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TheCrossroads, officially theCrossroads Arts District, is aneighborhood within theGreater Downtown area ofKansas City, Missouri, with a population of 10,179.[1] It is centered at approximately 19th Street and Baltimore Avenue, directly south of theDowntown Loop and north ofCrown Center. It is the city's mainart gallery district and center for thevisual arts. Dozens of galleries are located in its renovated warehouses and industrial buildings. It is also home to numerous restaurants,housewares shops,architects,designers, anadvertising agency, and other visual artists. The district also has severallive music venues.
The district has become known for being home to manycraft breweries. An area of the Crossroads is known as "Brewer's Alley" because of the high concentration of breweries all within walking distance.[2]
Numerous buildings in the neighborhood are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, including theTWA Corporate Headquarters Building,Western Auto Building, and Firestone Building. There are two historic groups of buildings also on the Register—Work Class Hotels at 19th & Main Streets (consisting of theMidwest Hotel,Monroe Hotel, andRieger Hotel) and Crossroads Historic Freight District (industrial buildings clustered along the tracks north ofUnion Station).[3]
The Crossroads district is also home to one of the county's largest remaining[citation needed] examples of a Film Row district. The Film Row district consists of 17 buildings.[citation needed] Following the demolition of a Film Row building, the Film Row district was placed on Missouri Preservation's 2013 list of "watched properties".[4]
TheKansas City Star andThe Pitch maintain offices in the neighborhood, along withHOK andBarkley. TheBelger Arts Center is also located in the district.
First held in late August 2005, the Crossroads Music Festival is an annual event organized by Spice of Life Productions, which features local music artists. The 2005 event was held at Grinder's Sculpture Park (Crossroads KC) at 18th Street and Locust Street. In addition to concert performances, offerings includeshort films by localindependent filmmakers and booths offering apparel by local designers, local independent print media, andcarnival games.
The Crossroads Arts PIEA is a tax abatement program in the Crossroads Arts District specifically designed for properties with arts and cultural uses, including:
In 2006 as the Crossroads began to flourish and prices increase, the Crossroads Community Association recognized the need to save their creative artistic neighborhood. Meetings were scheduled with the Mayor, City Council and the Economic Development Corporation of Kansas City to establish the Planned Industrial Expansion Authority (PIEA) which ensures the continued affordability of the community for artists for years to come. The General Development Plan for the Crossroads Arts PIEA was approved by City Council of Kansas City, Missouri on March 29, 2007, via City Ordinance NO. 070192. The General Development Plan (GDP) was revised by the PIEA Board on April 21, 2009 to reflect a change in staffing for the Arts PIEA from the EDC to the PIEA. Arts uses for properties must occupy at least 51% of the square footage of the property in order to be eligible for the program.
Out of a total of 668 property parcels in the Crossroads in 2007, there are 36 properties (5.4% of the total) participating in the program as of January 2015.[5]