A 29-story apartment tower with 386 units and a 282-room hotel are moving from renderings toward reality in Kansas City's Crossroads, where city records show formal plans have now been filed for two of three proposed towers near 16th Street and Broadway Boulevard. The apartment building is slated to rise 335 feet, while the hotel would stand 192 feet and 15 stories, each with its own parking garage, restaurant, and café space built in.
The filings mark a concrete step for the long-discussed Encore project, a proposed development anchored by EPC Real Estate Group of Overland Park, as detailed by the Kansas City Star. The apartment tower is expected to include 417 parking spaces alongside its restaurant space, while the hotel would add 295 parking spaces plus a café with patio seating. City records indicate the Kansas City Plan Commission will review the plans in November, with construction potentially beginning next year.
The scale described in the city filings lines up with a far larger vision developers have sketched out for the four-acre site. According to the TKC Group, the complete Encore master plan carries an estimated total investment between $430 million and $440 million and also calls for an 11-story corporate office building beyond the residential tower and hotel. City records show a southern lot on the site is currently labeled for future use and expected to become office space, consistent with that broader plan.
A Hilltop Site Designed to Be Seen From the Highway
Kansas City-based architecture firm Hoefer Welker designed the master plan for the 16th and Broadway site, shaping the residential high-rise to stand 371 feet tall on an elevated hilltop visible from Interstate 35, per the same TKC Group account. The site sits directly across Broadway from the $413 million Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, the Moshe Safdie-designed cultural landmark that opened in September 2011, according to Archilovers.
Getting to this point required clearing federal aviation hurdles. The KC Pulse reports that developers obtained FAA clearance allowing building heights up to 500 feet at 1650 Broadway after navigating federal reviews tied to downtown flight paths, with initial filings dating back to 2023. The address previously held a Denny's restaurant and the Quixotic nightclub, sitting largely vacant after development attempts by Copaken-Brooks in the 2010s and by Dave Mashburn in 2019 stalled out, the outlet notes.
Tax Incentives Bring Dollar Figures and Pushback
Public money is tangled up in the project's path forward. City records cited by the Star show the Port Authority of Kansas City has approved incentives for the development, with projections indicating the undeveloped site would generate $5.6 million in property tax revenue over 25 years, compared to an expected $47.3 million in payments for local taxing bodies over the same period once built. Developers have also pledged $2 million to the city's housing trust fund, which finances affordable housing projects, per those same city records.
The incentive structure runs deeper than those headline figures. The KC Pulse reported that Port KC's Development Committee recommended issuing up to $500 million in conduit bonds alongside a 25-year property tax abatement structured at 90% for years 1 through 17, tapering to 60% in year 18, 50% for years 19 and 20, and 25% for years 21 through 25. That arrangement has drawn formal concern from Kansas City Public Schools and other taxing jurisdictions, according to The Beacon, which reported growing opposition over property tax revenue diversion from high-density projects like Encore.
A Developer Betting on Downtown, and a Streetcar Nearby
EPC Real Estate Group, which is partnering on Encore with VeLa Development Partners and Dan Carr, has itself relocated its corporate headquarters from Overland Park, Kansas, to downtown Kansas City, Missouri, the KC Pulse reported in June. City records note the Encore site sits just a few blocks from a streetcar stop, part of a transit network that expanded last October when Kansas City launched its $352 million, 3.5-mile KC Streetcar Main Street Extension connecting Union Station, Midtown, and UMKC, according to KC Streetcar.
Encore is one of several proposals adding height and density to Kansas City's housing stock, city records show, alongside a separate downtown residential tower proposal that would connect to the historic Scarritt Building, which is due to be rehabbed into a hotel. Hoodline has tracked related momentum in the area, including a St. Louis buyer's loft spree and the Belmont Hotel's apartment rebirth nearby in Midtown.
