West Edge, the Plaza-area mixed-use project that collapsed under the weight of its ambitions and fancy-pants architecture, sold at an auction on Thursday.
AMC Entertainment, the Kansas City-based movie theater company, has emerged as a possible tenant of the development, which went into bankruptcy in 2009 in a half-completed state. A group associated with RED Development reportedly offered $10 million for the land, unfinished buildings and broken dreams.
Designed by Moshe Safdie, the architect of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, West Edge was the vision of advertising man Bob Bernstein, the inventor of the Happy Meal. Bernstein was not able to see the project to completion after his development team and the construction manager, J.E. Dunn, came to legal blows over cost overruns.
The auction winner paid 10 cents for every dollar that the Bernstein team put into the project. The building's unique design -- open floor plan, a glass-enclosed atrium -- turned out to be one of its detriments. The Polsinelli Shughart law firm looked at West Edge as a possible location for a new headquarters before deciding that it was too funky for attorneys and their clients.
Polsinelli Shughart wants to build instead on the Plaza proper, appalling preservation-minded Kansas Citians.
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If AMC moves, it will be a huge setback for downtown.
But hey, if they are planning to move anyway, might as well rejoice that the parasite that is Overland Park didn't win again.
AMC will move from its current headquarters where it pays property and other taxes, across town to occupy Plaza West, where it won't.
Another grand success for "economic development" in KCMO!
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