Deberg_1990
09-09-2009, 07:10 AM
Guess the old Bannister Mall site is out?
http://www.kansascity.com/842/story/1433346.html
The Kansas Speedway area has emerged as the new choice for a long-sought Wizards soccer stadium in a sweeping proposal that would include at least 4,000 new Cerner Corp. jobs.
The developer working for OnGoal LLC, the owner of the Kansas City Wizards, has prepared a stadium plan for a site owned by Nebraska Furniture Mart. The developer is asking state and county officials to use revenues from the existing sales tax revenue bonds, also known as STAR bonds, issued for the Village West retail district to help finance the project.
To sweeten its proposal, OnGoal, whose ownership group includes Neal Patterson and Cliff Illig, co-founders of Cerner, has included a 600,000-square-foot office project that Wyandotte County officials confirmed would house new Cerner employees.
An amateur sports complex with at least a dozen athletic fields also is part of the plan, bringing the total estimated investment to $400 million.
Officials at Cerner, a fast-growing medical software company based in North Kansas City, declined to comment directly on the proposal but did release a statement Tuesday.
“As Cerner continues to grow, we will consider, as we have in the past, office locations that can accommodate several thousand associates,” said Marc Naughton, chief financial officer. “A successful Cerner will need substantially more office space to grow in the next decade.”
Should the stadium project move to Village West, it would derail the current plan to redevelop the former Bannister Mall in south Kansas City. City officials have been working for more than two years with developer Lane4 Properties Group and OnGoal to build a mixed-use project that would be anchored by a new Wizards stadium.
The development team cautioned that no final agreement has been reached with Kansas officials but added they were far along the road exploring the Village West alternative. Populous, formerly HOK Sport, has developed drawings for the 18,500-seat stadium, and preliminary soil exploration has been done on the 11-acre site.
“We’re spending money out there today in anticipation this has real probability,” said Robb Heineman, president of OnGoal.
Although Wyandotte County would be a big winner under the new proposal by attracting thousands of new jobs and keeping a major professional sports team — the Wizards are playing temporarily at CommunityAmerica Ballpark in Village West — the potential shift would be a substantial blow to Kansas City.
The soccer stadium was to be the cornerstone of a $1 billion plan to redevelop the former Bannister Mall property. Besides the proposed Wizards stadium, the project included 609,000 square feet of retail, a 250-room hotel, office space and a 12-field amateur soccer complex.
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.
The STAR bond program diverts 100 percent of the new state and local sales taxes generated by a project to repay eligible development costs. When Kansas Speedway was built, more than 400 acres were set aside for additional development to be assisted by the program.
In addition to the 4,000 direct new jobs paying an average salary of $54,000, the developer is projecting that 1,900 spin-off jobs would be created by the office campus and 2,400 more jobs to be created by the soccer stadium and amateur sports complex. This would bring the total to more than 8,300.
The estimated annual economic benefit would be more than $500 million, and the new stadium and soccer fields alone would attract 2.5 million visitors annually, according to the developer.
“We’re very excited about the prospect of thousands of new jobs,” said Dennis Hays, Wyandotte County administrator. “The proposed office complex is an integral part of the overall plan for Village West, to bring daytime traffic.”
Hays said county officials supported the STAR bond proposal being proposed by the developer.
“The economic benefit of 8,000 new jobs in our community far outweighs any investment of sales taxes,” he said. “We’ve had discussions with state officials and will continue to work with them on this.”
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.
Mayor Joe Reardon said the additional development opportunity would be a boon to employment opportunities in Kansas City, Kan.
“The job creation is phenomenal and would be transformative to a community like mine,” he said.
Kansas City Council member John Sharp, whose district includes Bannister Mall, said the new plan would be devastating for his area. Besides redeveloping the Bannister property, city officials saw the Wizards stadium and adjoining development as a chance to enhance the surrounding neighborhood.
“The city and state of Missouri have offered these developers every economic incentive we have to offer,” Sharp said.
“I don’t know what else we could do, other than offer to back all their construction costs. … I don’t know if we could do that without severely jeopardizing the city credit rating.”
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.
