The other Power and Light District

[missingkc]

I found the following on my computer.  Thought some of you might find it interesting.

Power & Light District entertainment complex gets
conditional approval

By CHRIS LESTER Staff Writer
Date: 07/29/97 22:15

A Kansas City Council special committee on
Tuesday granted Centertainment Inc. conditional
approval for its massive Power & Light District
entertainment complex downtown.

The committee's recommendation tied city support
for the $454 million project, which requires $176
million in public funding, to six conditions.
Those conditions address the need for a
co-developer, private investment and financing
commitments, leasing requirements, construction
guarantees and cost overrun protection.

"I think we've done an outstanding job making
sure that there are various safeguards put in
place," said Councilman Kelvin Simmons.

However, those conditions did not list passage of
stalled state legislation that would allow the
use of state sales taxes to help defray project
costs. Gov. Mel Carnahan recently vetoed an
omnibus economic development bill that would have
expanded the state's tax increment financing law,
saying it could play havoc on state budget
planning and draw legal challenges.

`Everybody still understands that has to happen,"
said Dick Smith, an attorney for the Tax
Increment Financing Commission of Kansas City who
drafted the committee's recommendation. `

Plans for the Power & Light District call for a
30-screen AMC movie theater, live performance
theaters, shops, restaurants, offices, hotels,
apartments and parking over a broad swath of
downtown. A news conference has been scheduled
today to announce a tenant, expected to be a
Planet Movies joint venture of AMC Entertainment
Inc. and Planet Hollywood.

Backers of the project said omission of a
specific state sales tax condition, which was
discussed at length in a previous review
committee meeting, gives them more financing
options.

"We drafted the plan intentionally so it can be
flexible," said Aaron March, an attorney for
Centertainment, an affiliate of AMC
Entertainment.

Although it was not specifically listed as a
condition for city support, many council members
still consider state sales taxes crucial for the
project.

"The state has to be a participant," said
Councilman Evert Asjes, who supported the
committee's recommendation.

Chris Sifford, a spokesman for Carnahan, said
Tuesday that no decision has been made on whether
to call a special session of the Missouri General
Assembly to reconsider the vetoed bill. He
expects a decision within the next few weeks.

If Carnahan doesn't call for a special session to
resurrect the bill, Centertainment would have to
push for a similar bill next year or find an
alternative revenue source acceptable to the
city.

Public support for the Power & Light District
would come in the form of tax increment
financing, which uses property and some other tax
money generated by the project to help pay for
it, and creation of a neighborhood improvement
district. If the tax increment financing revenues
fall short, property owners in the improvement
district would make up the difference to retire
bonds issued to finance the project.

Typically, tax increment financing diverts all
new local property taxes and half of other
economic activity taxes such as sales, earnings
and utility taxes generated by a project.

If state sales tax subsidies are not forthcoming,
developers could ask the city to approve a
so-called "Super TIF," which would divert all --
rather than just some -- of the local taxes
generated by the project to help defray its
costs.

"Either the city identifies other funds that make
the plan economically viable or the project
doesn't happen," March said.

Mayor Pro Tem George Blackwood, chairman of the
special review committee, said he considers state
sales tax money crucial for the project. He also
is reluctant to discuss Super TIF -- which is
reserved by city policy for convention hotel and
parking facilities -- for the Power & Light
District.

"I will only consider Super TIF for a hotel
adjacent to Bartle Hall," Blackwood said. "I'm
not interested in a Super TIF for the entire
project."

In theory, bonds could be issued by some
combination of the state, city, Tax Increment
Financing Commission or the Land Clearance for
Redevelopment Authority.

"State participation is critical," said Janice
Reed, finance director for the city. "In fact,
there should be some consideration of the state
to issue bonds supported by state sales tax."

Reed and other city officials are concerned that
issuing too many city-guaranteed bonds for the
Power & Light District could crimp the city's
financial flexibility and possibly damage the
city's credit rating. The city has a limited
capacity for issuing bonds and a long list of
competing proposals.

Public comment on the project was divided
Tuesday.

