OFFICIAL: H&R Block HQ

Come here for discussion about the new downtown entertainment district.
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KCDevin

OFFICIAL: H&R Block HQ

Post by KCDevin »

itd be nice if we could steal back the businesses from OP (I believe sprint should have been downtown in the beginning), could have prevented its problems...
I think we should do all we can to win back local businesses and along with that, work really hard to steal businesses from other bigger cities. Including architectural firms of course :)
We should also try to get a bigger Bank of America setup here. I think if we get a good number of businesses and people downtown it might actually help in creating a KC-NO link with a river port. Possibly that is.
We could also try for a branch of an oil company. With the rigs in Kansas it makes sense (according to the FCC, a rig was planned for the area near 20th-30th streets close to I435 in Missouri.
We have to convince businesses that downtown is a good place, and with more people and companies can be a really booming place.
Waddell and Greed would look really stupid if we could bag more than H&R Block.
I believe H&R is downtown, and KC's first stepping stone in becoming an even larger city. (if you look at it long term that is)
Just in the last few minutes, I could see Kansas City becoming possibly bigger than Denver and other cities in 50 years or less. That is, if everything goes correctly.
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OFFICIAL: H&R Block HQ

Post by The Summit »

Are you guys serious, are they coming Downtown? This would be great news for the metro area.

Does this mean an arena may be anounced soon?

Block Arena has a nice ring to it!
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OFFICIAL: H&R Block HQ

Post by Mizzou05 »

wouldnt that be something if this is the reason we have not heard anything lately about the new arena. "H&R moves headquarters downtown while also building new Block arena"

ugg only in a fantasy world
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OFFICIAL: H&R Block HQ

Post by KCPowercat »

Business Journal reporting same information.
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OFFICIAL: H&R Block HQ

Post by scooterj »

For those of us without access to the print version and too anxious to wait until Monday for it to be online, can you tantalize us with some key fair-use excerpts?
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OFFICIAL: H&R Block HQ

Post by KCPowercat »

"Kansas City leaders are completing a $300M plan to bring H&R headquarters downtown and build an adjecent entertainment complex an unnamed source said"

plan to go in front of council next meeting

proposal far from done, up to 60% could come from public funds.

taxes from block would help support garages for the entertainment district...shared use.

entertainment district cost about $180M estimated

then people quoted talking about if there was ever a time to give a company subsidies, this is the company and this is the location.


all from business journal. Pick one up on the newstands today...lots of good articles this week. Can find them in bookstores and self serve boxes all over the city.
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OFFICIAL: H&R Block HQ

Post by scooterj »

If this requires a vote of the people this will give me the motivation to get off my butt and register in KC. (Haven't updated my registration yet since my last move.) Hopefully though there is a way to do this without a public vote... that process takes so long and plus you can be damn sure there will be a big north-of-the-river campaign to vote no unless the project is moved to the airport or the 152 corridor. :(
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OFFICIAL: H&R Block HQ

Post by KCPowercat »

it won't....public funds I think is talking about stuff like TIF.
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OFFICIAL: H&R Block HQ

Post by ShowME »

that process takes so long and plus you can be damn sure there will be a big north-of-the-river campaign to vote no unless the project is moved to the airport or the 152 corridor.
Agreed. This was again seen first hand on the last ballot issue for the tax for our Metro bus system. I still remember Channel 9 going to where the bus supporters were located and it was losing like 46% for and 54% against. I was like you gotta be kidding me. Then 20 minutes later it was revealed that all those votes were just from Clay and Platte County then I was like thaaaaannnnk gawwwwd! Jackson County KCMO put that thing way over the top. TIF is especially deserving on a project like this. If it happened to go beyond TIF and to a public vote we all including myself better roll up our sleeves and get to work.
Calling a spade a spade.
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OFFICIAL: H&R Block HQ

Post by scooterj »

ShowME wrote:TIF is especially deserving on a project like this.
This is exactly what TIF should be used for instead of being used to put Home Depot, Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, Old Navy, Borders, Joe's Crab Shack, and Beauty Brands at every major suburban intersection.
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OFFICIAL: H&R Block HQ

Post by KCDevin »

does anyone think we will be seeing another Frank Morgan sized development here in the next 15 years?
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OFFICIAL: H&R Block HQ

Post by QueSi2Opie »

Hey ShowME, give me your address so I can register to vote! :wink:
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OFFICIAL: H&R Block HQ

Post by GRID »

There will not be a public vote. That would not be good. Should be an inside City Hall deal.
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HR BLOCK

Post by macnw »

Is the land for this complex owned by the city or someone associated with the city? What is the likelihood that some landowner will file a lawsuit to stall development? This has happened numerous times in that particular area of downtown. Is this the beginning of a migration of business back to downtown? Where should the emphasis be downtown? More residents or more Block projects?
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OFFICIAL: H&R Block HQ

Post by KCPowercat »

mac....it is believed the DST has been buying up property around the area for just this reason.
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OFFICIAL: H&R Block HQ

Post by paisstat »

I would like to see a mind campus built around the present site just north of The Plaza. That grass lott just south of the Marriot and just south of the Quiqtrp is ugly. That could hold several thousand square feet of apace. Furhtermore, the site just south of the current headquarters could be leveled and another tower could be built--currently a liquor store occupies teh site. I can envistion covered passage ways connecting the towers. This would provide much more space within an area that is still the urban core and could use some revitalization.
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OFFICIAL: H&R Block HQ

Post by KCPowercat »

paisstat...that space north of Quiktrip will be used for an American Century expansion.....check the project database here: http://www.kcskyscrapers.com/projectdet ... jectID=173 to see the plans.
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OFFICIAL: H&R Block HQ

Post by QueSi2Opie »

Here we go! This could either be one of the greatest things to happen to downtown Kansas City in my lifetime, or it could be a gigantic heart break if they choose a location in JOCO.

