Copaken Brooks and 3D Development are combining their efforts to develop the first new-construction office building in the Crossroads Arts District of Kansas City in, perhaps, a century.
Starting this February, construction will begin on the second phase of the companies’ Corrigan Station, an office development project at 19th Street and Main Street in Kansas City’s Crossroads disrict. Construction is expected to wrap in the fall of 2018, with tenants moving into the new office building during the holiday season.
Jon Copaken, principal of Copaken Brooks, said that this second phase of Corrigan Station is an important one for the Crossroads Arts District. The original Corrigan Station, 10 stories, sat empty for several years, Copaken said. Now, that building is completely leased.
The second phase represents what Copaken calls the first ground-up, new-construction office project in the Crossroads Arts District in “probably 100 years.”
“We are providing a new option for companies in this part of downtown,” Copaken said. “Companies want the modern space and the modern amenities. This project lets them have that.”
The new office building is the latest step that Copaken Brooks has taken to rejuvenate Kansas City’s historic Corrigan Station building. Copaken Brooks purchased the original building, which is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places, in September of 2013. Redevelopment of this structure begain in 2015, with occupancy in 2016. That building also houses a coffee shop and restaurant.
The new office portion of Corrigan Station will rise three stories and include 22,910 square feet of office space. The building will have access to a four-story parking structure.
As with most new office buildings, this project comes with plenty of amenities. Office tenants will have access to Corrigan Statino’s foot-top clubhouse and patio. They’ll also have acccess to the building’s penthouse, which includes a conference room with skyline views. A courtyard sits between the historic and new Corrigan Station buildings.
The amenities are important not only for the building’s tenants, Copaken said, but for marketing efforts, too. It’s difficult to attract tenants to new office space today if there aren’t amenities such as rooftop decks and sprawling conference rooms.
“Companies want those amenities to be available,” Copaken said. “They might not always use them. But they want them to be there.”
Copaken points to the rooftop deck that is part of the original, historic Corrigan Station building. The tenants of the newly built space will have access to it. And the deck will certainly play a key role in marketing the new space to future tenants.
“That rooftop space is a great space,” Copaken said. “Whether the employees of a company are out there every day or not, the rooftop space is still important when recruiting tenants. How much use tenants will get out of that space varies. Some companies use it a lot. Some won’t. The fact that it exists is important.”
Copaken said that as of the start of construction, 20 percent of the space at the new office building has already been leased. The rest of the space is being marketed now by Copaken Brooks senior vice presidents John Coe and Ryan Biery.
“We are very excited about the continued development and final phase of Corrigan Station,” said Vince Bryant, owner of 3D Development and co-developer of Corrigan Station. “We are very motivated to continue the momentum toward this second phase of the project.”