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KC Current
KC Current Podcast: Mukul Sharma
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Mukul Sharma, Partner, Palmer Square Capital Management, joins the KC Current Podcast to talk Current Landing and the ambitious venture to bring Kansas City back to its riverfront.
All right, everyone. Welcome into the second episode of the KC Current Podcast. I'm Dani Welniak, your host, and today we're here with Mukul Sharma, partner at Palmer Square, the mastermind behind a lot of Current Landing and a lot of the real estate that goes on at the Kansas City Current. So, Mukul, thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate it.
Mukul SharmaThanks for having me. I'm so excited to be here and to really tell our story of what we've been up to from a capital facility standpoint for the Kansas City Current.
Dani WelniakYeah, well, we're sitting right now in River's Edge Apartments overlooking the Mighty Moe. It's beautiful. This is a phenomenal complex. Can you talk a little bit about the inspiration behind Current Landing, why this came about, how it came about, and also the location right here?
Mukul SharmaAbsolutely. Well, you know, our thesis has always been that people want to be on the water. There's power to being closer to the water, to interacting with it, and to really build development right up to the river's edge. That's part of why this building is called the River's Edge Residences. And so even when we started our plans for CPKC Stadium, our original goal was to bring Kansas Citians back to their waterfront. That's almost exactly why we chose this site directly behind me as the location for CPKC. And as we evolved our plans from just a stadium, which is not just a stadium, but one building to a 35-acre campus, we we really viewed this project as something that could be not just Kansas City, but the entire country's next best waterfront development.
Dani WelniakYeah. Well, and one of the things I do want people to note is that this guy works his tail off all the time. And I don't think a lot of people really get to hear your story. And so I think a big reason why we're putting on these podcasts now is that we want our fans, we want our supporters, we want the community to really understand the people behind the Kansas City Current, behind Current Landing, behind CPKC Stadium, and behind everything that's yet to come. So I'm going to start off these podcasts with one question, defining question. I'm going to call them Current Kicks. So who is Mukul Sharma? How would you define who you are?
Mukul SharmaWell, you know, I'm a native Kansas Citian and I left Kansas City for almost 14 years and decided to come back. And part of the reason why my wife and I wanted to come back to Kansas City was that we wanted to have an impact on our city. Um you know I grew up here and I used to come to Riverfest basically right here where this building is, and if you remember Riverfest it was like a thousand degrees, and everyone's down here for the fireworks. And that, you know, even as a kid, and I think most Kansas Citians who who went to Riverfest and saw all the activity kind of wondered why does this project, why does this, why is this beautiful space not developed more? And so, you know, it's it's funny because I've kind of come full circle with this riverfront development, and a core goal of all of us, whether it's our ownership group, whether it's you know us at Palmer Square Real Estate, it's there's a civic reason why we're doing this. Um and building a new neighborhood on our waterfront, reactivating, revitalizing our waterfront, it's something that you know, of course, impacts us, but it's really something that's generational that'll impact my kids and Kansas Citians beyond that.
Dani WelniakYeah, you talked about your family, and I just think it's so fun. We get a chance to see them come out to some of the Current Landing watch parties and taking the Dippin' Dots, which we all love so much. Do you do you guys have a favorite flavor of Dippin' Dots?
Mukul SharmaOh man, Rainbow.
Dani WelniakRight okay, that's a good one.
Mukul SharmaI have two toddlers with a newborn coming in about four weeks. And uh yeah, ice cream, uh candy, any type of special treat in Current Landing is always huge.
Dani WelniakYeah, you name it. Um I'm also a big fan of the Dippin' Dots. So if you guys get a chance to come out to watch parties, phenomenal assortment of food and beverage, and it's also just a blast to be out there on the turf. Um, we'll get more into like your favorite stories of maybe the experiences that you've had, but I also want to take us back a little bit in this first segment. And what inspired you to want to be a part of this, to be a part of Palmer Square, a part of the KC Current?
Mukul SharmaYeah, so my background, uh, and and for those who don't know, Palmer Square Capital Management is one of the largest financial services uh firms and asset managers in Kansas City. We have about 38 billion in asset center management. And I originally joined Palmer Square as a structured credit trader. I traded bonds just like Angie and Chris traded many, many years ago and now oversee. And when Chris and Angie and uh the Mahomes bought the Kansas City Current, central to their investment thesis was the story about facilities.
