Historic Kansas City district fights to save Carmen Building without owner
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Residents in the Hyde Park neighborhood are breathing a sigh of relief for now while the Carmen Buidling at 101 W. Linwood Boulevard has been saved from the wrecking ball for the moment.
The current owner appeared to start the demolition process in late 2023 and early 2024, according to the permits that were applied for from the city.
That was a suprise to residents nearby like Nadja Karpilow, who is also the Old Hyde Park Historic District President.
“You just won’t see these materials being used anymore,” Karpilow said. “It’s irreplaceable.”
Historic Warwick Theater has been robbed five times since fire, staff says
The building was finished in 1923 and was a medical office, labor union headquarters, and Salvation Army location over the last century before the Salvation Army left in 2021.
When the current owners started applying for demolition-related permits, Karpilow and the Old Hyde Park Historic District applied to get the building on the Kansas City Register of Historic Places to save it.
That application stops any demolition process for six months while the city considers the application, or until the City Council makes a decision.
“It really does add to the character of our neighborhood and so it really has a role as a story and a historic building,” Karpilow said. “Also, the greenest building is a building already built, so it doesn’t make sense environmentally to tear it down at least with out a plan. There’s no plan.”
The current owner is Kansas 101 Linwood LLC with a posted address of 10951 Lake View Avenue in Lenexa, Kansas.
When FOX4 visited that location Wednesday, we found it was a weight loss surgery center and the people inside had never heard of the LLC or the Carmen Building. Other efforts to reach the owners hit dead ends.
“We were surprised it was going up for demolition and especially with what’s going on in this area with the [KC Streetcar extension} and all the activity in this neighborhood, we figured it would be turned into something useful instead of just taken down,” said Nicole Jeffries, who lives up the block.
The Streetcar extension is expected to put people who could be new residents in apartments or customers to a retail operation just a few blocks away while connecting them to Country Club Plaza and the River Market.
Tailgating emphasized, entertainment district nixed in Arrowhead plans
Karpilow says that’s plenty of opportunity to made a renovation project work in the historic building.
“I was OK with having something put there that was useful and fit the neighborhood and brought things to the neighborhood, ” said 28-year Hyde Park resident Misty Gates. “But without any transparency, it’s been, ‘What’s going on? Who owns it? What are they doing to do with it?”
The next step is a March 22 meeting at City Hall for the Historic Preservation Commission to consider the district’s application.
