CROSSROADS | EAST

Jim Leedy, the renowned artist who pioneered the Crossroads Arts District in 1985, knows what he wants when someone decides to name a hotel bar after him.

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“If I have a bar named after me, I should get free drinks,” Leedy quipped at the festive grand opening last week of the Hotel Indigo at 2020 Grand.

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He also approved of how things have evolved since he fled a “gentrifying” Westport 30-plus years ago to find a cheap haven in what was then a forlorn backwater of downtown.

Redeveloper Matt Abbott discusses his latest project — reviving two blighted buildings in the 1600 block of Grand Boulevard — and the continued role incentives will play in revitalizing the Crossroads.

A prolific Kansas City redeveloper got an endorsement Thursday from a tax-incentive granting agency to convert two buildings on Grand Boulevard, potentially adding more event, office and retail space to the Crossroads.

Developer Matt Abbott plans to spend $6.8 million converting a one-story building in the 1600 block of Grand Boulevard into a high-end event space with a rooftop deck. Next door, Abbott plans to put a “signature” local retailer in the first floor of a three-story building with offices on top. He said he’s in talks with a potential retail tenant.

Abbott told the Kansas City Star last January that he purchased the building with the specific intent of partnering on a music venue with JR Facility Management — a company that made a name for itself operating Marathon Music Works and the historic Exit/In in Nashville, Tennessee. JR’s owners, Chris Cobb and Josh Billue, renovated both venues and turned them into resounding successes in the absurdly crowded Nashville music scene.

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Cobb said the Kansas City venue was a good fit for the company’s first expansion foray outside of Nashville because the city and the Crossroads neighborhood are so vibrant. And Cobb said it didn’t hurt that KC has been well-regarded nationally as a heavy ticket-selling market.

This week, he sold out the Truman, which is owned by Chris Cobb and Josh Billue, who run JR Facility Management in Nashville. The building is part of the East Crossroads Urban Redevelopment Plan started by Kansas City developer Matt Abbott in 2015.

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The 18,000-square-foot venue features five bars and a balcony/VIP area for patrons 21 and older. Thursday morning, workers were still busy prepping the room for Saturday’s show.

“We’ve got a lot of little details to cover,” said Matt Phillips, the venue’s general manager. “We painted the stage last night. Today, we’re filling up the bars and setting up the box office.

Two Kansas City residents are turning their passion for dance into a new business: Dance Fit Flow.

The dance studio designed for adults is slated to open Sept. 25 in the Crossroads Arts District at 470 E. 17th St. The owners, Lauren Boyd and Kerri Pomerenke, aim to create an inviting and approachable environment that welcomes all skill levels, even those who have never taken a dance class.

This month, the Crossroads won “favorite neighborhood” in an INK magazine poll between 32 Kansas City neighborhoods, beating the River Market in the last round with 63 percent of the popular vote.

Art galleries and studios, boutiques, breweries and distilleries, and noteworthy restaurants are the draw in this area — south of downtown Kansas City, north of the historic Union Station, east of Interstate 35 and west of Troost Avenue. And new additions are giving people even more reasons to visit.

Nearly two years after the announcement came that Mission Taco Joint was coming to the Crossroads, it is at last ready to open its doors today at 18th and Oak Streets. The restaurant is set to join an increasingly vibrant dining and drinking block in the East Crossroads neighborhood, which is now also home to Border Brewing Co., Brewery Emperial, International Tap House, Grinders and Thou Mayest Coffee Roasters.

Abbott Properties’ base of operations is at 1837 Grand, in a building not long ago occupied by a business called Cowtown T-Shirts. The space has been renovated — horizontal wood, glass-paned offices, concrete floor — to accommodate Abbott’s employees: construction workers, leasing agents, the management team. Guys in Carhartts come and go clutching Jimmy John’s cups; a sign inside near the door warns, “If you are dirty, don’t sit on the couch.”

Abbott is 44, with blue eyes that rarely blink and a surfer’s lilt to his voice that partly belies the fact that he has been a millionaire since he was 27 years old. In many ways, Abbott embodies the current aspirations of the city. He cites articles on the internet that call Kansas City a city “on the move,” a place to keep “on your radar,” a spot that is fast becoming “on the map.” He is fond of Richard Florida–style buzzwords. 

