Urban Acupuncture

June 27, 2024

Words by Gloria Gale | Photos by Jordan Wyatt Ashley

Visionary planners convert two abandoned yet beautiful limestone buildings into a new hotspot for Black-owned businesses.

few blocks south of the 18th and Vine district in Kansas City, Missouri, two former public works buildings have been transformed into a brewery, an art gallery, an event space and more.

The 150-year-old limestone buildings at 2000 Vine previously housed the city’s water and street departments. Vacant since the late 1970s, the structures were on the city’s list of dangerous buildings—the windows were boarded up, walls were tagged by graffiti and roofs had caved in.

Landscape architect and urban planner Tim Duggan, owner of Phronesis, hatched the brilliant idea to convert the blighted 10,000-square-foot buildings into a mixed-use and retail development.

He pitched it to real-estate attorney Shomari Benton, his former Beacon Hill neighbor, and Jason Parson, the president and CEO of Parson + Associates, a local public relations firm. The trio of partners bought the city property in 2017.

Tim, who specializes in a design approach known as “urban acupuncture,” saw the project as a natural progression of his passion for revitalizing old buildings.

“It’s super-intense work, and it’s super-intense craziness,” he says. “But it’s also not really work because it’s what I enjoy.”

The renovations at 2000 Vine honor the buildings’ storied history with a contemporary update. New roofs and windows were installed, but traces of graffiti remain on the walls and floors.

Today, the former water department has an open floor plan with sleek white offices for Shomari’s law firm—Benton Lloyd & Chung LLP—Phronesis, and Lillian James Creative. The large arched windows provide views of the downtown skyline.

On the lower level, the former workhorse stable now houses the Warren Harvey Art Gallery—displaying walls lined with the painter’s vibrant creations—as well as Keno G Ink, a tattoo and piercing shop. An in-house event space also features a bar from a locally milled walnut tree from 35th and Benton Boulevard.

“Finding the right tenant mix was one that we welcomed,” Shomari explains. “[Through] community outreach, figuring out what the community wanted from this project, [and] what it didn’t want from this project.”

Gold designs on the converted street department’s front-exterior windows preview the businesses inside. One tenant is Vine Street Brewing Co., launched in 2023—Kansas City’s first Black-owned brewery. Spanning two floors of taprooms, the thriving brewery hosts live music, trivia and bingo nights.

A wooden piano-key wall separates Vine Street Brewing Co. from its neighbor, The Spot—a café, grocery store and job-training facility, which also opened in 2023. There, employees are enrolled in Chef Shanita McAfee-Bryant’s culinary training program called The Prospect KC.

An outdoor patio of salvaged cobblestones connects the exterior of the two buildings at 2000 Vine. In May 2023, the partners were awarded Central City Economic Development (CCED) funds to add even “more robust outdoor amenities” to the nearly two-acre property by the fall of 2025.

“The intent was to have an outdoor, flexible community space,” Tim says, referring to the property’s potential for accommodating private events or a public beer garden. “So I think that’s our ultimate goal—a destination on Vine that can reinforce [and] complement the tenant mix.”

Venue | Art Gallery | Workspace: 2000vine.com

Landscape | Planning | Infrastructure: Phronesis, @phronesis_kc