New Middle Eastern restaurant opens at Park 39 complex in Midtown
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — More than a century after it was built, and more than a decade after it closed to students, the old Westport Middle School has new life.
More than 160,000 square feet has been transformed into office space, and this week, a new Middle Eastern restaurant opened in the complex near East 39th Street and Warwick Boulevard in Kansas City.
GM to invest $4B into U.S. manufacturing, including KCK's Fairfax plant
The former Westport Middle School is now The Offices at Park 39. A new restaurant on the campus is called Nour's. Nour's is named for the chef's daughter, who died in 2018 at the age of 29 after a life of medical issues. This restaurant is a love letter to her. There are pictures of her throughout the space and a corner shrine dedicated to her, where people are encouraged to leave mementos honoring their own loved ones.
Nour's is a 3,800-square-foot restaurant featuring indoor and patio dining, meeting nooks and tables equipped with power outlets for working lunches. There is also a small retail market with grab-and-go meals, dinner kits and pantry items.
Nour's father says the concept for the restaurant may have been born from loss, but it lives in love.
'I never got to buy her a car or send her to college, so this investment is in her name so we can build something for her. Hopefully for those who also lost a loved one, this will be a place that they can come and honor their loved ones, both living and dead. Nour was full of life, so we want this place to be full of life,' Chef Marwan Chebaro said.'To have a community with all the multi-dimensions that's walkable and not totally self-contained, we connect to the community. I think it's been very big for Midtown to have this redevelopment to show that can happen and yes, have affordability,' said David Brain, owner and developer of the Park 39 campus. 'It's been a catalyst for the community around us, and we've seen that with housing and apartments that surround the campus.'Nour's marks the next chapter of the Park 39 campus, and a little later this year, Literacy KC will be moving its headquarters to the campus to be the anchor tenant in a new nonprofit hub.
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