OFFICIAL: Port Authority Riverfront Project

[Anthony_Hugo98]

Kansas will throw abatement, CID, and a redirection of sales tax at anything that can qualify it seems. Missouri suburbs pretty readily throw CID and abatement. Construction and residents will follow the path of least resistance, inside or out of the city limits. Absurdly low highway drive times are not in our (downtown) favor.

Back to subject: No indication the Isle of Capri project will ask for incentives. They are pretty close to starting construction and incentives would take some time to get approved.

They haven’t really made an indication that they’d want to pursue them. They also seem to be really inclined to get the streetcar down there, so I imagine most of their effort in trying to persuade any entity would be in regards to streetcar extension. Just my perception so far

[DaveKCMO]

I can tell you for sure that sales tax redirection is quite a thing. KCATA loses $6 million a year from TIFs still on the books -- almost enough to have funded zero fare! -- and no one is calculating how much gets directed in these EATs deals because they're often short term (like just construction materials).

[shinatoo]

I can tell you for sure that sales tax redirection is quite a thing. KCATA loses $6 million a year from TIFs still on the books -- almost enough to have funded zero fare! -- and no one is calculating how much gets directed in these EATs deals because they're often short term (like just construction materials).

So how much longer before those TIFs start coming off the books? And how many of those projects will still be viable taxpayers after their TIF ends?

[normalthings]

I can tell you for sure that sales tax redirection is quite a thing. KCATA loses $6 million a year from TIFs still on the books -- almost enough to have funded zero fare! -- and no one is calculating how much gets directed in these EATs deals because they're often short term (like just construction materials).

I was trying to reference the STAR bond program specifically which is Kansas only.


Articles seem to confirm a casino ground breaking is imminent. I had seen some construction stuff onsite last month but will check again this weekend.

[normalthings]

Grading plan for the soccer facility submitted

[flyingember]

Sales tax abatements, rather than a special tax for a district, are immensely stupid.

2021 budget income for KC:

Earnings Tax: $292.3 million
Sales taxes: $258.5 million
Property taxes: $166.5 million
Utility (?): $111.8 million
Convention: $57.7 million

The KCATA gets 7/8% and the city gets 2%
So the city's losses to redirection would be about $13 million.

That's about 1.5% of the budget. Not insignificant.

[normalthings]

Port KC confirmed no incentives for the project. Not sure how or why that even came up here?

[beautyfromashes]

I can tell you for sure that sales tax redirection is quite a thing. KCATA loses $6 million a year from TIFs still on the books -- almost enough to have funded zero fare! -- and no one is calculating how much gets directed in these EATs deals because they're often short term (like just construction materials).

So how much longer before those TIFs start coming off the books? And how many of those projects will still be viable taxpayers after their TIF ends?

Takes money to make money.

[langosta]

Super easy to replace and a lot that wasnt going to be redeveloped this decade.

How do you know that?

An RV was blown up in that area last week.

What?

If there was a good chance that there was a higher and better use likely in the coming years, Port KC wouldn’t be building soccer fields on it.


June 29th, 2021. The remains of an RV were found on the east side of the Riverfront area.

Sounds like another suspicious vehicle was found at the RF today. Reddit reporting Union and riverfront area put on lockdown with 2+ items removed by the bomb squad. Not finding many details outside of Reddit.

[Chris Stritzel]

Riverfront Streetcar Extension screenshots...

[Critical_Mass]

I like the purple route option from the second image. Berkley Pkwy is wide enough they could have one side of the boulevard dedicated to the the streetcar and convert the other side to two way traffic. I think they were looking at ways to road diet / slow the cars here anyway with on street parking. This would achieve that.

[normalthings]

I like the purple route option from the second image. Berkley Pkwy is wide enough they could have one side of the boulevard dedicated to the the streetcar and convert the other side to two way traffic. I think they were looking at ways to road diet / slow the cars here anyway with on street parking. This would achieve that.

Purple would be faster. 45mph road speed vs <10 in the park.

Green is what you are describing. I like the idea but feel like dedicated center lanes may be the most efficient.

[flyingember]

I like the purple route option from the second image. Berkley Pkwy is wide enough they could have one side of the boulevard dedicated to the the streetcar and convert the other side to two way traffic. I think they were looking at ways to road diet / slow the cars here anyway with on street parking. This would achieve that.

Purple would be faster. 45mph road speed vs <10 in the park.

Not exactly a place to use speed as a reason for one route vs the other. You're talking about roughly one minute vs two minutes. When purple requires signals to get into mixed traffic, you're probably talking about no difference or street running is slower.

Those speeds aren't all that different when the stops might be half a mile apart. Full acceleration takes 15 seconds at 45mph and it takes 66 seconds to travel between stops. the longer deceleration at 45mph means it's not going to be above 10mph as long as you think, maybe 20 seconds total.

[normalthings]

All of the northern routes will require a signal to hop off the road and into the park. Southern route (purple) won’t require stopping and starting for pedestrians crossing the travks

[flyingember]

All of the northern routes will require a signal to hop off the road and into the park. Southern route (purple) won’t require stopping and starting for pedestrians crossing the travks

Purple has two signals required. One to re-enter the row at the west end WB since the road drops to two lanes there, and one to cross traffic WB at the east end

[FangKC]

The Business Journal is reporting that Isle of Capri's name will now be Bally's Kansas City Casino. Groundbreaking on the renovation will be August 18.

Bally's goes all in on name as groundbreaking nears for $40M redevelopment of former Isle of Capri property

https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/ ... 2021-08-03

[normalthings]

The Business Journal is reporting that Isle of Capri's name will now be Bally's Kansas City Casino. Groundbreaking on the renovation will be August 18.

Bally's goes all in on name as groundbreaking nears for $40M redevelopment of former Isle of Capri property

https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/ ... 2021-08-03

Permit with "asian gaming" in the name was filed. Any idea what that may be

[normalthings]

All of the northern routes will require a signal to hop off the road and into the park. Southern route (purple) won’t require stopping and starting for pedestrians crossing the travks

Purple has two signals required. One to re-enter the row at the west end WB since the road drops to two lanes there, and one to cross traffic WB at the east end

Northern Routes: 1 major conflict at the west end where route jumps north. 8 medium conflicts where trails cross the tracks. Maximum speed will be 5-10mph with the potential for a lot of stopping and starting due to park users.

Southern Routes (Purple): 1 major conflict at the east end where route jumps north. 1 medium conflict where WB trains must merge with WB cars at the west end. 35 mph (road speed) or more if dedicated ROW

[normalthings]

Parcel 12B is ready to start city applications in the next week or weeks.

Casino KC renovation broke ground officially last week. Main restaurant will be Andy Reid's favorite. (A Philadelphia business)

KC RF Extension to casino and RF east continues.

[langosta]

I am interested to see what Casino KC phase 2 will look like. I know a streetcar stop, hotel, and amphitheater were mentioned last year. It would be great if they put in an actual hotel and not just a house branded one.

Any indication of when it might get going?