The City of Lee’s Summit could support up to 2,300 additional market rate apartments over the next decade beyond existing supply or projects in the pipeline, according to a 2017 multi-family housing study commissioned by the Lee’s Summit City Council and conducted by Vogt Strategic Insights.
“Lee’s Summit continues to see strong activity and interest in multi-family construction, and this study will help inform the city’s economic development decisions as it considers future projects,” Ryan Elam, director of the Lee’s Summit Development Center, said in a release.
Multi-family construction in Lee’s Summit dried up after the 2008 housing crisis but saw signs of life in 2016 when NorthPoint Development opened The Residences at New Longview, a 309-unit, luxury apartment community that saw the developer’s fastest lease-up to date.
“New Longview’s success essentially became a proof-of-concept for Lee’s Summit multi-family development, leading to a sharp uptick in permits and proposed projects,” said Lee’s Summit Economic Development Council President Rick McDowell. “In 2016, the city approved five new apartment complexes, for a total of more than 1,400 living units.”
The study found that Lee’s Summit’s existing market is very strong with a 98.4 percent occupancy rate, with about 30 percent of renters coming from outside the area. In addition to identifying strong capacity for market-rate apartment development, the study found that Lee’s Summit could support up to 503 additional units of age-restricted housing, as well as up to 400 additional units of affordable apartments.
To conduct the study, Vogt Strategic Insights completed a field survey of 27 apartment projects in Lee’s Summit and 101 projects throughout the region, comparing rents and amenities among more than 22,000 rental units in Independence, Blue Springs, Grandview, Overland Park, Olathe, Lenexa, and Lee’s Summit.
The 200-page housing study considered factors such as demographics, population growth forecasts, household income and the regional suburban Kansas City apartment market, and used a conservative 4.4 percent predicted growth in households over the next 10 years.