Owners of WallStreet Tower (WST), a luxury condo development in Kansas City, Mo.’s downtown central business district, have invested $8.5 million in capital improvements for property modernization, including soon-to-be-complete, multi-million-dollar residential complex updates and improvements to the parking structure, set to launch this month.
WST remains positioned as one of the few high-rise condominium developments in the downtown loop since the 2005-2006 transformation to luxury condos began. At that time, the building was one of the highest, award-winning condominium projects in Kansas City’s history.
“Our community shares a sense of pride and responsibility in owning an architectural treasure and has overwhelmingly committed to investing in improvements to the building’s critical infrastructure, common areas, amenities and refinishing the exterior of the building,” said Keith Gary, president of the WallStreet Tower homeowners association board of directors.
The owners passed a building assessment with a wide majority vote of support for a $3 million project that included replacing the original elevators, updating the elevator cab interiors, and repairing/recoating the building façade of WallStreet Tower., all managed by Copaken Brooks.
“We were able to leverage a number of relationships to identify the best and most cost-effective solutions for the WallStreet Tower projects,” said Mark Thomas, senior vice president of asset & property management at Copaken Brooks.
A subsequent $5.5 million dollar assessment was passed with majority owner support earlier in 2019 for significant upgrades to the WallStreet Tower parking structure. Improvements include installing a garage-wide security system limiting access to owners, structural improvements and cosmetic enhancements. Construction is slated to begin in July.
About Wallstreet Tower: The building was originally designed by the Chicago architectural firm Harry Weese & Associates in collaboration with local architects Patty Berkebile Nelson Associates for Mercantile Bank. Construction began in 1972 and was completed in 1974. It is one of very few buildings in the world with the “Modern Movement” design that features an exposed steel frame (and one that’s unique in Kansas City). Because of this unique architecture, it was the first downtown building from the 1970s to be added to the U.S. Department of the Interior’s National Register of Historic Places.