KCRag Forum

Plus, like the nascar track, KCMO is not going to buy land, give it away, and super tiff and star bond development, fund and finance the construction of the buildings and furnishings etc.  There is only one place KCMO will do that, and it's downtown and even there, they don't give as much away as KCK does.

LenexatoKCMO wrote: As to the hotel part of your qoute, I don't think that is an issue - the area is going to need everyone of those hotel rooms and probably a good deal more to deal with the folks this will draw.  I am willing to bet that every motel chain in the country is looking to aquire land in KCK to serve these attractions (jobs, jobs, jobs).  

As to the hundreds of thousands par,t you are probably right that my numbers are off - I am sure that Schlitterbon's parks probably attract annual numbers in the millions, not the hundreds of thousands.  

I was speaking of Great Wolf's water attractions for the hotel.

As for your other points, we will have to disagree and time will tell.

GRID wrote: Plus, like the nascar track, KCMO is not going to buy land, give it away, and super tiff and star bond development, fund and finance the construction of the buildings and furnishings etc.  There is only one place KCMO will do that, and it's downtown and even there, they don't give as much away as KCK does.

Another reason I'm glad I'm not a Kansas taxpayer.

I'm glad to see this area get built up as a touristy spot, it's cool to have something like this on KC's front door.  Sucks that Worlds of Fun is kind of isolated out where it is, too bad we can't just pick it up and move it out there. 

nota wrote: Another reason I'm glad I'm not a Kansas taxpayer.

Personally I think the WyCo taxpayers are taking a pretty good gamble.  I think we will pretty quickly start to see tourist development outside of the Star/TIF districts.  Major tourist destinations tend to see explosions of "unplanned development" in the surrounding areas.  As I mentioned I bet just about every hotel/motel chain in the country is scrambling to get a presence in the surrounding area.  I wouldn't be suprised to see the area get a large full service hotel chain or two out that way in addition to the motels (i.e mariott, doubletree, etc.).  I am willing to bet that we will see several un-TIFed tourist-oriented strip malls, gass stations, small scale attractions, etc. spring up throughout the corridor as well.  All of this stuff will bring in plenty of tax that the city never had before and hopefully they will use a decent chunk of it on infrastructure improvements in the older part of the city.  While some of this development will obviously be to the West, I am willing to bet that there will be a fair chunk creep towards the older eastern side of town.  We are already seeing infrastructure improvements moving to the east (like the SPUI at 635 and Parallel) that would lead me to believe that city is anticipating traffic and development creeping that way. 

I wish they would do something like the Midtown Marketplace funding scheme, which earmarks part of the Costco/Home Depot TIF money for loans and grants for home repair in the area around the stores. 

KCK should set aside a certain percent of Village West revenue for projects east of I-635. Things like infrastructure repair, home improvement loans, rehabbing commerciall/retail space, etc.  I'm sure a lot of it already flows east (as well as contributing to the overall reduction of property taxes), but carving out a specific amount would be a great psychological and economic gesture. 

dangerboy wrote:
KCK should set aside a certain percent of Village West revenue for projects east of I-635. Things like infrastructure repair, home improvement loans, rehabbing commerciall/retail space, etc.  I'm sure a lot of it already flows east (as well as contributing to the overall reduction of property taxes), but carving out a specific amount would be a great psychological and economic gesture. 

THis is a great idea. However when I keep seeing articles about KCK homeowners complaining about how their taxes have risen, where is the "overall reduction of property taxes?"

nota wrote: THis is a great idea. However when I keep seeing articles about KCK homeowners complaining about how their taxes have risen, where is the "overall reduction of property taxes?"

My understanding is that the Unified Government has lowered the tax rate, but at the same time real estate values went up and made the houses worth more.  So while they are being taxed a lower rate, the higher valuation leads to a higher net tax bill.

Also, the Unified Government only controls the city and county portions of the property tax bill.  Like most places, the biggest portion is the school district, and then other things like library, community college, etc.

well i guess oceans of fun will have to get its shit together, and cedar fair needs to pump millions into it DAMN quick, or they will be screwed.

Personally, I think OOF is a lost cause.  It was never a great water park to begin with and very little has been done to improve it since it opened.  I went out this summer for the first time since I was there right after they opened and I was shocked to see how little had changed and how little had been added; several areas seemed pretty shabby.  It would take a tremendous investment to get it competitive. 

