Historic preservation plans to develop Topeka’s iconic Menninger Clock Tower

Sunflower Development Group has twice turned shuttered schools into affordable senior housing complexes. Now the Kansas City, Missouri-based company plans to do the same thing with Topeka’s iconic Menninger Clock Tower. The clock tower building is listed on the Register of Historic Kansas Places and the National Register of Historic Places. “It’s an awesome building and we’re looking forward to doing this renovation,” said Jason Swords, SDG’s founding partner.

Sunflower Development Group was recently awarded a $637,500 grant by the state of Kansas, and is waiting to hear whether it will receive the tax credits it is seeking for the project from the Kansas Housing Resources Corp. The company hopes to close within 45 days on its purchase of the property and to start work later this year to create 65 units of affordable senior housing.

SDG has been involved in many historic preservation projects including two that turned schools into tranquil, affordable housing complexes for senior citizens.

Those were an $18 million project completed in 2017 that converted Kansas City, Missouri’s former Faxon School into 48 units of affordable senior housing, and an $11 million project completed in 2018 that converted Kansas City, Missouri’s former Blenheim School into 52 units of affordable senior housing.

SDG is teaming up on the project with the architectural firm TreanorHL, which has a Topeka office.

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