‘Invest with women we know’: This $1.4M wellness hub project is redeveloping one neighborhood from within 

It’s an old real estate adage: “Buy the worst house in the best neighborhood.”

Longtime Kansas City commercial broker Sheryl Vickers said it also applies to business properties, “one thousand percent.” 

Like twin mid-century office buildings just over the Missouri/Kansas state line in Prairie Village. 

“I drove by it, what a sad state,” said Vickers, president of Select Sites. “The coolest property with cool lines but not being maintained. It looked unloved. And we are trained — that is a transaction to be done.”

Now, six months after Vickers and other investors purchased and started rehabbing the buildings, they plan to reopen the space this spring as CURATED. — a one-stop wellness hub, curated with the “best and brightest” in health, beauty and wellness.

A rendering of the future CURATED. in Prairie Village; courtesy image

A blank canvas interior at the future CURATED. in Prairie Village; courtesy photo

The Prairie Village resident had long looked for an investment site in her city but said most of the properties had already been redeveloped. When she saw a “for lease” sign on the buildings — 2108 to 2110 W. 75th St. — she started negotiations, not to lease but to buy the properties. 

Vickers partnered with 21 members of Women in Real Estate Development (WIRED), a resource and mentoring group for commercial investments, that Vickers co-founded.

From the archives: WIRED together: How mentorship led 22 women to a million-dollar investment

The women bought the buildings in August for $900,000 and are putting in $500,000 to refurbish them. The investors include an architect, a construction manager, a property manager, and a broker. Half are “Prairie Village moms, buying and owning in their own community.” 

“Communities should be developing their own neighborhoods,” Vickers said. “We are a very tight group and we like to invest with women we know. Women are jazzed up to buy stuff.”

Sheryl Vickers, Select Sites, WIRED, outside the future home of CURATED. in Prairie Village; photo by Joyce Smith

A 1958 ad in The Kansas City Star referred to the “attractive new buildings” in a convenient south location with excellent parking.

The former exterior of the properties at 2108 to 2110 W. 75th St. in Prairie Village; courtesy image

But by 2024, they were in disrepair. Their most recent tenants were on month-to-month leases. 

The bland cream color exterior was peeling. Vickers replaced it with a classic tarragon blue with wood trim, and put in new doors, windows and LED lighting. 

Old carpet inside has been replaced by laminate plank wood flooring, the walls now a soft white.

Mayumi (Swedish/deep tissue/shiatsu/myotherapy) and Scents of Touch (massage and more) will stay on as “legacy tenants” at higher rents than previously, but lower rents than new tenants. Vickers expects their revenues to increase under CURATED. 

Rent will be $800 to $2,800 a month depending on square footage. Spaces range from 250-to-1,000 square feet. A micro-market will feature healthy bites and have a patio.

“I want to make an impact on a neighborhood but I also want to make a good return for my partners,” she said.

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Startland News contributor Joyce Smith covered local restaurants and retail for nearly 40 years with The Kansas City Star. Click here to follow her on Bluesky, here for X (formerly Twitter), here for Facebook, here for Instagram, and by following #joyceinkc on Threads.