The Roeland Park City Council has unanimously approved the final development plan for the roughly $75 million mixed-use development at The Rocks site, 4800 W. Roe Blvd., where the city pool was located decades ago.
Here’s what’s in it
The project’s plans call for:
- a 280-unit apartment complex as the plan’s centerpiece, of which at least 5% of the units will be set aside as “affordable” for renters making at or below 60% of the average median income in the Kansas City area.
- a 3,500-square foot restaurant, possibly with an outdoor dining space and a private-public plaza,
- a parking garage for residents,
- electric vehicle charging stations
- and fitness facilities and other amenities.
A dedicated right-turn lane, called for by a traffic study, will be added at the developer’s expense at the south end of Roe Parkway at 48th Street, City Administrator Keith Moody said at Monday’s council meeting.
That work is expected to occur in 2024 and 2025.
Ground could be broken later this year
The developer, Overland Park-based EPC Real Estate Group LLC, plans to break ground in the third quarter of this year and complete the project by the end of 2025, according to council documents.
Due diligence is planned for April and closing for June 1, City Attorney Steve Mauer said in a December council meeting.
At that same meeting, the council unanimously approved EPC’s request for $19 million in public tax incentives.
The public incentives package includes:
- $16.4 million in tax increment financing, or TIF, over 20 years,
- $1 million in community improvement district, or CID, proceeds over 22 years through an additional 2% sales tax within the district
- and $1.5 million in industrial revenue bonds over two to three years that will exempt the developer from sales tax on the project’s construction materials.
Question about heating and cooling system
EPC is seeking Green Globes certification for the project, a voluntary certification subject to third-party assessment.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency describes Green Globes as “a series of rating and certification systems that encourage improved environmental and health performance for all types of buildings except residential structures.”
Ward 4 Councilmember Michael Rebne asked City Administrator Keith Moody whether the council would have the authority to approve the project’s heating, ventilation and cooling, or HVAC system, which is often the primary source of a building’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Moody said the city wouldn’t. If the project’s building plans comply with the city’s adopted building regulations, then the plans won’t return to the council for its review and approval, Moody said.
But EPC Executive Vice President Brendon O’Leary assured the city council Monday that EPC would use electricity — and not gas — to power the project’s HVAC system.
“We’ve always done all-electric heating and cooling,” O’Leary said. “So, we won’t have natural gas heating for the units. But as we work through the process with the city and with the Green Globes. We just haven’t gotten to that stage of the process yet.”
The project’s long history
Roeland Park has actively sought development agreements for The Rocks site since 2017.
In 2018, after a developer showed some interest, the city council dropped plans for a restaurant, hotel and adventure course on the site.
Last year, despite the city signing off on a land sale agreement, a plan with Sunflower Development Group also did not come to fruition.
Jerry LaMartina is a freelance journalist who contributes frequently to the Shawnee Mission Post and other Kansas City-area publications. He can be reached at lamartina.jerry@gmail.com.
