Home is now where the mart is
By Tim Engle
Kansas City Star
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Geoff Hester could see himself living on the Plaza. But when he and his girlfriend were looking for an apartment together, Zona Rosa made more sense: She works minutes away, in Parkville, Mo. His family is nearby.
Yep. Zona Rosa. You might think it's just a shopping center, but Zona Rosa's management prefers to call it an "all-encompassing environment," a "New Urbanist town center."
And that includes loft-style apartments on three floors above Helzberg Diamonds and the Sprint Store.
Hester likes it here. Zona Rosa boasts restaurants, stores, a comedy club — lots to do. He can get home from work Friday evening and not have to get back in his Jeep until Monday.
Still, he'll tell you that living in Zona Rosa "really is like you're inside an open-air mall, to some extent. It doesn't really flow into other neighborhoods like the Plaza does. That's why the Plaza doesn't seem like a mall."
Rising from a chair, Hester surveys the scene from his three big living room windows. There's Sunglass Hut and Watch Station just across the street. Plus there's Sharper Image, the LatteLand coffee shop (to open any day now) and Zona Rosa's children's park, a small green space with a fountain.
"It looks like a Hollywood movie set," Hester says. "Everything is too perfect."
The people who designed Zona Rosa, on 93 acres near Interstate 29 and Barry Road in Kansas City, might not mind the comparison, at least the perfect part. Zona Rosa looks pristine because it's new — just two years old.
It's the development's variety of architecture that helps give it a Hollywood — or maybe Disney World — look, and that's by design. Zona Rosa tries to capture the best of Main Street USA. It feels both small-town and big-city.
These upper-floor apartments are a nod to yesteryear, which is not to say you can't find people living above businesses in other downtown areas. The idea is that Zona Rosa is pretty much a self-contained community: You can shop here, eat here, be entertained here — and live here.
The lofts, in Zona Rosa's tallest building, offer something unique, general manager Rosemary Salerno says.
" 'Do you have a pool?' No, we don't have a pool. 'Do you have a workout room?' No, we don't have a workout room," Salerno says. "Really, for us, the development is the amenity."
For now, living in Zona Rosa is something of a novelty: There are just 24 high-end apartments in the one building. Zona Rosa's second phase, though, will add 120 to 160 more apartments above new stores. They should be ready by the middle of 2008. New Urbanist projects are typically dense, mixed-use developments with walkable streets and easy access to transit.
In other words, anti-suburbia.
New Urbanist projects are a trend nationwide. Elsewhere in the Kansas City area, the site of the former Mission Center mall is being transformed into the Gateway, a 17-acre mixed-use development that will include a residential tower.
Plans for Zona Rosa's Phase 2 aren't complete yet, but general manager Salerno hopes a grocery store makes the list. A post office would be nice. So would a gym.
If you live here, though, you're not likely to be asked about New Urbanism. More likely, someone will wonder how quiet it is. Especially on weekends, when the place is hopping, or when there's live music in the nearby "Town Square."
Noise isn't a problem, says Penny Sutter, who has a second-floor corner apartment. "And when I want to hear the noise, I can open my windows and hear the music. I loved it at Christmastime when you could hear the carolers walking around singing. It really had almost a Dickens 'Christmas Carol'-type feel."
Sutter is a Zona Rosa retailer. Several people moved here because of the proximity to Kansas City International Airport. But as in any neighborhood, everyone has a story. For instance:
Having watched the apartments being built, she decided to sell her home and move in. She doesn't miss the upkeep of a house. Here, everything is close. "It's like being in a little village," she says.
"To me it's very convenient," Willey says. "If I just want to walk out the door and get something to eat, I have lots of choices." And she loves to shop.
"It was a perfect place for a single guy," says Collins, ticking off what he likes: restaurants, Dick's Sporting Goods, Barnes & Noble, the live music. And he appreciates the apartment's finishes, like the granite countertops in the kitchen and bathroom.
"I'm not so much a city/downtown person anymore," says the San Francisco native. "I like a little more quiet, but when I want the city, I can get there."
Apartments on the building's north side have views of a parking garage and piles of dirt (where Phase 2 will be built). But Hester, who works for Sprint, and Yoder live on the south side, overlooking all the retail hustle and bustle.
"If you walk by, you'll probably see Geoff in the window," Yoder says. "You have your beer and hang out the window and people-watch. It's a good time."