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A $400 million proposal
1. An 18,500-seat stadium for the Kansas City Wizards on vacant property owned by Nebraska Furniture Mart
2. A 600,000-square-foot office campus that would accommodate 4,000 new jobs expected to be created by Cerner Corp.
3. An amateur sports complex with more than a dozen soccer fields.
http://www.kansascity.com/842/story/1433346.html
The Kansas Speedway area has emerged as the new choice for a long-sought Wizards soccer stadium in a sweeping proposal that would include at least 4,000 new Cerner Corp. jobs.
The developer working for OnGoal LLC, the owner of the Kansas City Wizards, has prepared a stadium plan for a site owned by Nebraska Furniture Mart. The developer is asking state and county officials to use revenues from the existing sales tax revenue bonds, also known as STAR bonds, issued for the Village West retail district to help finance the project.
To sweeten its proposal, OnGoal, whose ownership group includes Neal Patterson and Cliff Illig, co-founders of Cerner, has included a 600,000-square-foot office project that Wyandotte County officials confirmed would house new Cerner employees.
An amateur sports complex with at least a dozen athletic fields also is part of the plan, bringing the total estimated investment to $400 million.
Officials at Cerner, a fast-growing medical software company based in North Kansas City, declined to comment directly on the proposal but did release a statement Tuesday.
“As Cerner continues to grow, we will consider, as we have in the past, office locations that can accommodate several thousand associates,” said Marc Naughton, chief financial officer. “A successful Cerner will need substantially more office space to grow in the next decade.”
Should the stadium project move to Village West, it would derail the current plan to redevelop the former Bannister Mall in south Kansas City. City officials have been working for more than two years with developer Lane4 Properties Group and OnGoal to build a mixed-use project that would be anchored by a new Wizards stadium.
The development team cautioned that no final agreement has been reached with Kansas officials but added they were far along the road exploring the Village West alternative. Populous, formerly HOK Sport, has developed drawings for the 18,500-seat stadium, and preliminary soil exploration has been done on the 11-acre site.
“We’re spending money out there today in anticipation this has real probability,” said Robb Heineman, president of OnGoal.
Although Wyandotte County would be a big winner under the new proposal by attracting thousands of new jobs and keeping a major professional sports team — the Wizards are playing temporarily at CommunityAmerica Ballpark in Village West — the potential shift would be a substantial blow to Kansas City.
The soccer stadium was to be the cornerstone of a $1 billion plan to redevelop the former Bannister Mall property. Besides the proposed Wizards stadium, the project included 609,000 square feet of retail, a 250-room hotel, office space and a 12-field amateur soccer complex.
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.
The STAR bond program diverts 100 percent of the new state and local sales taxes generated by a project to repay eligible development costs. When Kansas Speedway was built, more than 400 acres were set aside for additional development to be assisted by the program.
In addition to the 4,000 direct new jobs paying an average salary of $54,000, the developer is projecting that 1,900 spin-off jobs would be created by the office campus and 2,400 more jobs to be created by the soccer stadium and amateur sports complex. This would bring the total to more than 8,300.
The estimated annual economic benefit would be more than $500 million, and the new stadium and soccer fields alone would attract 2.5 million visitors annually, according to the developer.
“We’re very excited about the prospect of thousands of new jobs,” said Dennis Hays, Wyandotte County administrator. “The proposed office complex is an integral part of the overall plan for Village West, to bring daytime traffic.”
Hays said county officials supported the STAR bond proposal being proposed by the developer.
“The economic benefit of 8,000 new jobs in our community far outweighs any investment of sales taxes,” he said. “We’ve had discussions with state officials and will continue to work with them on this.”
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.
Mayor Joe Reardon said the additional development opportunity would be a boon to employment opportunities in Kansas City, Kan.
“The job creation is phenomenal and would be transformative to a community like mine,” he said.
Kansas City Council member John Sharp, whose district includes Bannister Mall, said the new plan would be devastating for his area. Besides redeveloping the Bannister property, city officials saw the Wizards stadium and adjoining development as a chance to enhance the surrounding neighborhood.
“The city and state of Missouri have offered these developers every economic incentive we have to offer,” Sharp said.
“I don’t know what else we could do, other than offer to back all their construction costs. … I don’t know if we could do that without severely jeopardizing the city credit rating.”
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.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A $400 million proposal
1. An 18,500-seat stadium for the Kansas City Wizards on vacant property owned by Nebraska Furniture Mart
2. A 600,000-square-foot office campus that would accommodate 4,000 new jobs expected to be created by Cerner Corp.
3. An amateur sports complex with more than a dozen soccer fields.