The Shawnee Planning Commission has approved plans to turn the former Wonderscope building into apartments.
It’s the latest attempt to redevelop the property at 5700 King St. in downtown Shawnee since the children’s museum moved out in 2020.
Previous plans to turn the site into apartments or townhomes have hit hurdles, and the building itself, listed as a historic property by the state of Kansas, has steadily decayed over the years and now stands vacant with chipped paint and boarded-up windows.
On Monday, the planning commission approved a new plan to preserve the brick-clad building that was originally Flint Elementary and turn it into nearly 40 apartments.
The planning commission’s vote was 6-0. Commissioners Bruce Bienhoff, Kevin Fox, David Aber and Greg Sitzmann were absent. Commissioner Leo Nunnink recused himself from the discussion.Â
Located just north of Splash Cove and east of Herman Laird Park, the old school and museum building will be preserved in accordance with the State Historical Preservation Office. Developers also plan to upgrade the property’s electrical system, parking and landscaping, among other improvements.
Because the property’s rezoning was already approved in 2021 for a previous townhomes plan, the planning commission’s vote is the final say on the matter.
A second phase of the project to build 14 new townhomes on the north and east ends of the property is expected to be taken up by the planning commission in January and was not part of Monday’s approval.
The applicant is listed as an entity called 5700 King Partners LLC.
The existing structure will be a key part of the property
The plan calls for converting the old Wonderscope building into a variety of nearly 40 apartments, which include:
- nine studio apartments at 400 square feet,
- 15 one-bedroom apartments at 600 square feet
- and 15 two-bedroom apartments at 750 square feet.
Rent will approximately be $900 for the studio apartments, $1,200 for the one-bedroom apartments and $1,800 for two bedrooms, Mike Belew, a partner for the project, said at the meeting.
“We looked at this as (something for) more of a younger adult … going new into their career, who want to be in an urban environment, who might be just starting a job, who can’t afford $3,000 or $4,000 a month in rent,” he said.
In order to be able to make the space safe and current for its future tenants, Belew said the partnership has spent about $400,000 so far on remediation efforts for identifying and getting rid of lead-based paints and asbestos.
The developer will also have to repair a “significant hole” in the building’s ceiling, as well as replace broken and boarded-up windows.
One of the hurdles will be keeping the building in line with the State Historical Preservation Office’s rules for a historic structure. Belew says they will have to maintain the brick exterior, as well as the window and door spaces of the existing building.
City documents say the developer plans to use state and federal tax credits meant to help incentivize the preservation of historic structures to help finance the building’s renovation.
They will also keep the drop-off area for the site that was once used for the museum and for the old Flint Elementary before that.
Areas of the building that were painted as part of Wonderscope, such as the wall mural and the chimney, will be repainted to match the existing brick color as closely as possible, Shawnee city documents stated.
The property has been vacant since 2020
The property was originally developed in the early 1950s as Flint Elementary, at a time when Shawnee had fewer than 1,000 residents.
The school remained in use for more than four decades, until merging with Blue Jacket Elementary in 1996, according to Shawnee city documents.
After that, the building was purchased for the Wonderscope Museum and operated there until 2020, when it relocated to the Red Bridge area of Kansas City, Missouri.
After Wonderscope moved out, a plan for a five-story apartment complex by Kansas City-based developer Sunflower in 2020 was rejected by the Shawnee City Council because enough councilmembers said it didn’t fit the character of the surrounding downtown neighborhood.
In 2021, a revised plan by Sunflower for 26 two-story townhome units over four separate buildings received unanimous approval by the city council, but the project never got off the ground because of budget issues.
Since then, the last public meeting on the property happened in 2023, when the Aztec Theatre downtown hosted a two-day event about the site, at which a 12-person panel, made up of real estate, municipal governance and construction experts, suggested turning the property into a boutique hotel and brownstone apartments.
Commissioners had a problem with parking
While the commissioners on Monday seemed satisfied with the new plan, they balked at the parking situation, which includes 51 parking spaces for up to 82 tenants, including the townhomes.
To deal with overflow traffic, tenants could also use several public parking lots in the immediate area, including Splash Cove, as well as on-street parking along the adjacent public streets, Shawnee city documents noted.
“I know (city staff) said that Splash Cove is only open three months out of the year, but that’s 90 days of hellacious parking during the day … People are going to have to park blocks away, and they’ll be cursing the project,” Commissioner Bill Holick said.
Commissioner John Hanson leveled similar concerns.
“This is surely going to bleed into the neighborhood, especially during summer and things of that nature,” he said.
Calming the commissioners’ fears, Doug Allmon, Shawnee’s community development director, said the abundance of parking in downtown Shawnee was meant to address problems like this.
“The downtown code is set up the way that it is for a specific reason. On-street parking counts. Public parking counts. The idea is the suburban design, and the suburban idea of having two spaces for each dwelling unit on the site simply doesn’t work in a more urban area like this,” he said.
Allmon said city staff have talked with the parks and recreation department, and they have no problem with parking lots at Splash Cove and nearby public park sites being used for spillover parking.
In addition, a place like Splash Cove has, at maximum, half its parking lot full unless there’s a special event, Allmon added.
“This is literally next to a parking lot that is underutilized. The same is true with Shawnee Town 1929 and the visitor’s center there. There’s probably 100 spots in that area, if you include Herman Laird (Park), where people can access the park through the bridge in a walking environment,” he said.
The planning commission supports the project
After Allmon’s comments, the planning commission seemed united in their support of the reuse plan for the building.
Won over by using a property that’s already there and not building something in addition to it, like a parking garage, Commissioner Genise Luecke gave the project her support.
“I don’t want to see any more green space go. I think that using what’s here is the way to go,” she said.
Having taken his kids to Wonderscope in the past, Holick said he’s happy to see someone finally do something with the space.
“We really wanted and needed that building to be refurbished and redone because it’s been sitting idle for way too long,” he said.
The project rental price of the proposed apartments helped persuade Hanson to support it.
“This is probably the first time I’ve been on the commission that we’ve actually presented something that somebody can afford who is out of college. So I don’t want to lose sight of that,” he said.
He added: “Even when we’re approving duplexes, it’s like, ‘Hey, they’re gonna be $3,000 to rent a month.’ And so I applaud the applicant for doing that, and I’m with everybody else on seeing where this is going to go.”
What’s next
The project will have a groundbreaking, tentatively set for March 2026.
The developer says they expect to be complete by spring 2027.
Go deeper: A hotel and apartments are possible for old Wonderscope site in downtown Shawnee
