Anybody who has driven Metcalf Avenue through downtown Overland Park knows the empty lot at 8036 Metcalf. It won't be empty much longer.
Hunt Midwest broke ground on Monday, Oct. 5, on Canvas, a luxury apartment building with 227 one- and two-bedroom units and more than 5,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and restaurant space. According to Hunt Midwest's announcement, construction is underway and the building is expected to open in early 2029.
Hunt Midwest's release didn't put a price on the project. KMBC reported it as a $90 million apartment building and called the site the last vacant lot in downtown Overland Park.
"Canvas is the next chapter in downtown Overland Park's incredible renaissance over the past few years and will bring even more residents and visitors to the heart of our city," Mayor Curt Skoog said.
Who's on the team
Here's the part contractors will want first. Hunt Midwest lists Brinkmann Constructors on the Canvas development team, along with BRR Architecture, Security Bank, REACTOR Design, Tran + Thomas Design Studio, and the law firms Polsinelli and Seigfreid Bingham. Brinkmann is the construction firm on that list, so it's the one to call about trade packages.
The building is designed to match the scale of the existing downtown streetscape while packing in a long amenity list. Plans call for a pool with poolside grill stations and a bar area, a covered dog park with dog washing stations, a fitness center with a yoga studio and sauna, on-site coworking space, a clubhouse and game room, and a four-seasons garden room.
Parking is a big piece of the job. Every resident gets private, secure parking, and the project adds another 49 public parking spaces for downtown shoppers, diners and visitors.
"Canvas will offer first-class residences with industry-leading amenities while maximizing a long-underutilized location on the city's vital Metcalf corridor," said Brenner Holland, senior vice president at Hunt Midwest.
Part of a bigger plan
Canvas sits across the street from The Vue, Hunt Midwest's first luxury apartment building in Overland Park, finished in 2019. Hunt Midwest calls The Vue one of the catalysts for downtown's revitalization over the past decade.
KMBC tied the new project to the city's Vision Metcalf plan, introduced in 2008, which has guided redevelopment along the corridor for 18 years. The station also cited the city's 2025 development report, which shows more than $2.6 billion in residential and nonresidential building permits issued as part of the city's growth.
The new building is meant to connect residents to the walkable downtown, including the historic main street on Santa Fe Drive, the Matt Ross Community Center, Thompson Park and the Downtown Overland Park Farmers' Market, which recently opened at Clock Tower Landing.
The deal also includes a community piece. As part of its public-private partnership with the city, Hunt Midwest will contribute $5,000 a year to the Friends of Johnson County Development Services to support the Floyd Street Apartments, attainable and accessible homes designed to help people with disabilities live independently.
Business leaders are on board. "Bringing new households and additional retail and restaurant space to the heart of downtown means more customers for our locally owned businesses that give our city center its character," said Tracey Osborne Oltjen, president and CEO of the Overland Park Chamber of Commerce.
Hunt Midwest is a Kansas City-based developer with six decades in industrial, self-storage, residential, multifamily and senior living projects and more than $3 billion in developed projects, according to the company. It's part of the Lamar Hunt family's holdings, which also include the Kansas City Chiefs.
Why it matters for Contractors
A 227-unit building with secure resident parking, ground-floor retail and a resort-style amenity package is a full menu of work: excavation and foundations, concrete, framing or structural, roofing, a big MEP scope, elevators, a pool, and a lot of interior finish work across hundreds of units. The retail and restaurant space will bring its own tenant finish work down the road. With an early 2029 opening, the schedule runs a little over two years, so many trade packages are likely to be bought in the coming months. Brinkmann Constructors is the name to get in front of if you want a piece of this job, and with Vision Metcalf still reshaping the corridor, downtown Overland Park keeps adding work for contractors who can handle tight urban infill sites.