Atop a hill bounded by Vine, Locust, and Cafego Place, overlooking the city, the former Carpenter’s Union Building has been demolished. Construction of City Summit will soon begin on the site, ultimately producing more homes downtown. The project developer is LawlerWood (DBA City Summit, LLC) with local architects, Design Innovation Architects and lead architect Oren Yarbrough. I spoke to LawlerWood’s Joe Petre to learn more about the timeline and whether the project had been altered since I last wrote about it here.
He said that while work on the project is just recently visible to passersby, the pre-construction work consumes a lot of time and energy before the first moves on the site. “Getting it to construction is the hard part, then you can set a schedule.
A major part of that pre-construction work involves obtaining permits and approvals — the project went before the Design Review Board twice — as well as the architectural work. Obtaining a PILOT is often the final piece and that was awarded by vote of City Council October 15. While some projects take months after the approval, Joe said, “I gave the go-ahead that night.” Demolition commenced on the 21st and now site grading and preparation is underway.
The project is projected to take seventeen months, meaning the homes should be available by March or April of 2026. Next up is the placement of pilings (Geopiers) and the full building permit should come in the next two weeks. They are optimistic there will be no issues with the sub-surface as sometimes happens around the city. The site has not had a series of buildings like so many places downtown, which helps. The group has completed 18 borings beneath the footprint of the planned building and KCDC completed a study, as well, with no issues found.
A temporary trailer is on site which will soon be replaced with a trailer which will see construction through. The group was able to preserve some parking for LMU during construction. Petre said he loved that “the neighborhood is taking shape,” noting it is one of several residential clusters around downtown.
When complete, City Summit will top out at five stories with 89 apartments. Included are 3 studio units, 51 one-bedroom homes, and 35 two-bedroom apartments. Luxury is less the focus here, where the plan is to include more mid-level, affordable homes, hence there will be no building amenities. Ten percent of the homes, or nine units, will be designated for work-force-priced housing. Those units can be secured using a voucher and are good for any home in the project.