Property Profiles
Rosedale Revitalized
An older area of town gets a fresh start with Mission Cliffs.
BY
Carrie Kent
PHOTOGRAPHY
Renderings courtesy Mission Cliffs

While the real estate market as a whole has been slowing throughout most of the past six months, there remains a pent-up demand in Greater Kansas City for alternative types of housing, such as townhomes, condominiums, and, especially, affordable new single-family construction, all geographically closer to the urban core.

A new development project in Kansas City, Kansas, seeks to combine several current trends: the revitalization of an established urban neighborhood; the creation of new housing that combines traditional design from former decades with the modern advances in maintenance-free materials; and a neighborhood of new homes that showcases and promotes sustainable architecture.

The project is Mission Cliffs, a development of 115 single-family homes—both attached and detached—situated on a bluff six blocks west of the University of Kansas Medical Center in the Rosedale neighborhood of Wyandotte County.

Mission Cliffs is the brainchild of City Vision Ministries, in partnership with the Rosedale Development Association. City Vision Ministries is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving neighborhoods in Kansas City, Kansas. City Vision felt the area just west of KU Med Center was an underutilized area of the city that was also a bit unstable because of the density of rental property in the area, according to Jon Birkel, vice president of real estate development for City Vision Ministries.

“We wanted to see it redeveloped,” Birkel says. “We are looking for people who want to own, live and stay in Rosedale.”

It took the partnership four years to acquire all the land, which included 84 parcels and 43 owners. This was no small feat because some of the properties in the area had been informally handed down through several generations of a family.

“No for-profit developer could afford to take the time to make sure all the property was clear and free for redevelopment,” Birkel says.

City Vision then invested more than two million dollars in land and new infrastructure, grading, putting in new roads and new utilities. The result is a beautiful piece of land with a skyline view and home designs that convey a neighborhood feel, inspired by the historic homes in Rosedale. Lap siding, shingles and stone will be used on the exterior façades of both the detached homes and townhomes.

Big front porches will also be a design mainstay, according to Birkel. “We want porches that can hold seating for four to six—no less than eight feet deep,” he notes.

Visit cityvisionministries.org for more information. Information on the townhomes by Paul Robben and Ernie Straub can be found at missioncliffstownhomes.com.

Nineteen single-family detached homes are planned for the first of two phases, with 20 more scheduled for the second. In addition, developer/builders Paul Robben and Ernie Straub joined forces to purchase two large parcels of land in Mission Cliffs on which they are building 47 attached single-family dwellings in the project’s first phase. A dozen more townhomes will follow in the later phase.

The townhomes will be priced from the $190,000s up to the $250,000s. Price points for the detached single-family homes are expected to start in the $220,000s. All homes will have garages and living spaces of approximately 1,600 to 2,200 square feet.

At Mission Cliffs, lots are designed so the homes do not butt up against one another. The homes’ rear views will be of woods or city skylines, not their neighbor’s decks. A greenbelt with walking paths is also included in the plan.

“We have some opportunities to do some exciting designs,” Birkel says. “We’ve involved the neighborhood with the planning and design. We’re tying the area back to the neighborhood.”

Other partners in the project include the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas, who authorized tax-increment financing to put in new roads and some of the other initial development work.

Mission Cliffs will feed into Rosedale public schools. In addition to its close proximity to the KU Medical Center campus, the neighborhood is centrally located to all of the metropolitan area. Abundant shopping and services exist along the 39th Street corridor, Rainbow Boulevard and the nearby Fairway Shops. All of the restaurants along Southwest Boulevard are easily accessible, and the Country Club Plaza is a mere five-minute drive away. Easy access to Interstate 35 via 7th Street makes commuting to downtown Kansas City, Kansas simple, too.

Birkel is confident of Mission Cliff’s success. Already, housing values are rising in the area, due in part to KU Med’s multi-million dollar expansion. City Vision Ministries also took part in the construction of about a dozen new single-family dwellings in Rainbow Park, an adjacent Rosedale community. The homes there were in high demand from people who want to live in an urban environment.
“This is becoming a popular area. People are coming from Johnson County and other suburban neighborhoods to buy here,” Birkel summarizes.