500 East 3rd Street
Kansas City, MO 64106

The former cold storage building was built in 1922 by the U.S. Cold Storage Company of Chicago.  The Kansas City building joined similar buildings owned by the company in Chicago, Detroit and Dallas.

The facility had more than 38 million cubic feet of refrigerated space, almost as much as in the entire New York City metropolitan area at the time. The company also sold up to 100 tons of ice to local customers.  To keep the temperatures in the six-story warehouse at zero degrees or lower, the building had 13-inch-thick walls insulated with cork.  Chilled saltwater was then pumped through a 77-mile long network of pipes from locomotive-sized condensers in the basement of the building.  Having been essentially frozen for more than 80 years, the interior of the building had to be thawed out before renovation could begin.  This defrosting process took nearly six months!

The 450,000 square foot building was built with very few windows.  Windows were only present in the southern facade, overlooking downtown.  After a long negotiation process with the U.S. Department of the Interiror, the developer was allowed to cut an additional 142 7' by 14' windows in the exterior and still be eligible for historic tax credits.

In late 2005, a $35 million renovation began to convert this building into 224 apartments.  The one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments will range from 700 to 1,200 square feet. Ninety percent of the apartments will be set aside for the affordable-housing program, with rents ranging from $575 to $775 per month. The market-rate units will rent for $800 to $1,300 per month.

Residents will be able to enjoy a rooftop pool, rooftop running track, exercise room, enough indoor parking for 130 cars and an additional 150 outdoorparking spaces.

Renovation was completed in 2007.