KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Construction crews put the final steel beam in place Wednesday on downtown’s newest apartment tower.

About 450 people are expected to live in the new One Light apartment tower when it opens in November.

The Cordish company says about 2,500 people have already expressed interest in living in the luxury high-rise, which is  the latest indicator that more people want to be part of downtown’s rebirth by living there.

Blake Miller is one of the people who have  signed a lease to move into One Light this fall.

“It was weird coming from never even coming downtown,” Miller said. “When I grew up I went to Shawnee Mission East high school and you didn’t come downtown. It was a ghost town and coming and living here, it was really a unique living situation.”

The Crossroads business partner is an example of surging demand as more millennials recognize that downtown is where they want to be.

“It’s considered successful, good for a multi-family building of this size to open at 20-25 percent occupancy,” said Nick Benjamin, executive director of the Power and Light District. “We’re at 45 percent occupancy with 5 months to go until the first move ins, which is really unprecedented for a project of this size. We are trying to move quickly to meet the demand and continue to grow downtown.”

Benjamin says he’s also getting a lot of interest from empty nesters who like the convenience of having what they need within walking distance. Cordish said they plan to move forward after One Light construction is complete and build a “Two Light” apartment tower at Truman and Grand. Two additional apartment high rises are also on the drawing board.

Rent at One Light starts at $900 a month. There are also estimates that that downtown might gain up to 4,000 new housing units in the next several years.