Grand Plans For Armour Boulevard

Five neglected once grand apartment buildings on Armour are to be given a second chance with a proposed renovation project. Antheus Capital LLC, a New Jersey real estate investment company wants to spend $30 million to do the job. "The buildings, which once housed young urban professionals of Kansas City during the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, are in varying degrees of deterioration." Tax abatement will be asked for the project. "The grandest of the brick structures purchased by Antheus is the Bellerive, a nine-story apartment building at 214 E. Armour. It was built as a hotel-apartment building in 1922 and also was the location of one of the city's hottest nightclubs, the El Casbah Club, where the likes of Billie Holiday, Harry James and Duke Ellington performed. The others are Clyde Manor, 350 E. Armour, a nine-story building erected in 1920; Park Central, 300 E. Armour, eight stories, 1930; Yankee Hill, 3430 Gillham Road, 1914; and a 1920s vintage apartment building at 3411 Gillham." The monthly rates will be from low $500 to $900.