New plan for 125 N. Market is on hold while developer secures financing

A deal to buy and renovate 125 N. Market downtown did not close as expected in December, but that doesn’t mean it’s not happening, the developer said.

“We’re at the one-inch line and, really, we’ve just got to punch it through,” Sean Crawford said.

He is leading the redevelopment of the 1962 building, which at 19 floors once was the tallest in Kansas. He plans a live-work-play concept with apartments, offices, retail and a sky park with a pool and numerous amenities.

The deal was supposed to close on Dec. 23

“We gave him another opportunity to do an option . . . to extend for 30 days,” said Craig Simon of Landmark Commercial Real Estate.

He represents Salt Lake City-based Security National Life Insurance, which took over the property when Real Development defaulted on a loan in 2007.

Simon said for Crawford to get the extension, he would have had to pay more money into escrow, which he opted not to do.

“For strategic and legal reasons, we decided to let the contract expire,” Crawford said.

The bulk of the $53 million project will go toward redevelopment — not the purchase of the existing building.

Crawford said he has $51 million of that sourced.

“The last problem we’re having is nobody wants that liability of the building as it stands,” he said.

In addition to issues with the building itself, he said the office market keeps getting worse.

“This COVID has sped that up.”

Plus, the building is on land leases, meaning whoever buys it won’t own the ground under it.

“There’s definitely been some hurdles and some problems that we’ve solved,” Crawford said.

He said he has “a couple more problems to solve,” but the pandemic isn’t helping.

“Everything’s harder.”

Simon suggested to Crawford to “just come back when you’re ready.”

If Crawford can raise all the necessary money, Simon said, “Then we’ll close quickly.”

However, he said, “Meanwhile . . . I’ve been told by my sellers to start remarketing the property.”

Simon said it’s his understanding that other local buyers are interested.

He also said that Security National Life Insurance has put $9 million into the building since taking over.

“They’ve done a wonderful job of being a good owner of that building. More so than they have to.”

There’s no list price for the building.

“The redevelopment cost is going to be much more than the cost of the building,” Simon said.

“I think Sean’s got a great idea. I think he’s got a very creative idea, and I hope for his sake and the city’s sake he’s able to pull it off because it would be good for all of us.”

Simon said he likes that local companies — SPT Architecture and Jaco General Contractor — are involved.

“That’s good for us all.”

Simon said Crawford is “a very ambitious young man, and I want him to be successful.”

Crawford said he’s not sure how long the final steps will take, but he’s confident the project will happen.

“It’s very much still an alive deal on our end,” he said.

“It’s going to be one heck of a project to be proud of when we’re done.”

This story was originally published January 11, 2021 at 1:19 PM.