UMB Financial Corp., the Black Chamber of
Commerce of Greater Kansas City, the Greater
Kansas City Building and Construction Trades
Council and several downtown merchants argued the
project could resuscitate a dormant downtown.

"This represents the last nail in the coffin of
Kansas City," merchant Sol Urdang said as he
passed out nails to the committee members. "If it
doesn't pass, you might as well bury the city."

Activists and property owners who would be
displaced by the project warned that economic
assumptions that millions of people will be drawn
to the district are overly optimistic.

"Their figures are bogus," said Phil Klein, a
businessman and opponent of the project.

A zoning ordinance for the Power & Light District
is to be considered by a council committee in
August. Formal financing arrangements will be
structured over a period of months.

Staff writer Joe Gose contributed to this
article.

[Image]

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All content © 1997 The Kansas City Star

[macnw]

Reminded me of when the Sailor's project hit the paper. That sounded so cool. Sucks that nothing came from either of them

[KCPowercat]

Didn't sailors also die on the vine due to a "save our plaza" type group?

[chrizow]

what was the sailor's project?

[Downtowner]

Thank God they didn't build a 30 screen merriam style theatre for AMC...sometimes the second plan is better.

[bobbyhawks]

Thank God they didn't build a 30 screen merriam style theatre for AMC...sometimes the second plan is better.

I was thinking the same thing.  Also, the mention of parking in the article sounds more like a surface ocean than it does a giant subsurface garage like we have now. 

Conversely, the Cordish and Sprint Center components could have been phase two to a retail, restaurant, and apartment base.  The article was written 10 years before the opening of the Sprint Center.

[KCMax]

Wasn't this Stan Durwood's baby? And didn't that fall by the wayside when he got ill? Or is this a completely different project?

[mean]

Yep, that would be the Durwood project, iirc.

[slimwhitman]

More importantly.... which effort had the best logo?  The 1997 effort of the left or the current logo on the right?

[mean]

They're both ok. Neither are really what I would have chosen if I were the director of marketing.

[chrizow]

the one on the left looks like the label for a cleaning product.  the one on the right looks like a realtor's sign.  both are bad.  i'll give the edge to the one on the right, though, for a more muted color palette and less cheesy typeface.

[missingkc]

It's not clear from this article, but I think this version was supposed to be a multi-block enclosed mall.  Good chance it would already be dead.  Yikes.  Scary thought.

[voltopt]

I've seen the site plans and floor plans for this and it was supposed to be very mall like, and internally focused.  More like the enclosed mall thing in downtown St. Louis than even Crown Center, which is at least marginally successful.

[FangKC]

More importantly.... which effort had the best logo?  The 1997 effort of the left or the current logo on the right?

The older logo on the left would be a good label for a beer brewed by Boulevard.

[pstokely]

Thank God they didn't build a 30 screen merriam style theatre for AMC...sometimes the second plan is better.

AMC has built multi floor multiplexes in Manhattan

[FangKC]

Yeah, I've been to the multifloor AMC multiplexes in NYC and they are fine.

The one on 42nd Street was built using a historic theater building that they moved down the block (which I watched them do), and they reincorporated the old theater building as the new lobby for the multiplex.  That multiplex has these really long escalators as well that go up pretty high.  I think it's the longest escalator I've ever been on, although one of the subway ones in Washington DC I rode on may be longer.



The lobby







The theater building being moved.

[phuqueue]

Last summer I saw Scott Pilgrim on the 11th floor of a theatre in Brooklyn.  Escalators all the way up and down at that place, too.  Riding escalators down eleven floors is a weird experience.

[KCPowercat]

Obvious alert. We aren't Manhattan. A 30plex would have been a complete mess.

[trailerkid]

Obvious alert. We aren't Manhattan. A 30plex would have been a complete mess.

I'm 100% for a 30 plex theater. Put one in the River Market or the Crossroads and have retail wrap around it.

[Midtownkid]

I don't know about a 30 plex, but I always thought a retail center/movie theater/apartment complex should go on the parking lot north of the Firestone Building.  It's a huge empty block in a great location.  Under ground parking, urban layout etc. 

The Crossroads still holds so much opportunity for development.