Ten Main Center sells, bringing promise of apartment conversion for remaining floors
Fresh off a sizable office investment deal in Johnson County, Price Brothers has made a towering new investment in Downtown.
The Overland Park developer on Wednesday acquired Ten Main Center, a 20-story high-rise that houses offices and the SKY on Main Luxury Apartments at 920 Main St., from New York-based Sovereign Partners, the building’s owner since 2005.
Price Brothers paid approximately $48 million to acquire the property, President Kent Price said Friday. The company obtained a $35 million loan from Equity Bank in connection with the sale, according to Jackson County property records.
While Price Brothers owns several Kansas City properties, such as the 46 Penn apartments and Valencia Place offices, Price said Ten Main Center represents his firm’s first large-scale deal in the city’s urban core.
“It’s just a good long-term play,” he said, citing the core’s steady growth, the building’s position along the streetcar and potential for a new Downtown ballpark for the Kansas City Royals.
Originally completed in 1968, Ten Main Center was the headquarters to AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. between 2002 and 2013, when it moved to Park Place in Leawood.
Sovereign Partners in 2015 kicked off a $22 million mixed-use conversion, under which the 295,066-square-foot tower was planned for 150 market-rate apartments on its top 10 floors, above an office renovation of the levels below.
That effort saw 116 residences completed across eight of Ten Main Center’s 20 floors, as the SKY on Main Luxury Apartments. Most of the building’s other levels have stayed vacant or housed smaller office tenants, the largest of which is the Missouri Housing Development Commission, at about 27,700 square feet.
Price said his firm will pick up where Sovereign Partners left off in converting the remaining floors for 135 multifamily units — for 251 total in Ten Main Center — while making upgrades to its common areas and amenities. The building’s sale materials through Newmark said those floors could support up to 165 additional residences.
Work on the first conversions could begin in early 2023 and continue gradually over the coming years, as office leases expire across different floors.
“It’s going to take a little time,” Price said.
Ten Main Center’s sale materials also highlighted the potential for new ownership to build another 173 apartments atop the tower’s adjacent 10-story, 737-space parking garage structure. Price said his group does not plan to build new multifamily on the garage, pointing to high construction costs, but did not rule out the possibility down the road.
On the heels of its Lighton Plaza and Ten Main Center purchases this month, Price said his group continues its hunt for new acquisition opportunities across the metro.
“We’re opportunists, where see an opportunity … where we feel that we can create value and help out the area,” he said.
Mac Crowther and Whittaker Potts, of Newmark’s Kansas City office, represented Ten Main Center in the transaction.
This story is from the Kansas City Business Journal.
