When it opens later this year, Zach Molzer's $38 million conversion of the Aladdin, a historic yet abandoned 16-story hotel, will redefine who gets to live in downtown Kansas City, Missouri – and how.
As an apartment building, the Aladdin will offer the sort of "creative class" amenities you'd expect in a trendy New York complex but rarely find in the heartland. (Think: a dog washing station, a sauna, and an in-building coworking space and coffee bar.) Yet rents for the Aladdin's studio and one-bed units start at just $1,100 a month and cap out at $1,900, making them affordable for people who earn between 60 and 85 percent of the area's median income. When we met him onsite at the Aladdin this spring, Molzer told GPLetters that he wants the building to serve recent college grads, who want to enjoy everything their urban core has to offer but currently struggle to find places where they can afford to live on their own.