Kansas City Mayor Sly James on Wednesday will introduce plans for a new economic development tool aimed at encouraging development in disadvantaged East Side communities.
The tool, expected to be called either the GrowKC Fund or Shared Success Fund, was conceived of by Charles Renner, a development attorney with Husch Blackwell LLP. The mayor is scheduled to introduce a resolution calling for its creation during the 1:30 p.m. meeting of the City Council’s Planning, Zoning and Economic Development Committee.
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His solution, which is at the heart of plan to be introduced by James, involves payments in lieu of taxes, or PILOTs, which are annual sums that developers frequently agree to pay the school district and other taxing jurisdictions in return for their support of incentive requests.
Under the new plan, the PILOTs the city receives, which are generally about 20 percent of total PILOTs granted, would be placed in a fund to help projects in distressed areas.
Specifically, Renner said, the funds would be used to fill financing gaps that may remain for projects even after incentives are approved. That heightened potential for public support, he said, is expected to attract developers to distressed areas that might otherwise be overlooked.
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