Proposals heard — again — on what to do with Westport High School

In August 2012, my colleague Steve Vockrodt, writing then for the Kansas City Business Journal, covered a meeting held at Redeemer Fellowship regarding what to do with the buildings that once housed Westport High School (315 East 39th Street) and Westport Middle School (300 East 39th Street). Kansas City Public Schools closed both schools in 2010 amid declining enrollment. The crowd assembled that evening at Redeeemer heard proposals from Foutch Brothers and Kansas City Sustainable Development Partners.

Two and a half years on, both schools remain untouched. A remarkably similar meeting was held last night about their future — again at Redeemer, again featuring presentations by Foutch Brothers and KCSDP about the Westport schools. A few dynamics have changed in the interim, which are worth noting.

Originally, the school district wanted to sell the schools as a package deal. After both Foutch and KCSDP expressed interest and submitted proposals, the plan was to deal the schools separately. KCSDP would get the middle school, for which it planned a multiuse center that would combine housing, nonprofit office space and urban farming, among other ideas. Foutch would get the high school, which would be anchored by an Academie Lafayette high school and also include some housing and sports facilities. 

In January 2014, KCSDP formally purchased Westport Middle. Foutch was in the process of purchasing Westport High School — the school district had recommended its sale to the board — in June 2014 when the district suddenly announced that it had partnered with Academie Lafayette for a move into the former Southwest High School building, at 6512 Wornall, in Brookside. 

The announcement blindsided Foutch Brothers and derailed its proposal. The district then essentially pulled its recommendation and opened Westport High back up to an alternative proposal. KCSDP had one. Foutch revised its plans. And here we were last night. 

A crowd of well over 100 people first heard from Bob Berkebile of KCSDP (Butch Rigby, David Brain, Lou Steele and Chip Walsh are the other partners in KCSDP). First he gave details on the plans for Westport Middle (which will require district approval). He followed it up with a presentation on what they would do in a situation in which they also own Westport High. 

KCSDP’s original proposal for Westport Middle called for 85 housing units and a botanical garden. Those are now out. Berkebile said KCSDP had determined that building additional housing in the area was unnecessary. “There’s 121 new housing units already being created in the neighborhood,” he said. “And if you move north to Armour, you’ve got 1,500 new units in the immediate area.”

Instead the focus at Westport Middle will be almost entirely on the nonprofits they are recruiting to lease space there. Among those are the KC Lean Lab, Spectrum Station, KC Healthy Kids, a Truman Medical Center outpost, Children’s Mercy, City in Motion, a culinary institute, MindDrive, and Literacy KC. Berkebile said they’ve got 12 nonprofits lined up and confirmed, with four more likely to come onboard. The price tag is $19 million. 

KCSDP’s plans for the high school, Berkebile said, pair with its plans for the middle school. “We always saw it as a campus,” he said. 

The high school would be “an emerging category of office space geared toward independent workers” — essentially a massive co-working space where people can rent 100 square feet of office space for around $400 per month. The high school would also include a “maker’s space” for design and manufacturing and a coding school. Berkebile cited Cerner’s stated need to hire 5,000 coders in the coming years. 

“We see a giant hole in the heartland for these kinds of resources,” Berkebile said. “Startups want access to talent, access to mentors and access to high-tech collaborative office space that captures the creative mindset. We have some things going for us [in Kansas City] but nowhere near the scale there should be.” The high school portion would cost $23 million, according to KCSDP. 

Foutch Brothers’ proposal for Westport High called for $21 million. The most notable difference is that it calls for housing where KCSDP’s plans do not. Roughly, it’s 84,000 square feet of residential housing — studios, one bedrooms, two bedrooms and a few three bedrooms. (Steve Foutch said price per square foot would be in the $1.20 to $1.40 range.) An additional 24,000 square feet would make room for various fitness and athletic facilities — a track, bike rental program, tennis courts, pool — while the remaining 57,000 square feet would be for mixed-use purposes, including community gardens, a visual arts space, a performing arts space and an event space. 

“We’re ready to go,” Foutch said. “We’ve already put it [the high school] on the national register and we’re adaptable to community needs.” Foutch’s plan is a for-profit endeavor, and he estimated the property tax revenue to be around $300,000 per year. He also said they would not be seeking a tax abatement of any kind. 

The next step is for the district to combine the community feedback received at the meeting (you can submit thoughts online at the school district’s website through March 8) with an in-house technical assessment of the feasibility of the plans, and then bring a recommendation to the superintendent and board in April.