Plans to redevelop a struggling downtown corner have expanded to include converting a historic building that’s sat vacant for years into a music-themed hotel.
BR Cos. of California first announced plans for a new high-rise apartment tower at East 8th Street and Grand Boulevard downtown, where a small, outdated parking garage now sits, last November. The tower is expected to add more than 300 housing units and new retail space while changing the face of Kansas City’s skyline.
On Monday, officials with the Port Authority of Kansas City announced that the project has taken on a new element: converting the nearby historic Scarritt Building, which dates back to the early 1900s as one of the city’s earliest skyscrapers, into a UMusic Hotel with 167 rooms…