Driving along Gregory Boulevard you can't miss the old Brandsmart building.
But now the building's future is stagnant, the property owner facing a number of city citations.
When 41 Action News first started asking questions last summer about the future of the property, co-owner Christina Abnos gave an estimated completion date.
"We're hoping for six months it could go out to a year," Abnos said in July.
But eight months later, the brick pallets are in the same spot, the railing's plastic linings are now tattered and still only the pigeons call the 20,000 square foot building home.
"It's a nice looking building that could turn into something great I would think, but it doesn't seem like it's making any progress," Jeff Garrett, who works in Waldo said.
Abdiana Properties purchased the building a decade ago with plans to turn the first floor into retail space and put apartments on the second.
"Sometimes I would occasionally see one or two guys working over there but I haven't seen much for quite a while now," Garrett said.
We checked -- and the city has cited the property a number of times for trash and other problems which resulted with the owners going to housing court this past Thursday.
"One of the things that was mentioned was that he has windows coming in from China that he was waiting for several things," John Baccala, spokesperson for KCMO neighborhoods and housing services said.
The next day the city found more violations. Another court date is set at the end of march.
"The longer it does sit unoccupied and seemingly empty and without any progress going forward it does stagnant the process," Baccala said.
The city did issue the owners a work permit back in August.
On Monday, Christina Abnos told 41 Action News over the phone they've done some interior work but wouldn't go into specifics.
She adds it hurts that it has taken this long to finish the project.
But this time she didn't give us an updated completion date.
"We're hoping that this thing is going to keep moving forward and we can get some progress done on this particular project," Baccala said.
The city encourages people who see violations at this property to call 311.
------
Andres Gutierrez can be reached at andres.gutierrez@kshb.com