However, as I said above - I think WOF could really benefit from this.  If Cedar Fair keeps investing in big attractions like the Mamba and Patriot every year, coupled with the arrival of Schlitterbahn accross town, KC could really emerge as a premier regional amusement park destination.  Forget about silly old six flags St. Louis. 

yeah i hear you there. cedar fair has actually done more for worlds of fun in the past 6 years than hunt did in the first 27. i mean, the mamba, patriot, that other roller coaster, i dont know its name, the one that goes forwards and backwards, and spinning dragons, gives them 4 new coasters in 6 years, which is pretty good. but i was dissapointed to see the express and the zinger go, they were both lost from age, which, to me, is weird. because, i have been to kennywood in western pennsylvania, which is the oldest traditional amusement park in america, and they have 4 different rides, 2 of them large coasters, that are over 60 years old. and remember the wildcat of fairyland? it is still in operation at 6 flags in frontier city.

oceans of fun, back to the point, has added LOTS since 82, but the probelem there is they add so slowly and so little, you dont notice it. at worlds, the park is COMPLETELY different than 23 years ago. but oceans, built is SO spread out, that they have added here and there, and noone notices. but, we'll see. i think that cedar fair will wait until they see this thing get going, i mean, they are talking about an opening of 2008, that is a LONG time.

I've been to the original water park site in texas, and its awesome. One of the very cool things is that is in and around a river in south texas, and the water for the rides is straight out of the river. The water coasters are fun, and you do go uphill at a good pace. There really is no comaprison to OOF at all. They are on a completely different scale. There was one ride that lasted over 10 minutes and dumped you out into the river. Very cool! Its definately a very family friendly park. The one thing that was a bit different was that some of the rides were rated for swimming abilities! So this is a great coup for KCK.  And it won't be a big competition for Great Wolf Lodge, the waterpark will only be open in warm months, the Lodge is open year round.

is this being paid for entirely by public funds or is WyCo merely giving the land for this project?

forgive me if this was mentioned in the article, i didn't have time to read it yet.

GRID wrote:Plus, like the nascar track, KCMO is not going to buy land, give it away, and super tiff and star bond development, fund and finance the construction of the buildings and furnishings etc.  There is only one place KCMO will do that, and it's downtown and even there, they don't give as much away as KCK does.

Read the article.

KC Star wrote:The Unified Government does not, he stressed, intend to give Schlitterbahn the public land included in the proposed site in the manner that it handed over land as part of the Village West development.

“This transaction is based upon fair market values,â€

OOF could lower ticket prices to compete

must be nice to be kck and just be able to do shit like this. but when your neighboring county pays for the stadiums, the new arena, the offices, the plaza, crown center, mass transit, etc, etc, bridges over the rivers, i guess you have money to play with. what the hell. i hope the pressure of this makes cedar fair make oceans of fun nicer, and nicer, then it falls through. that would be great.

kcdcchef wrote: must be nice to be kck and just be able to do shit like this. but when your neighboring county pays for the stadiums, the new arena, the offices, the plaza, crown center, mass transit, etc, etc, bridges over the rivers, i guess you have money to play with. what the hell. i hope the pressure of this makes cedar fair make oceans of fun nicer, and nicer, then it falls through. that would be great.

kcdcchef wrote: must be nice to be kck and just be able to do shit like this. but when your neighboring county pays for the stadiums, the new arena, the offices, the plaza, crown center, mass transit, etc, etc, bridges over the rivers, i guess you have money to play with. what the hell. i hope the pressure of this makes cedar fair make oceans of fun nicer, and nicer, then it falls through. that would be great.

Chef, you had been sounding so reasonable and civil the last few days.  Just earlier today in another thread you spoke of state bickering as if it was a negative.  I was beggining to think there was hope; but no, your addction to needless state bashing aparently overcame you. 

well then research me another county that puts up multimilion dollar deals while the big city suffers. show me one.

As many of you know, I'm no fan of the suburbs; but really, so what if KCK puts in a water park? I really don't give a rip one way or the other, I just don't see how this is going to hurt KCMO in any substantive way other than motivating Oceans of Fun (surely a privately-owned organization anyway!) to get it's act together.