A Kansas City, Missouri-based developer is putting together an application to turn the former Mission Bowl site, 5399 Martway Street, into a five-story, 160-unit apartment complex.
Sunflower Development Group and the city of Mission hosted a virtual neighborhood meeting to discuss preliminary Mission Bowl redevelopment plans on Monday evening. Banks Floodman, Sunflower’s director of business development, said Sunflower takes pride in the redevelopment of existing buildings such as the Mission Bowl site.
“We try to take an area that might be considered a little blighted in some shape or form and try to bring it up to the standards that the community and neighborhoods expect,” Floodman said. “We anticipate and have the objective of doing the exact same thing with this development.”
If approved, Floodman said he expects construction to last between 16 and 18 months. Below are some of details of and amenities intended to be included in the apartment complex:
- A pool deck and a hot tub
- A club house and theaters
- Studios, one and two bedroom apartments
- Rent ranging from $975 to $1,800 monthly
- Individual work stations to accommodate working from home
- A dog park, which may be opened up to non-apartment residents (to be determined).
Several Mission residents provided feedback and asked questions about the initial plans, including resident Ben Chociej who lives directly behind the potential redevelopment. While Chociej realizes it will be close to backyards, he said he thinks city staff and the developer are willing to address resident concerns and he’s excited to see new energy in the area.
Other residents like Lynda Hurt said she was concerned about the overall area. With Mission Gateway construction paused and 15-year-old vacant buildings like the former Wild Oats Grocery Store at 5101 Johnson Drive, Hurt said she’s worried there won’t be anything to draw in occupants.
“I’m concerned all this work will go into this apartment complex and nobody is going to want to live here because this end of town has not been updated,” Hurt Said.
Sunflower intends to purchase the property from current Mission Mart owner Steve Choikhit, who came into ownership of the Mission Bowl property in December 2019. Choikhit said he is excited about the apartment complex, which he said will complement the retail and commercial area well. Sunflower plans to keep the complex residential only, not having commercial property for rent of the first floor.
The timeline for the project is tentative, but if Sunflower submits an application by mid-July, the project could be on the Planning Commission’s August 24 agenda. The Planning Commission would then make a recommendation to the City Council, which could consider approval of the project as early as September 2020.