Source: KC's plan for Block worth $300M
Jim Davis
Staff Writer


Kansas City leaders are completing a $300 million plan to bring H&R Block Inc.'s headquarters Downtown and build an adjacent entertainment complex, a person familiar with the preparations said.

The source, who asked not to be identified, said the plan will go to the Kansas City Council the week of Dec. 15.

Linda McDougall, a spokeswoman for Block (NYSE: HRB), said the company is confident of announcing a decision before winter starts on Dec. 22 but declined to provide details.

To meet this deadline, plans would need to be presented to the Kansas City Council during the week of Dec. 15; the council's last meeting of the year is Dec. 18.

Although the proposal is far from done, the source said, it anticipates more than 60 percent of financing coming from the public. This rate of subsidy is almost twice what was pledged to a previous $97.5 million plan to renovate the Power & Light Building and build a new office building and parking garage.

Kansas City Mayor Kay Barnes declined to comment on the prospects for landing what would be the greatest triumph of her downtown revitalization campaign. Barnes said she's following Block's timetable.

Block's 1,000-person headquarters would become the economic engine for the ambitious plan. Block expects to develop its new headquarters building, valued at $120 million, and will request about $35 million in tax increment financing and other public reimbursement, the source said.

Taxes generated by Block also would help support the entertainment complex. Parking garages, for instance, would be shared by headquarters employees and complex visitors. This linkage not only would boost the garages' use, it also would blunt criticism about diverting taxes to subsidize stores and restaurants that would compete with existing Kansas City businesses.

John Parker, president of Triad Capital Advisors in Kansas City, said Block's new headquarters would be financed easily. Block, No. 2 on The Business Journal's list of the Top 25 area public companies, has blue-chip credit.

Parker said this standing provides leverage to attract institutional money on favorable terms.

"There's a tremendous amount of capital available," he said. "The consequence of that has been to drive spreads down on competitive transactions of a quality that institutions have a high degree of interest in doing."

Less certain, he said, are prospects for the proposed entertainment district that has been envisioned for the area from 13th Street to Truman Road between Grand Boulevard and Baltimore Avenue.

The district would require a more risk-tolerant financing source, Parker said, "at least until there's a track record."

Banks would be more likely to bear construction and leasing risks, he said.

Mitigating these uncertainties is the involvement of The Cordish Co., a nationally renowned urban entertainment developer. Cordish has offered to invest about $30 million in Kansas City, the source said, leaving about $150 million for the public to finance. Assembling the public money would require TIF to capture local taxes generated by the project and the new Missouri Downtown Economic Stimulus Act to capture state taxes.

Steve Brettell of Grubb & Ellis/The Winbury Group said this steep price could be worth paying to bring one of Kansas City's glamour companies Downtown. Cordish's national relationships would help attract a suitable clientele to surround Block's headquarters, Brettell said.

"If (city government officials) can get H&R Block to come Downtown, they'd be crazy not to do it," he said.

Cordish officials did not respond to inquiries from The Business Journal.

Officials in other cities where Cordish has worked called the Baltimore-based company a unique specialist.

"They do what they say they're going to do," said Jack Berry, executive director of Richmond Renaissance Inc. in Richmond, Va., where Cordish is building an $82 million mixed-use downtown development. "They're tough negotiators, but they deliver what they promise."

Cordish opened The Power Plant in Baltimore in 1998. The project includes an ESPN Zone and Hard Rock Cafe.

Andrew Frank, executive vice president of the Baltimore Development Corp., said Cordish can get large public subsidies for high-risk ventures that others won't touch. The company's 99-year lease on The Power Plant, for instance, requires payments of just $1 a year for its first 10 years.


Economic development officials must set their own objectives, Frank said.

"We can only move forward when a project meets our internal rates of return," he said. "We don't use the same measures as Cordish. Our returns are measured by jobs and taxes."

Reach Jim Davis at 816-421-5900 or jdavis@bizjournals.com
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OFFICIAL: H&R Block HQ

Post by trailerkid »

Where is the arena in relation to this project...Barnes has been lying through her teeth about its timeline so I don't know if we should expect an H&R announcement this week.

Am I the only one that sees the oxymoron of having H&R Block as the anchor of an "entertainment district?" Maybe we could get the corporate headquarters for Bic pens at the other end.
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OFFICIAL: H&R Block HQ

Post by KCPowercat »

accountants party :)

From what it sounds like H&R would be on the west end close to P&L and President (if still standing)....arena would be on the east end around McGee or Grand with the entertainment district in between.
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