A plan to tear down a church in the Country Club Plaza and replace it with a tower that exceeds the district’s height restrictions already is raising hackles from developers and neighbors.
Drake Development LLC on Wednesday submitted an approximately $60 million proposal to build a nine-story building with multiple restaurants and high-end condo residences in place of The Seventh Church of Christ, Scientist at 604 W. 47th St.
The Overland Park builder’s proposal, called Cocina 47, ups the ante for what already was shaping up to be a high visibility scrap among Country Club Plaza interests.
Historic Kansas City, Plaza co-owner Taubman Centers and neighboring landowner Block Real Estate Services LLC in March mailed out a news release. The groups emphasized the Plaza Bowl’s significance for keeping future projects aligned with the district’s character, and blasted a smaller version of Drake’s project that exceeded it.
An ornamental tower in the earlier iteration, which was circulated among neighbors in recent months, would have required an approximately 20-foot variance from the Plaza Bowl, which caps new buildings in that area of the Plaza at 45 feet.