Restaurants | AREA Real Estate Advisors

Jason’s Deli is making a move across Main Street in downtown Kansas City, into its new home at Town Pavilion. Town Pavilion just completed a $5 million lobby renovation. The family-owned business will be occupying 3,700 SF accessible from the lobby and will have an entrance and outdoor dining area on Petticoat Lane. Their previous location at the recently renovated lightwell office tower at 1100 Main Street, will be occupied by a new food hall concept from Menlo Food Labs.

AREA Real Estate Advisors worked with the company to find a location in the same neighborhood. “We know how beloved Jason’s was to the people in our building and so we took an active role in helping them find a location in the same neighborhood that would continue to serve lightwell tenants and the downtown community,” said AREA’s founder, Tim Schaffer.

The new location is anticipating a spring opening and launching to-go and delivery operations beginning next month. Jason’s Deli plans to vacate its current space at the end of December.

AREA’s project manager, Josh Scott, is helping Jason’s Deli with the move and the buildout of the new space as well as lightwell’s new food hall.

Click here for CityScene’s article on the move of Jason’s Deli.

Manaia Collective, a new restaurant group from Chef Howard Hanna, will open its two initial concepts, Small Axe city diner & Afi natural wine bar at City Club Apartments at 20th & Main Street in the Crossroads.  Construction is well on its way and the restaurants are targeting a late spring 2022 opening.

Small Axe, located at the corner of 20th & Main, is a progressive city diner for everyone. The menu will offer a modern, imaginative take on classic diner fare, serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The space is bright and buzzy, lively and upbeat, and a great meeting place.  Small Axe will feature a rooftop and street level patio, which will allow for pop-up events before the formal opening.

Afi, located at 1989 Main Street, is a natural wine bar with a worldview. Afi’s menu explores indigenous ingredients and techniques from North America, Africa, Asia and Latin America, and pairing those dishes with sustainable and natural wines. Open fire cooking on their hearth oven is the common ingredient. Their approach to food is one with a deep respect and a quest for learning. Afi will also feature a rooftop and street-level patio.

ABOUT THE COLLECTIVE:

The Manaia Collective is a group that is passionate about the hospitality industry and its opportunity to connect with the community. Unfortunately, the industry has been broken due to the pandemic, which brought a lack of sustainability for business owners, as well as poor quality of life for employees.  Manaia Collective was formed to change the status quo. The group believes every hospitality worker deserves living wages, healthcare benefits, work/life balance, opportunities for advancement, and an opportunity to have a real career in the hospitality industry.  The group’s new hospitality model focuses on these values:

     – Quality of Life
     – A Path for Growth
     – Sustainability in All Areas
     – Healthy Environments
     – Emphasis on Community

Visit their website to learn more about Manaia Collective, and for an opportunity to invest in the mission, click here.

AREA’s Tiffany Ruzicka handled the leasing for both restaurant transactions and Josh Scott is the Project Manager on the build out of both spaces.

Click here for MetroWire Media’s article on Manaia Collective.

Click here for The Kansas City Star’s article on Manaia Collective.

Click here for the Kansas City Business Journal’s article on Manaia Collective.

Menlo Food Labs will bring a “one-of-a-kind culinary experience” to the lightwell office tower at 11th & Main downtown next spring. Menlo Food Labs is the parent company to Strang Hall food hall in Downtown Overland Park.  Called the Strang Chef Collective at lightwell, the space will include two chef-driven restaurant concepts offering breakfast, lunch, and dinner and will include coffee, tea, juice and shakes as well as a full-service bar. It will have a casual modern feel with communal seating, including outdoor dining on Main Street.

“The chef collective concept is a great fit for lightwell,” said Tim Schaffer, AREA Real Estate Advisors president. “The building is very entrepreneurial and the addition of curated, chef-driven food will really add to the next-generation amenities that lightwell already offers.”

Strang Chef Collective will span 4,805 SF on the ground floor of the building, formerly Jason’s Deli. AREA worked with Jason’s Deli to keep them close by, and they will open across the street at Town Pavilion in early 2022.  Made in KC will also be opening on the ground floor of lightwell early next year, in the former Starbucks space.

This will be Menlo’s second Kansas City location, with plans to grow across the country.

For more on Strang Chef Collective at lightwell, click here for the Kansas City Business Journal’s feature and here for a piece from Startland News.

AREA handles the leasing as well as the property management for lightwell office tower. For leasing information, click here.

The City Club Apartment’s mixed-use development in the Crossroads will soon be home to two new restaurant concepts from Chef Howard Hanna. Located on the northeast corner of 20th & Main Street, the restaurants will include a wine bar/restaurant as well as a city diner concept.

Split between 6,000 SF, the city diner will take roughly 4,500 square feet and will offer breakfast options, soups, salads and sandwiches. The Natural Wine bar’s roughly 1,500 square foot space will an intimate setting with a large bar and seating for around 50. The menu will include a mix of both small plates and entrees. Both restaurants will have rooftop and street level patios, and will open later this year. The street level patio will be host to pop-up events before the formal restaurant openings.

Chef Howard is best known as the owner-chef for The Rieger for over 10 years, as well as chef-owner of Ça Va in Westport. With the help of Chef Howard, Helix Architecture + Design’s team is the brains behind the design of the spaces.

Both restaurants are slated to open later this year. AREA’s Tiffany Ruzicka handled the leasing for both transactions and Josh Scott is the Project Manager on the build out.

City Club Apartments is a 7-story building, 54-unit apartment complex featuring studio to 3-bedroom penthouses, townhouses, and duplexes.