“We are working to create an entrepreneurial and creative heartbeat for the city,” Abbott says, gazing out his conference-room windows onto 19th Street. “I see the East Crossroads as a boutique area where entrepreneurs flock in Kansas City.” 

The 75 percent cap on property tax abatements and diversions adopted via a Kansas City incentive-reform ordinance in October finally has been applied despite a developer’s request for a larger break.

Matt Abbott, the leading developer in the East Crossroads, had asked for a 10-year, 100 percent abatement to support a six-building, $9.6 million redevelopment blitz.

Matt Abbott is the hottest developer in the hottest part of the Kansas City metro area. Abbott Properties now owns 30 buildings, parking lots and vacant lots in the East Crossroads. This year, he intends to complete a live music venue and a Hotel Indigo.

Abbott Properties Headquarters was anticipated to be a light remodel but turned out to be a much more invasive remodel. Abbott Properties is located at 1837 Grand Blvd in Kansas City, MO.

Abbott Properties elite team has accumulated nearly 30 buildings, parking lots and vacant lots in the East Crossroads and is busy with several new projects that will be completed this year.

Abbott Properties, a development company based out of the East Crossroads, began their year with exciting new projects that will bring businesses such as Hotel Indigo and a music venue run by the Nashville based entrepreneurs who own Marathon Music Works, to Kansas City, MO. The East Crossroads music venue will include about 20,000 square feet of event space and will be located at 601 E. Truman Road. The 81-room Hotel Indigo will be located at 2020 Grand, the former Kansas City Costume Co. Find out more about the historic inspirations for the hotel.

Matt Abbott is out to change the face of Kansas City's East Crossroads. Learn more about Matt's history, how he got his work ethic, his mission and vision for the East Crossroads of Kansas City.

Developer Matt Abbott's $11 million plan will add another floor and transform the building at 2020 Grand Blvd. into an 80-room boutique hotel called Hotel Indigo. Abbott's plan received approval Wednesday from the Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority. 

Crossroads district redeveloper Matt Abbott proposes redevelopment of the Kansas City Costume Co. building at 2020 Grand Blvd. into a Hotel Indigo. Hotel Indigo is a boutique hotel chain, part of the InterContinental Hotel reservation system. Find out more about Abbott Properties, the vision for the building, and Matt Abbott.

Redeveloper Matt Abbott, who has specialized in acquiring distressed properties in downtown Kansas City, has turned his attention to the southeast, specifically to the area known as the East Crossroads.

As perhaps the largest property owner in the area, he could get a boost — along with other redevelopers who are revitalizing the area — from a proposed East Crossroads Urban Renewal Plan.

The Crossroads Arts District is living up to cosmic form with a five-day, street-art celebration of the upcoming total eclipse called Solanoir.

Thirty street artists from around the country and the world have been invited to paint murals on two dozen buildings around the downtown district. With the help of Matt Abbott, a Crossroads property owner and developer, Solanoir was inspired by Wynwood Boulevard in Miami, a world-renowned hot spot for street art. Every year, street artists from around the world fly to Miami after Thanksgiving to create.

Abbott Properties provides assistance to help make Solanoir a possibility. This amazing event will take place during the Solar Eclipse in the Crossroads of Kansas City.

The environment at the new restaurant is eclectic, modern and casual. Reclaimed wood planks, stained in a variety of browns, tan and red, separate the dining and bar spaces, and match both the restaurant’s tables and its bar. On the dining side, large glass garage doors, which can be opened during nice weather, connect the restaurant to 18th Street. A colorful mural depicting a skyline inhabits the entire west wall. On the bar side, high tops surround the long bar, itself backed with dozens of custom wood crates mounted on the wall, which hold the bar’s large selection of spirits. A handful of flat-panel TVs broadcast sporting events or the restaurant’s menu items. The bar top itself is fashioned out of polished concrete.

Opening for business today: Mission Taco Joint in the Crossroads (1801 Oak). This is the chain's first outpost outside St. Louis. Mission Taco joint serves up "Cali-Mex"-inspired tacos, burritos and tortas. Mission Taco Joint also recently welcomed mixologist Jenn Tosatto to its Kansas City team, a bonus for anyone who seeks great cocktails. 

