Where Downtown's next ground-up luxury apartment tower stands 11 months from planned opening
During the next 11 months, the growing mass of concrete and steel northeast of Main Street and Truman Road is scheduled to complete its transformation into Downtown's next ground-up luxury apartment high-rise.
As of this week, construction on The Cordish Cos.' $140 million Three Light apartment tower is almost halfway finished. Crews from Kansas City-based general contractor JE Dunn Construction recently completed the pour for the building's 16th floor and, as of this week, were framing that level.
Workers are pouring a new floor every nine days, and have started exterior glass installation for Three Light's lobby level — a task scheduled to be complete for the entire building in March, said John Moncke, president of the Kansas City Power & Light District, which Cordish developed.
"We are extremely pleased with the progress we've made on Three Light — currently at 48% complete with construction and 15% leased — and are eager for its grand opening one year from now in September 2023," he said.
Three Light broke ground in August 2021, with 288 units planned across 19 residential floors above a seven-story, 472-space parking garage. The tower's residences will range from just under 400 square feet for the smallest studios to 2,300 square feet for a three-bedroom penthouse.
The building will sport a jazz motif, with black and white piano keys, warm wood tones and bold brass notes, across more than 30,000 square feet of planned indoor and outdoor amenity space. Three Light also will include 7,600 square feet of ground-floor retail space.
During construction, Moncke said, "The team has avoided material shortages by preplanning and prepurchasing materials, and then storing them offsite until they are needed. This has significantly helped reduce delays in the construction timeline."
About 450 people are expected to call Three Light home — and precedent at Cordish's One and Two Light towers suggests that many will be new to Downtown. Those buildings opened in 2015 and 2018, respectively.
Moncke said more than 50% of residents across the Baltimore-based developer's multifamily buildings historically have moved in from outside of the Kansas City metro.
"Three Light is a sign of the continued growth and positive energy in downtown Kansas City and we look forward to welcoming hundreds of new residents to Downtown next year," he said. "We anticipate a similar demographic to One Light and Two Light residents that will make Three Light their home."
As work progresses on Three Light, project momentum in its immediate vicinity stands to benefit its soon-to-be residents, as well as those at other Cordish projects planned nearby.
These include the developer's conversion of the historic former Midland offices for 135 affordable apartments, and prospective Four Light tower in place of surface parking northwest of Main and Truman. Another future high-rise could be built at a different site Cordish previously considered for Four Light — in place of a vacant retail building northwest of 14th and Main streets.
Downtown stakeholders in April announced a formal planning start for a $160 million public park just to the south, atop at least four blocks of Interstate 670 between Wyandotte Street and Grand Boulevard. More recently, in September, a 1,400-person company — Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City — announced plans to move its headquarters to the 1400KC office building two blocks to the west by early 2025.
"People truly live here, work here and play here," Moncke said. "The addition of Blue Cross Blue Shield and other developments across the city only add to the excitement and vitality of the downtown Kansas City community."
Baltimore-based Hord Coplan Macht is the project's lead architect. RD Jones + Associates, a Baltimore-based interior design and architecture firm, and Selbert Perkins Design, a Playa del Rey, California-based design firm, also provided design services.
Taliaferro & Browne Inc., a Kansas City-based professional services firm, is serving as civil engineer.
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