Second Briarcliff apartment complex celebrates completion

Briarcliff Development Co. plans a ribbon cutting Tuesday on its $42.5 million apartment complex that has added 340 high-end residential units to the Northland.

The Landing at Briarcliff, which accepted its first tenants in September and now is 55 percent leased, has nine residential buildings, a club house, and a stand-alone fitness facility.

“The fitness center is a real plus,” said Richie Benninghoven, the development company’s president. “We may give a tenant a free session with a personal trainer or a massage as an incentive for signing a lease.”

Other tenant incentives include a large, heated, outdoor saltwater pool, pet-friendly buildings, community garden plots, and — something that’s proved popular — the ability to paint accent walls in the units.

The company allows one living room wall and one wall in each bedroom to be painted according to tenant choice, choosing from a provided palette of bright red, slate gray, navy blue and yellow.

“Slate gray is winning,” Benninghoven said.

The Landing’s four-story brick and stucco buildings are the second apartment complex on the hilly property developed by the Garney family that overlooks the Missouri River north of downtown Kansas City.

The company spent years filling in The Landing site to raise all of the ground at least 25 feet higher than the highest recorded river flooding. Today, the river is about 400 feet away from the 48-acre property, which has a protective retaining wall and matting to resist erosion.

Apartments, ranging from $900 to $1,795 a month, are one-, two- and two-plus-a-den units. Each building has an elevator.

NSPJ Architects designed the project and HarenLaughlin Construction was the general contractor.

“We possibly could add more units, depending how the rest of the year develops,” Benninghoven said. “We’re monitoring the market. So far, we’ve been hitting about 25 new leases a month. If that keeps up we should be in a good place by the end of the year. But there’s a lot of product coming on line right now, so we have to watch.”