Hyde Park residents want to see more security at Carmen Building

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Just down the street from the Main and Linwood intersection is where you’ll find the Carmen Building in the Old Hyde Park neighborhood- the neighborhood Lynda and Tom Morse-Brown call home.

“Whatever they do to preserve the historic nature of the building, I think would really do the neighborhood really well and proud,” said Tom.

“It would make us feel good about living here continued in that vain.”

The couple says they’ve seen the roughly one-century-old building become a target of crime since iron gates came down more than a year ago.

“We look out one day, and people are breaking in,” said Tom.

“And the next minute there was a fence going up around the whole building which looked like the building was going to be demolished.”

Dr. Paramjeet Sabharwal is the building’s current owner. He says the initial plan was the demolish the building, but that came to a halt when he heard about the plans to get it on the Kansas City Register of Historic Places.

As they wait to see if it gets registered, residents say a piece of history shouldn’t become an eyesore.

“We saw people move in graffiti, violence and drugs,” said Lynda Morse-Brown.

Dr. Sabharwal says he’s been in talks with the city about securing the building, boarding up broken windows, including tearing down some of the storage spaces in the back.

He didn’t want to go on camera with FOX4 but shared that he felt good about the discussion and heard the people’s orders.

“I hope he communicates with the neighborhood,” said Lynda.

“He works closely with the neighborhood, I hope he secures the building.”

Dr. Sabharwal shared that he was very interested in this building because it’s not far from the Streetcar extensions. He also talked about making it a community space with residential spaces on the top floor.

Again, everything depends on if this building gets its spot on the historic registry. That decision could come soon, as one more committee stands in its way from reaching the full City Council.

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