Jason and Adam Tilford, the brothers who founded the St. Louis-based chain, grew up moving up and down the California coast following their dad’s Coast Guard career.

It was the Mission District of San Francisco that inspired their approach to food.

“The Mission District is know for its taquerias and murals,” said Matt Turner, the manager of the new Kansas City operation. “It’s a MexiCali street food approach.”

The partners have also just signed a lease for their first commercial space, located at 1733 Locust in the Crossroads. The space shares a back alley with Lifted Spirits, where they are currently producing Mean Mule Silver. “Our garage doors line up pretty close, so when our space is ready we plan to lift the garage door in the alley and roll our still over into our new space,” Meg says.

Hello humans! It’s now been nearly a year since we moved to our Westport location. The amount of support you’ve given our little shoppe has been tremendous and we’re pretty much at capacity in terms of production capabilities and space. Because of that, we’ve decided to move our printing equipment to a different location and expand retail to our entire Westport space

The Truman announced its first concert line-up on Monday, and tickets for the general public go on sale this Friday, June 23, at 10 AM. The Truman will be open to the public on Sept. 9 as part of the Crossroads Music Festival. The Tech N9ne show the following week is described as its grand opening. Cobb credits Matt Abbott of Abbott Properties for helping him find the new space. "Matt played a big role in seeing the project to where it is today," said Cobb.

St. Louis-based International Tap House — known as iTap — now has a liquor license for the first floor of 1801 Oak St.

Partners Brad Lobdell and Sean Conroy met in the mid-1990s at the University of Missouri in Columbia. Lobdell grew up in south Kansas City (a Hickman Mills High School graduate) and Conroy was a reporter with Fox 4 before moving to St. Louis, his wife’s hometown.

The simple syrup at Lifted Spirits, a distillery at 1734 Cherry St. in the Crossroads Arts District, isn’t so simple. Bartender Jason Dowd, 23, has soaked fresh jalapeños in sugar water for days, then added a little vinegar to make what’s called a shrub. He adds the mixture, ice and the house vodka to a steel bar shaker, shakes well, then pours it into a glass.

The new headquarters is already under development and will house the corporate team, a new event space called Celebration and urban farm Missing Ingredient, which will offer pesticide and herbicide-free local produce.

LaBeau had spent 14 years working for Streetside Records in Kansas City and St. Louis when the Streetside store at 4128 Broadway closed its doors for good. Streetside was the last of the big music stores in Kansas City to close, victim of the rapid decline in CD sales and the switch to digital music.

Two months after they were forced to move out of their surroundings on the outskirts of Westport, the owners of RecordBar are planning to reopen on the edge of the Crossroads District.

The new RecordBar will reopen at 1520 Grand Blvd., a few blocks south of the Power & Light District and close to other music venues, including the Tank Room, the Green Lady Lounge, the Brick and Crossroads KC.

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“The Crossroads has always been a goal for me,” Habiger says. “I’ve been looking down here for four years for a possible place to do something else.”

“It was just time for me to do a brewery,” says Thompson, who is still working as a consultant for McCoy’s. His longtime employer, he adds, is “still my baby and my legacy.”

The lease for the building, on the same block as Grinders and CrossroadsKC, is signed, and the loan approved. The next step is to build out the 16,000-square-foot property, which Thompson says is “a little bit of a blank slate.” By which he means: four cinder-block walls, few (if any) utilities, some old stools from the Velvet Dog, a line of kegs. They’re consulting with Jonathan O’Neil Cole, of Pendulum, on the building design.

In the Crossroads district south of the downtown Kansas City loop, it’s been a tale of east and west.

The larger west side has been red hot for more than a decade, attracting scores of restaurants, art galleries and shops, and launching the popular First Friday event.

Another brewery is coming to the Crossroads.

Border Brewing Co. is taking a 1,750-square-foot space at 404 E. 18th St., across from Grinders. A fall opening is planned for the brewery and taproom.

The brewery was founded in 2013 and has been looking for a site in the Crossroads area to “bridge the gap between beer drinkers and beer lovers,” said Eric Martens, owner and head brewer.