Kansas City-based GaleHart Communities will develop Montage Liberty, a 1,000-acre mixed-use, master-planned community immediately west of I-35 in northwest Liberty, Mo.
Bounded generally by I-35 on the south and east, 112th Street on the north and Church Road on the west, Montage will be developed on land surrounding Liberty North High School.
It will encompass 1,800 single-family residences; 1,400 multi-family units; 2.2 million SF of retail, office, tech and light industrial space; knitted together by more than 170+ acres of green space and neighborhood parks, more than 7 miles of pedestrian, bike and horse trails and regional and neighborhood amenities, including a sports park, community center, art center and neighborhood stable.
GaleHart Communities has earmarked 3 acres for a proposed fire station and 16 well-located acres within Montage as a donation to the Liberty School District for the construction of an elementary school. The Grove, an on-site demonstration farm, orchard and vineyard, will provide educational opportunities to residents and Liberty Schools K-12 students.
“Montage will be a best-in-class community – really one of a kind in the KC region,” principal Dave Gale said. “It thoughtfully combines an extensive and varied commercial landscape with residences for all walks of life cohesively connected through a network of trails, parks, sports fields and other amenities. Our team’s expertise in creating planned communities that align with our sustainable core values as documented in our guiding principles will be applied to the vision, planning and development of Montage.”
Montage will use special reimbursement district (SRD) funding to bring significant public infrastructure improvements to Liberty’s west side. An SRD utilizes private financing to enable a developer to install the city-required public infrastructure and improvements necessary to generate future new taxable income through real estate development. The developer takes the expense risk and later is reimbursed by the generated new income for eligible public infrastructure expenditures.
“It has taken nine years of analysis, design and collaboration with City of Liberty staff, Missouri Department of Transportation and Liberty Public Schools and the planning and engineering firms of Norris Design, TranSystems, Burns & McDonnell and Schlagel Associates, along with solid work by our team of many other consultants, to assemble the comprehensive plan for Montage,” principal Tom Hart said. “Montage has been intentionally designed to be economically successful and sustainable.”
Montage-related infrastructure improvements, slated to begin in spring 2023, include a network of new arterial and collector streets; traffic safety improvements to existing roads adjacent to the property; a super round-about and new southbound on-ramp to I-35; and regional water, storm and sanitary system improvements. Phase II will bring construction of an I-35 flyover that connects vehicles, pedestrians, cycles and utilities across I-35. New homes and businesses in Montage are expected to be under construction in 2024.
“The City of Liberty and GaleHart Communities have worked together for nearly a decade to carefully craft strategic plans for developing 1,000+/- acres surrounding Liberty North High School,” said Liberty Mayor Lyndell Brenton. “This partnership between Liberty, which is nationally recognized as an outstanding place to live, and GaleHart, nationally recognized for producing exceptional communities, provides an exciting opportunity to create something very special. We look forward to the vision of Montage, a mixed-use planned development, coming to fruition with the amenities, services, prosperity and growth that is integral to the future vitality of Liberty.”