KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – Kansas City’s skyline is getting bigger. Starting next year, construction of a new high-rise apartment building will begin on the north side of downtown.

The 25-story, 385-foot-tall tower will be built at 800 Grand Avenue, where a parking garage currently sits. The developer, BR Companies, is excited to break ground in the KC market.

“You have to have the right environment for investment,” said Ryan Sullivan, BR Companies’ Chief Development Officer. “If you think about Kansas City and you’re playing bingo, you yell out ‘Bingo!’ pretty quickly.”

The tower is expected to have more than 300 units, as well as 24,000 square feet of retail space and parking. Construction is expected to begin in the second half of 2025.

“The city has a vision to make Grand ‘grand,’” Sullivan said. “It’s a civil project they’ve been envisioning for a while now.”

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BR Companies is based out of Los Angeles. They say friendly local government, a strong local sports scene, and CPKC Stadium made Kansas City a market they wanted to build in. City Manager Brian Platt helped BR Companies make the announcement at the annual “State of Downtown” address Wednesday, Nov. 20.

“We’re welcoming everybody here to Kansas City,” Platt said. “It’s the coolest city in the country by far. We’re on the map in a lot of ways for a lot of different reasons. That energy, that vibe, is bringing people here. They want to move here, they want to live here, they want to be part of the action.”

This week, Kansas City is in the national sports limelight with CPKC Stadium hosting the NWSL Championship.

“It’s a massive, massive help and asset,” said Sullivan. “From our perspective, more is more. The more people that are participating in the market cement the reasons why people want to live here, work here, and spend time here.”

“The stadium is a national example of how downtown urban sports arenas, and other types of arenas, can drive new development,” said Platt. “The success of the stadium is leading to I think $1 billion of new development that’s coming afterwards, which is unprecedented in Kansas City.”

BR Companies said it is still the “schematic design phase” of the new apartment building, but the company expects to break ground in the third quarter of 2025.

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IOWA CITY — The miles are piling up early and so are the growth opportunities for Iowa women’s basketball.

For already the third time this season, Jan Jensen’s Hawkeyes will venture away from Carver-Hawkeye Arena for an intriguing non-conference affair. Iowa (4-0) will take its perfect mark to the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D., for Wednesday’s 6 p.m. matchup against Kansas (4-0). The Hawkeyes have won 19 of their last 22 neutral-site games.

This South Dakota showdown is loaded with storylines as these Hawkeyes continue growing together in this young season. Here are three things to watch ahead of Wednesday’s matchup.

Can Iowa take advantage of Kansas’ lack of road experience?

Iowa’s non-conference schedule is the perfect blend of interesting but not overwhelming matchups that can be productive in numerous ways.

The Hawkeyes have already conquered two key ones with wins against Virginia Tech in Charlotte and at Drake on Sunday. Those games away from home should have Iowa ready to handle the quirkiness Sanford Pentagon presents.

Conversely, Wednesday will be the Jayhawks’ first game away from Allen Fieldhouse this season following double-digit home wins over Lindenwood (56-43), Sam Houston (66-51), Omaha (75-56) and North Alabama (81-64). Those victories look good on paper but haven’t offered much adversity to hurdle.

Successfully conquering the first road trip is always an early-season objective, no matter what the roster looks like. Having long cleared that benchmark already, Iowa hopes to catch Kansas off-guard in that regard.

Taylor McCabe believes confidence is growing by the game for Iowa women’s basketball

Taylor McCabe believes confidence is growing by the game for Iowa women’s basketball

Will the Hawkeyes keep their early defensive success going against a versatile Kansas lineup?

Even with Drake guard Katie Dinnebier popping off for 40 points Sunday, the Hawkeyes still delivered a better defensive effort than usual in the Knapp Center. Iowa’s 86-73 win was the fewest points yielded at Drake since 2012.

Now comes the challenge of spinning the defensive confidence forward versus an entirely different look. The versatility of North Dakota State transfer Elle Evans and freshman Reagan Williams, in particular, will put players like Hannah Stuelke and Teagan Mallegni in different defensive spots

“(Kansas’) ‘4s’ are like ‘2s’ and ‘3s’. And (Hannah and Teagan) haven’t guarded that yet,” Jensen said. “We guarded small ball (against Drake). … But this particular ‘4’ matchup, they put it on the floor a little bit more with ease. Kansas’ ‘4’ players play a little bit more like small forwards, and so that’s going to be a whole different matchup than what we’ve had.