Dani WelniakYeah.
Mukul SharmaPeople want to watch women's sports, they just haven't been given a fan experience that is on par with what you get with a men's professional team. We have some of the best players in the world, but they haven't been given the training facilities historically that their male counterparts would get. And so when the Kansas City Current was brought back to Kansas City by our ownership group, a very core part of this was building facilities that help our players thrive and that create fandom and in a world-class fan experience for uh our Kansas City Current fans. And so we first, in um September of 2021, we announced the construction of what was then uh the first training facility in the US purpose-built for a women's professional team. It's now the University of Kansas Health System Training Center, which houses our front office as well as our core training facilities for our first team. And that project, you know, we we needed space to train almost immediately. So this wasn't something that could be a five-year planning process like a lot of construction projects are. We had to start almost immediately. So nine months after the team was brought back to Kansas City, we started construction on that project. We opened it nine months later, which in construction terms, if you have ever built a house or you've ever built anything, uh, that is an insane timeline to be able to do these projects. And it was important for our club, it was important for our front office to have a true home. And so we did that. And while we were doing this training facility project, we also announced that we were going to build the first stadium in the world purpose-built for a women's professional team, which is now CPKC Stadium. And so as we were doing all this, um, I was one of the um investors at Palmer Square who did have real estate development experience.
Dani WelniakOkay.
Mukul SharmaAnd so I um started working with the team uh in more of a development capacity to build all these seminal projects. Um it's very, very rare to build a stadium and to be able to have an influential role in that process. It's even more rare to then expand the stadium, which we'll talk a little bit about maybe towards towards the end.
Dani WelniakYeah.
Mukul SharmaUm and so to be able to be part of these big civic projects in Kansas City, uh, to really impact the skyline of our city, but then on a global basis, have such a big impact that we as an organization have on women's sports, it's it's you know, it's amazing.
Dani WelniakYeah. There is one thing that we do really well at the Kansas City Current, and that is move fast. And if you guys can hear a little bit in the background, there's still some construction going on. Um we're still excited about what's yet to come. But do you have a favorite milestone or something like a project that you've been a part of that really resonates you for resonates with you for any particular reason?
Mukul SharmaI think opening day in March of 2024 for CPKC Stadium is one of the most amazing professional experiences that that I've had on the real estate side. And and I I suspect if you ask anyone who's been with the Kansas City Current Organization for that really important milestone in our organization's history, you'd probably get a fairly similar answer. Um it's having that kind of impact on our players and our fans uh is something that doesn't happen all the time. And so it's it was a really special day. It's been the catalyst for us to accelerate our plans for this building, for the other 20 acres of Current Landing that we have left to develop. And it's really just a critical part of how we want to bring Kansas Citians back to their waterfront.
Dani WelniakFor sure. Okay, so this segment, the second segment is a lot about building off the pitch and the stuff that's going on around KC Current. What are some of the best experiences or maybe a story that you could share with the listeners about your favorite experiences throughout this process?
Mukul SharmaWell, I I think um, you know, our Current Landing project as a whole is just this incredible experience because it's it's really the scale of what we're trying to build is on par with the wharf in Washington, DC, or any one of these huge waterfront development projects. And it's happening right here in Kansas City. Um, our goal has been to bring Kansas City a waterfront district, a waterfront neighborhood that's on par with anything else that exists in the US. Yeah. And so I it's not really a singular experience, right, or a singular moment, but being able to unveil our vision, which we we did a little bit over two years ago at this point, for what we wanted Current Landing to be. Um it was a big deal. And it's it's a big deal for Kansas City. Um you know, it's rare to be able to create in a city with Kansas City's history a brand new neighborhood right in the heart of our downtown. And so what we're doing with our 35-acre project in in Current Landing is it's really building a brand new neighborhood. Um our goal is for this to not be call it a sports entertainment district in a box or any one of these things that you know really exist to supplement a stadium. Our goal is to build a waterfront neighborhood that just happens to have a soccer stadium and CPKC Stadium as one of its anchors. And so what the building that we're sitting in right now, River's Edge Residences, when paired with our other residential uh building, the Confluence Residences, you know, we later this summer are delivering over 429 multifamily units and 50,000 square feet of retail. What that means for Kansas Citians is that people are gonna be living down here on the riverfront starting at the end of the summer.
Dani WelniakYeah.
