Downtown shines One Light on residential growth - Downtown Council of Kansas City

Leaders of The Cordish Companies and Kansas City praised the progress made in Downtown during the past decade as the group broke ground on the $79 million One Light luxury apartment tower, The Kansas City Business Journal reported on Tuesday.

On Tuesday afternoon, Blake Cordish, vice president of the Baltimore-based entertainment district developer; Nick Benjamin, executive director of the Kansas City Power & Light District; Terry Dunn, CEO of the JE Dunn Construction Group;Kansas City Mayor Sly James; Bill Dietrich, CEO of the Downtown Council of Kansas City; and various members of Kansas City’s government and business community met at the corner of 13th and Walnut streets to commemorate the start of construction on the 25-story, 315-unit luxury apartment building.

One Light — scheduled to open in late 2015 — will become the first new residential tower built Downtown since the 32-story San Francisco building opened in Crown Center in 1976.

The Business Journal continued:

They hailed the progress made since the eight-block, $350 million entertainment district rose between 2005 and 2008 and said Kansas City can look forward to more progress in Downtown during the next decade.

“It is absolutely dumbfounding. It’s mystifying what’s gone on in the last 10 years,” Cordish said. “To sit here today and look up on world-class venues, great restaurants and hotels, and headquarter office buildings and arenas is something that we as a family and a company take enormous pride that we could just play a role in it.”

James said the credit for the success of the Power & Light District should go to former Mayor Kay Barnes, who spearheaded the development project. He said the tower — like his signature project, the 2.2-mile downtown streetcar— will serve Kansas City’s future residents and promote downtown development.

“Yes, sometimes the cost may be a little steep, but we pay those costs, and we are better for it,” James said. “But for the cost that we paid when Kay Barnes wanted to transform Downtown, we would be standing here at the door of a strip club.”