Garfield East Senior Cottages

About This Project

Garfield East Senior Cottages is an 8-unit affordable rental community for seniors aged 55 and older, built across two new cottage-style buildings on seven previously vacant, long-blighted lots along the 39th Street Corridor in Kansas City's Ivanhoe neighborhood. The development is led by the Ivanhoe Neighborhood Council (INC), a 501(c)(3) community development corporation that has worked to plan, design, and rebuild in Ivanhoe since 1967.

Every unit is a two-bedroom, single-story cottage designed to meet ADA Standards for Accessible Design and ENERGY STAR efficiency requirements — wide doorways, step-free entrances, grab bars, and slip-resistant flooring throughout, paired with high-performance windows, insulation, and HVAC systems that keep utility costs low for residents on fixed incomes. Rents are set well below market: two units at $800/month for households at 31–50% Area Median Income, and six units at $850/month for households at 51–60% AMI, against a fair-market two-bedroom rent of $1,090 in the surrounding zip code.

The project has already weathered a difficult road. Construction began under a previous contractor and reached roughly 85% completion before an organizational leadership transition, a lapsed builder's insurance policy, and vandalism to the site forced INC to end that contract in late 2024. Since then, a rebuilt board and new executive leadership have restored momentum: the related 38th Terrace roadway extension serving the site was completed in December 2024, and INC has retained Greenwood Construction — led by the project's own project director — to carry the cottages through to completion, with construction resuming in mid-2026 and occupancy targeted for February 2027.

Project highlights:

• 8 total units across two buildings — a 3-plex and a 5-plex — on seven remediated, formerly vacant lots
• All units are 2-bedroom, 1,029 sq ft, ADA-compliant, and ENERGY STAR certified
• Rents fixed at $800–$850/month for residents earning 31–60% AMI, affordable for a minimum of 30 years
• Reserved for seniors 55 and older, with on-site access to INC's wraparound senior services (Medicare Mondays, tech help, a farmers market nutrition program, and more)
• Site sits on land previously remediated of more than 1,700 tons of lead-contaminated soil under a prior HUD/EPA brownfield cleanup
• Developer: Ivanhoe Neighborhood Council · Architect: Wallace Architects · General Contractor: Greenwood Construction

Beyond the eight homes themselves, the project is meant to anchor the broader revitalization of the 39th Street Corridor — transforming lots that had drawn illegal dumping and vandalism into a well-maintained, community-rooted home for long-time Ivanhoe residents, and helping protect the neighborhood's older, fixed-income residents from displacement as investment returns to the area.