Mukul SharmaWe are going to open, we've, I think we've announced about eight of our 12 restaurants uh and bars uh already. And so there will be new bars and restaurants that open down here next month. And every month for the rest of the year will progressively be opening more and more. Um it's really the foundation of a new neighborhood that allows Kansas Citians to be as close as humanly possible to the riverfront.
Dani WelniakYou mentioned also bringing your family out here and two kiddos, another one on the way. What is the legacy that you hope to leave for them and the impact that you hope that all of this makes for generations to come?
Mukul SharmaWell, so you know, I think the public realm that we're creating is one of the most impactful things. And public realm in in these types of projects is always kind of loosely defined, right? Everyone wants, you know, a European piazza level of it just, you know, a plaza that feels active. But the things that make a public area like our Newtown Square or Founders Park that we we just opened last week really impactful is that organic activity. People have to live here. There has to be programming that is regular that that makes this a place that people want to be. Um and there should be marquee events that, you know, once a quarter, once a month, whatever the cadence is, we are able to deliver the type of world-class programming that we have within the fence line of CPKC Stadium down into our town square, our parks, our new pedestrian promenade that we're creating. These things all have this, you know, this positive life cycle to them, where this it's a virtuous life cycle that as we do more down here, more people will want to be here and there'll be even more activity.
Dani WelniakFor sure. Okay, so as we kind of come to a close, what is the message or the main message that you want visitors, you want fans, you want supporters, you want families, you want the KC community to know about Current Landing and the future that's ahead.
Mukul SharmaI think the main message is that we're open. You know, we we have asked our fans to bear with us as we have built not just CPKC Stadium, but then immediately after we opened CPKC Stadium, we started the first phase of Current Landing. You're seeing, and this later this summer, you're going to see the fruits of that wait uh really manifest, right?
Dani WelniakYeah.
Mukul SharmaUm having bars and restaurants down here as part of not just our match day programming, but a normal Tuesday is a game changer in how people experience the riverfront.
Dani WelniakYeah.
Mukul SharmaUm, it it makes a big difference to have residences here that bring activity 24-7. And so, really, the main message is this is just the first phase of what we're building. We'll have even more exciting announcements, including some of our stadium expansion conversations that that we recently um unveiled uh earlier this summer. There's more to come, but even what's delivering right now is a big deal. And it will completely change how our fans, um, how people who just want to be in downtown uh experience not just CPKC Stadium, but the riverfront.
Dani WelniakOkay, I know you're not allowed to be biased, but um I'm really looking forward to Crows Coffee coming in here. Is there a certain partner that you are really excited about being here? And also like the excitement around a lot of these being local.
Mukul SharmaYeah. And so, you know, for us, it was really important for our restaurant partners to be local, but for certain exceptions.
Dani WelniakYeah.
Mukul SharmaAnd um, you know, we've been really intentional about creating a merchandising plan with our restaurant partners that it's all price points.
Dani WelniakYeah.
Mukul SharmaUm, it's everything that you'd want from uh, you know, a coffee in the morning all the way to a Michelin star chef cooking uh for um your nighttime meal. And so what what I'm most excited about is our partnership with chef Nick Stefanelli.
Dani WelniakOkay.
Mukul SharmaUm we have an amazing restaurant scene here in Kansas City. Um, Nick Stefanelli is a Michelin star chef. He owns Mazzeria in Washington, D.C. Uh his his um Massaria concept has been consistently named one of the top 50 Italian restaurants in the world.
Dani WelniakYeah.
Mukul SharmaAnd for him to partner with us and bring a new Italian concept to not just Kansas City, but to the riverfront, and it'll actually be almost directly below us, facing the river with a cafe zone, um it it's a game changer in terms of leveling up the culinary scene in Kansas City. And when you take that and you add 10 to 12 other bars and restaurants as part of it, really Current Landing will ultimately become the next culinary epicenter of Kansas City.
Dani WelniakIt's gonna be so fun. I cannot wait. Thank you so much for taking the time. We seriously appreciate it. Mukul Sharma, one of the greatest. All right, coming up on episode three of the Kansas City Current Podcast, we're gonna welcome Jocelyn Monroe, our Chief Marketing officer, who is gonna give us a little preview of maybe what to expect in some upcoming uh Ted Lasso episodes and also building the brand from a global perspective. So Mukul. Thank you so much. We'll see you next time on the KC Current Podcast.