Topekan Jim Klausman buys Clock Tower Menninger after the Housing Plan falls – AOL

Developer Jim Klausman has bought the emblematic property of Clock Tower Menninger from Kansas City, Missouri, company, after his plans to turn the tower into housing at affordable prices for adult citizens.

“They just felt that they couldn’t finish the deal and turn,” Klausman, Topekan, in front of the metropolitan journal on Thursday.

He said he was aware of how important the Topekan tower was and wanted to ensure that his property was reserved local.

Klausman works with the Topeka -based Schwerdt Design Group group about the future of the property, but there are no direct plans for it, he said.

“We were just really interested in preserving the building,” he said. “At some point it will be a great endeavor to rehabilitate this building, but we know that this is important for Topeka.”

The office recordings of the show show show that the purchase was made on June 25 by the Topeca -based Clock Tower LLC, which Klausman said he was managing alone.

The previous owner, Kansas City, based in Missouri Sunflower Development Group, announced in April 2023 that he bought the property and plans to turn it into an affordable housing.

Jason Swords, managing a partner of Sunflower Development Group, did not respond Thursday to telephone messages left by the journal.

What is the Menninger Clock Tower?

The office records of the show in Shawni show that the ownership of the Menninger Clock clock has a valuation of $ 464,190.

The tower stands at 5800 SW 6th Ave. In the former campus of the famous psychiatric clinic Menninger, precisely northeast of the SW 6th and Wanamaker Road.

The tower is indicated in the register of historic sites in Kansas and the National Register of Historic Places.

The construction of this building was completed in 1924, according to the website of the Kansas Historical Society.

The Meninger Clinic has become one of the most famous psychiatric hospitals in the world. He left Topeka in 2003

The property was acquired in 2007 by Colorado -based SCL Health, also known as the Sisters of Charity of Leanworth Health System Inc.

SCL Health merged in April 2022 with Intermountain Health Care and took the name of that company.

Why was the clock tower considered endangered?

SCL Health sought permission to destroy the clock tower at the end of 2020 by Topeka’s city government.

It says he has spent more than $ 500,000 over the years, keeping the building structurally safe and healthy, but is no longer considered to be sustainable.

Topeka’s city government declined to accept the property as a donation due to the high cost of maintaining the building, SCL said.

The Topeca Sightseeing Commission in January 2021 refused the request for a permit to destroy SCL.

A SCL spokesman said in February 2021 that if the SCL fails to find a suitable partner to buy the building, it would exercise its opportunity to appeal the refusal from the request for a permit to destroy the Mayor and the Topeka Municipal Council.

The property was then purchased in April 2023 by the Sunflower Development Group, which has carried out various historical conservation projects, including twice turning closed schools into accessible senior residential complexes.

Contact Tim Hrenchir at [email protected] or 785-213-5934.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Menninger Tower Property purchased by Topekan Jim Klausman