Livestrong Sporting Park

[OPIchabod]

More information here:

http://www.kansascitykansan.com/governm ... evelopment

Also, the Unified Government has announced it is holding a special meeting to discuss a "proposed redevelopment project" Wednesday night at 5 p.m.

Not sure if they are related, but this would be a huge get for WyCo and a gigantic loss for the Bannister site.

[KCPowercat]

Wow.  Disgusting how cerner and whoever was involved from wyco/ks played this.  Really a shame this level of poaching has become.

[aknowledgeableperson]

KCMO, along with the state of MO and the economy, do have part of the blame if the project does move to the KS side.

http://www.kansascity.com/news/breaking ... 33346.html

The Kansas City Council approved a redevelopment plan in December 2007 that included $273.3 million in city and state tax incentives for the project, to be repaid by the new tax revenues generated by the retail portion.

But within a few months after the city approved the plan, the financial markets collapsed, prompting the developer to seek additional city ?enhancements? to move forward with at least the stadium and amateur soccer complex. The city, however, was unwilling to pledge its credit to back the bond.

Mayor Mark Funkhouser said the city had been working to do whatever it could to keep the development, but that STAR bonds presented a formidable competition.

?We have put together a very aggressive package,? the mayor said. ?I would very much like to keep the development here, but not at any price.?

Heineman said the most recent proposal by the city would not allow the team to attain its target of being in a new stadium by 2011.

The Village West location came up earlier this year when the developer was approached by Nebraska Furniture Mart.

?It?s really about leveraging an existing destination and using the retail that?s already there to bring in an added attraction,? said Jeff Lind, store director. ?For us, it adds a lot of potential visitors and helps with the current economic environment.?

Village West, which includes Nebraska Furniture Mart, Cabela?s and the Legends, is generating about $40 million in annual sales tax revenue, according to county officials. At this rate, it?s expected to repay the original STAR bond in late 2013 or early 2014, six years ahead of schedule.

The development plan being pitched calls for using the STAR bond revenues through 2020, as originally scheduled, to help finance the stadium and office project.

?This project can be finished with that same revenue stream without extending the maturity date,? said Owen Buckley of Lane4.



At the same time I wonder how many KCMO development projects have retired their bonds early?

[shinatoo]

The economy, Yes. KCMO, no. Wizards credit demands were ridiculous.

Shame on you, Wizards. You have lost, a least, my family. Way to leave South KC in the lurch.

Between this and the 4 billion truck lane I-70 rebuild, I feel physically ill.

[dangerboy]

KCMO, along with the state of MO and the economy, do have part of the blame if the project does move to the KS side.

Bullshit.  The city and state signed off on almost $300 million, but the team came back wanting the city to advance them cash *and* back the bonds with the city's credit.  It would have taken the worst parts of the Citadel Plaza scheme and the Power & Light District and wrapped them into one giant drain on the city's budget.  It would have been incredibly irresponsible to do it.

[KCPowercat]

Exactly....

Not to mention Cerner is now promising future jobs to help sweeten the project in kck?  Wow...

[ComandanteCero]

well, that certainly sucks for the Bannister mall site.

Buckley said his group was committed to redeveloping the mall site and had invested $30 million so far and owned 200 acres.

He said the property still will be ideal for a future retail project because of its visibility from Interstate 435 and ample amount of developable land.

Seems like they're shooting themselves in the foot moving the development's two anchoring elements (i.e the office space and the stadium) into a different development.  It sounds like they'll probably throw up a couple of big box stores and call it a day, instead of the transformative project the redevelopment could have been.

[Slappy the Wang]

The reference to the 4,000 future cerner jobs is a bit vague in the article...would these be existing MO jobs (new to KS) or real new jobs?  Would the Northland HQ relocate as part of the deal?

[KCPowercat]

Article says new jobs.  So just looting of future jobs that would have been kcmo jobs....8000 of them.

[KCPowercat]

My bad, the 8k number includes 'spin off' jobs, 4k cerner.

[ComandanteCero]

http://www.kansascity.com/842/story/1433346.html

Hays said the county had been told the jobs would be new positions expected to be created by Cerner, not existing jobs from other parts of the metropolitan area. Besides North Kansas City, Cerner has a growing presence in the former Marion labs complex. This would mark the firm?s first expansion into Kansas.

[LenexatoKCMO]

Hard to get a gauge on how much of this is greed v. the project just really not being viable w/out a stronger incentive package.  I have a hard time believing that anything built around a core of retail development in SEKC wasn't going to be several years away from viability (who the hell is going to lease retail space anywere any time soon, let alone a challenged area looking for revival?).  

Seems like it could still be a challenge getting things off the ground in KS - remember that the state still owes the schlitterbahn folks a few hundred million in STAR bond money they haven't been able to release because the state credit isn't good enough to sell the bonds; hard to imagine that committing to float even more bonds will go any easier.  

[KCMax]

Wow, really devastating blow. I can't believe they didn't have a commitment from the Wizards on the Bannister site?

Honestly though, as much as it pisses me off, I can't really fault the Wizards, developers, or KCK. They're all doing what is in their self-interest. How can we keep the incentives from working in this perverse, self-destructive manner though?

[OPIchabod]

I'm not sure they are issuing new STAR bonds.

From my understanding, they will be using funds dedicated to paying off the existing STAR Bonds (which were already being retired early) in the area to help pay for the Wizards project. They'll have about 6-7 years of that arrangement.

But otherwise yes, I suspect it is a very tenuous time to be issuing new STAR bonds.

[KCPowercat]

I am sure 4000 new cerner jobs to the bannister site would have helped their development tremendously as well.

Pretty gross dealings if you ask me.

[cityscape]

The way I see this is that they (Wizards and Cerner) now don't have to pull in any retail to get their stadium built, which could have dragged this out for several more years given the economy.  They'll be building near and established retail center and won't have to worry about new bonds being issued because they'll use the excess off the orignal bonds for NFM, Cabelas, and the Speedway.  Seems like a win/win for the wizards and cerner so I don't see why you all feel they screwed Missouri.  This just happens to be a better deal for them at the time.  I can't blame them for not wanting to wait until retail picks up in the area. 

[LenexatoKCMO]

 I can't blame them for not wanting to wait until retail picks up in the area. 

This is somewhat the direction I am leaning as well.  It may well have been 5-10 years before the bannister project becomes viable to get off the ground again.  Should we really expect them to sit around and wait that long for a home?

[NDTeve]

Wow, really devastating blow. I can't believe they didn't have a commitment from the Wizards on the Bannister site?

Honestly though, as much as it pisses me off, I can't really fault the Wizards, developers, or KCK. They're all doing what is in their self-interest. How can we keep the incentives from working in this perverse, self-destructive manner though?

Exactly. KCMO can't seem to close many deals put in front of them. No-one to blame but themselves.

[KCPowercat]

The whole dealing just seems slimy....NFM contacted the wizards?  Uhh, huh...with push from the city/state who had some STAR bond money to use.....did the bannister mall developers  and/or city know about this side proposal?  Seems they were informed recently after working in good faith on the deal.  Where were cerner's promise of 4k employees for the bannister site?  Seems that would have helped push the development along.

Hey, wizards might get a place sooner, that's great for them....but this whole thing smells and continues to tear apart this metro, which is a much larger issue than where our MLS team plays.

[mgsports]

Olathe Needs them or Overland Park or Lees Summit. They get to keep kansas City in their name.