“So I’ll be interested to see how we answer that.”

Sydney Affolter previews Iowa women’s basketball vs. Kansas

Sydney Affolter previews Iowa women’s basketball vs. Kansas

Which player delivers the next eye-popping moment during Iowa’s pivotal early-season stretch?

The foundations for lengthy postseason surges are often set in the non-conference, and Iowa has productively used the season’s first two weeks to get multiple players pointed in the right direction.

Addi O’Grady has delivered a huge jolt with four double-digit scoring performances that twice set new career-highs. Sydney Affolter wrapped up her knee recovery and is back in her starting spot. Taylor McCabe shifted back to the bench and immediately responded with seven treys in her last two games. Teagan Mallegni has two double-digit showings in her first four games. So who’s next?

While her start has certainly been above average, is Wednesday the first “go off” game for Lucy Olsen in black and gold? After a rare game without a field goal, does Affolter have a gaudy offensive stat line waiting in the wings? How do Taylor Stremlow and Ava Heiden respond to limited action on Sunday?

Any of these high-end non-conference matchups has a chance to be the next sterling effort Iowa leans on to push this team forward.

Dargan Southard is a sports trending reporter and covers Iowa athletics for the Des Moines Register and HawkCentral.com. Email him at msouthard@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter at @Dargan_Southard.

Flory Bidunga, the 6-foot-9, 220-pound forward from Kokoma (IN) High School, was well on his way to having a career night against UNCW on Tuesday night. In seven minutes of action, Bidunga, KU’s five-star freshman, scored six points and pulled down two rebounds.

Offensively, Bidunga was 3-of-3 from the field and was on pace to dunk himself to a career-high in points.

However, Bidunga went down with an ankle injury in the first half and never returned. In fact, Bidunga didn’t make his way back to KU’s bench until the 11:00 mark of the second half.

Bill Self, who won game No. 800 on Tuesday night, provided the latest update on Bidunga minutes after the game.

“Yeah, I don’t think he should have played, but in a big game where maybe you didn’t have another game coming up immediately after, he could have been back out there probably,” said Self on Tuesday night. “So, he’ll be off of it a day or two, but hopefully be practicing by Friday.

“No, it was his ankle,” he added. (It was) his ankle.”

Kansas, without question, avoided what could have been a devastating injury on Tuesday night. Through five games, Bidunga is averaging 8.4 points and 4.6 rebounds per game. In appearing in all five games, he’s connected on 82.6 percent (19-of-23) of his field goals and 50 percent (4-of-8) of his free throws.

With a big game against Duke scheduled for November 26 in Las Vegas, Self, shortly after winning game No. 800, provided a breakdown of the schedule for the rest of the week.

Thankfully for Self, Kansas should arrive in Las Vegas next week with fresh bodies.

Against UNCW, just one player, Hunter Dickinson, logged 30 minutes. In all, KU’s All-American big man scored 15 points and pulled down 15 rebounds. Overall, Dickinson was 7-of-11 from the field, 0-of-1 from behind the arc, and 1-of-3 from the free-throw line.

Dajuan Harris (17 points, three rebounds, six assists, one turnover, and two steals) played 29 minutes, while KJ Adams (three points, five rebounds) logged 29 minutes as well.

Two just other players, Zeke Mayo (25 minutes) and AJ Storr (22 minutes), played more than 20 minutes. Mayo tallied 10 points, two rebounds, two assists, one turnover, one steal, and one block, while Storr added seven points, one rebound, one assist, and one turnover.

“We’re going to take tomorrow off and then we’ll practice Thursday and Friday hard and then light, very light, probably on Saturday,” said Self. “Then (we’ll) practice Sunday and Monday. So I haven’t watched Duke yet, but we will have a great game to watch ’em against the quality opponent obviously with Kentucky and then they play at Arizona on Friday.

“So we’ll have two games where we will have a pretty good book on them just like they’ll have a pretty good book on us I would think by Tuesday.