Renovating the old Wonderscope building into a new boutique hotel and brownstone apartments is a realistic, viable option for blighted site near the downtown Shawnee.
That’s the main takeaway from a Kansas City real estate panel, which threw out a few recommendations for how the City of Shawnee should approach the future of the old museum and former elementary school.
Located at 5700 King St., just north of Splash Cove, the building was up for proposed townhomes two years ago after the Shawnee City Council tossed out plans for a 5-story apartment complex. The developer never built the townhomes, saying the project was financially non-viable, and the site has sat vacant, becoming subject to vandalism and overgrown weeds.
ULI Kansas City recently conducted a two-day technical assistance panel on developments in Shawnee and discussed their suggestions for 5700 King St. at a public forum on Thursday at the Aztec Shawnee Theater.
Here are the key takeaways from the discussion.
The Shawnee Chamber hosted the panel
While the site has been sitting dormant since 2020, the Shawnee Chamber of Commerce thought it would beneficial for the 12-person panel, made up of real estate, city government and construction experts, to weigh in on how it could be used in the future.
“It’s just a really great way to get a wide swath of really top-notch, talented individuals to get fresh eyes on it,” said Ann Smith-Tate, chamber president.
The group praised the growth Shawnee has made in the past five years. It also focused on the importance of continuing to bring in businesses to downtown Shawnee, with the Wonderscope site being an anchor.
Building apartments at the site is a no-go
Trying avoid the failure of two projects planned for the site, ULI wanted to take an approach that met in the middle: Demolish the old building and construct a three-story apartment building consisting of 90 units.
Ultimately, the panel saw it as non-viable because it would need more density to drive down the high costs of construction, as well as high interest rates.
“You look at what the cost is to construct, you’re then trying to balance that with revenue that you can generate from that … Really, after 90 units, it’s just it’s not sufficient,” said Chip Walsh, founder of the consulting firm Mercier Street LLC.
The panel suggested a hotel and brownstone apartments
Instead of getting rid of the Wonderscope building, the panel suggested rehabilitating it into a 48-room hotel and constructing two-story brownstone apartments along the north and east side of the property. The project would cost an estimated $14.8 million.
The panel acknowledged it will be a costly project, as the building has problems that need to be addressed, such as asbestos, lead paint and vandalism.
“There’s ways that we can kind of make that work that maybe this becomes a more viable option financially,” said Travis Wilson, owner of Veritas Architecture + Design.
They said those costs can be deferred through tax programs like the New Market Tax Credit and the Historic Tax Credit.
When approaching the future of the site, the panel looked at what would fit with the surrounding neighborhoods.
“It feels like maybe we’re hitting a sweet spot, right? We’re not doing townhomes that are only like 20 units and didn’t quite work. And we’re not doing 200-plus units. We’re more like in the 30 to 40 type of range,” Wilson said.
Parking would be addressed with the building’s existing parking lot, as well as angled spots in front of the brownstone properties.
Residents have questions about its viability
After the forum, the panel answered a variety of questions from the audience.
The queries ranged from why they couldn’t build a grocery store like Trader Joe’s on the property to what will happen with traffic.
While property owner Caroline Boyd said she’s excited at the prospect of new development, she worried that the panel didn’t hear enough opinions from neighbors of the site.
“I appreciate you talking with businesses, but are you actually talking to the owners of these structures that face Johnson Drive?” she said to the panel.
The chamber will see final recommendations next month
During the forum, the panel reassured the audience that the discussion was the first of many talks.
Smith-Tate said the chamber will get a final written report in the next month and decide how it will proceed.
“I think we’ll just have to really kind of sit and walk through that study and say, ‘You know, where can we take some of this information? What is an easy-win, next step? What are the long term things and how do we start?'” she said.
The chamber is taking public suggestions
“We still want to go through this process. We still want to get some ideas,” Smith-Tate said.
On top of that, she said it was nice hearing from outsiders the progress Shawnee has made and what it can do in the future.
“[This panel] was beyond the building, but just the connectivity to the rest of downtown,” she said. “So that was part of our goal today is to better understand that as well.”
Recent Wonderscope news: Shawnee community to discuss future of old Wonderscope site
