The University of Missouri-Kansas City says it will tear down a 12-year-old student apartment building because of unsafe living conditions.
The Kansas City Star reports that the Oak Place Apartments, which provided living space for about 500 students until it was shut down in 2018 because of poor conditions, cannot be fixed and must be demolished.
“Preserving and repairing Oak Place would have been the preferred outcome,” university officials said. “However, ongoing inspections...revealed even more extensive damage than previously known.”
Both housing wings will be torn down this summer as well as associated retail space. The building’s parking garage will stay.
Campus leaders say they intend to develop new plans “for much-needed affordable student housing and retail on the site."
[FROM 2017: Leaky pipes are displacing more than 200 students at UMKC]
The university shut down the apartments in 2018 after students complained of major leaks from pipes, sagging floors and mold problems.
That year, the university sued Gould Evans Associates, JE Dunn Construction and other companies, contending they were “reckless” in the way they designed and constructed the building.
The lawsuit accused the companies of ignoring design problems that led to the troubles. The university says that it has reached a settlement agreement with insurance carriers, but it has not released details.
Oak Place Apartments opened in summer 2008 after construction crews demolished the dilapidated Twin Oaks apartments, which had stood on the site for nearly 60 years.
Oak Place had one-, two- and four-bedroom apartments. It was built by a private developer, which leased the land through a public/private deal that was considered an innovative arrangement at the time. The university bought the building in 2012 for $40.8 million.
