public hearing and October 28th City Council meeting,” Tubbesing wrote. “Should we not meet approvals at these meetings the financing package for the project fails and we will be forced to release our contracts with the property owners with the likely outcome that this area not redeveloping – at least with this quality of project.”
Tubbesing said the city is required to provide public notification of the project, but he and his team have already had “great” conversations with neighbors who would be affected by it.
The project team conducted a public meeting Aug. 21 with business and home owners in the project area, where they collected comments and concerns and made some changes based on that feedback, Tubbesing wrote in the letter. This included softening the facades of the apartment complex facing the neighbors along Ballentine, eliminating all parking areas on the east side and assuring neighbors they would manage lighting coming off the property.
He also plans to leave about an acre of green space on the site.
Stag’s Spring part of many changes coming downtown
The city is continuing to make its own investments downtown, which involve completely renovating the Nieman Road corridor — street infrastructure, underground utilities, bike lanes, sidewalks, green space and other amenities.
“With that process beginning, it was time for us to look again downtown to see if there was a way of capitalizing on the improvements that both we and the city have brought to that trade area,” Tubbesing said.
Tubbesing’s project would be located just north of a mixed-use project, which the city has dubbed a “catalyst site.” That project is in the planning and design stages. Another project coming downtown is McLain’s Market converting OK Garage into a bakery/restaurant.
“We’re very excited about continuing our improvements to Shawnee and especially the downtown district,” he said. “Downtown Shawnee has a bright future if it can actually have the consumers to shop at the commercial properties that already exist — albeit some of them that need to be improved — but until you actually get a concentration density of consumers down there to take advantage of the different shops and restaurants, downtown Shawnee will continue to have its struggles.
“We think that our project along with the catalyst site project will be the impetus for really kicking off the true rebirth of downtown Shawnee.”
The luxury housing project is just one of Tubbesing’s latest projects. He has another project in the works: A mixed-use development with multi-family and commercial components near Johnson Drive and Renner Road near I-435. He said the topography of the project area presents a challenge for developers like him because of its steep grades.
“We’re starting our conversations with the city to find out what’ll be viable on the property,” he added.
In 2015, Tubbesing began plans to redevelop part of the city’s east gateway. Those plans led to a $15 million redevelopment project that folds in Stag’s Creek, his new 35,000 square foot commercial building, as well as Andy’s Frozen Custard Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers, and the city’s work on Nieman Road and a channel shifting of Turkey Creek.
The Shawnee planning commission canceled its Sept. 16 meeting, so the soonest opportunity for the commission to review the luxury apartment project plans would be Oct. 7.
