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-   -   News Bannister Mall: the new home of the Wizards. Watch KC screw this up. (https://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=176060)

BigRedChief 12-06-2007 07:23 AM

Bannister Mall: the new home of the Wizards. Watch KC screw this up.
 
KC will screw this up. They had Bass Pro ready to go in abut they didn't want to give them TIF. Just what tax revenue are they getting now from that area? It's a wasteland.

http://www.kansascity.com/business/story/391605.html

Funkhouser opposes Super TIF for Bannister Mall redevelopment


By KEVIN COLLISON
The Kansas City Star Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser said Wednesday that he opposed extraordinary tax breaks to help the Bannister Mall area redevelopment plan — incentives that backers say are vital for success.“It’s a wonderful project. I’m ready to sign off,” Funkhouser said at a development forum where he made a public appearance early in the day. “But I can’t stomach 23 years of Super TIF.”

Funkhouser later elaborated in a statement saying that while he was “excited” about the prospect of redeveloping the vacant mall property in south Kansas City, he wouldn’t support the $43.5 million in Super Tax Increment Financing being requested as part of the package to help finance the development.
Under Super TIF, all rather than just part of the local taxes generated by a project are diverted to help defray eligible costs.

The ambitious Three Trails redevelopment proposal, valued at almost $1 billion when fully built over 10 years, calls for a mixed-use development anchored by a new stadium for the Wizards professional soccer team. It would include a 12-field tournament-style soccer complex; a 250-room hotel; 609,000 square feet of retail space; and 610,500 square feet of office space.

The developers are seeking $273.3 million through a variety of local and state tax incentives to help finance the project.

“I want to see the Three Trails redevelopment happen,” Funkhouser said. “But I don’t intend to support the current plan without more thorough discussion and, at least, the removal of the Super TIF requirement, which redirects 100 percent of any new property, sales and earnings taxes back to the project.”

The development group backing the project, which includes top executives of Cerner Corp. and Lane4 Property Group, contends that Super TIF is needed to fill a financial gap for the project.

It remains unclear what effect Funkhouser’s position with have on the development group’s pursuit of the project at the Bannister Mall site. The developers have sought a decision by the Kansas City Council by the end of December to meet a construction timetable that calls for the soccer stadium to be open by spring 2010.
Project backers, who have considered alternative sites elsewhere in the area, could not be reached for comment after Funkhouser’s statement.

Besides the use of Super TIF, Funkhouser also objects to the plan’s provision that the city own the soccer stadium, saying it would require long-term expense and attention.

“The construction of the city-owned Sprint Center required a new tax and public vote, yet we are considering this plan with neither,” Funkhouser said in his statement. “I want to be sure we have thought through that decision and its fiscal impact on the city.”
The mayor’s announcement threw a new twist into a discussion that already had gotten off to a poor start earlier in the day.

At a meeting of the council’s Finance and Audit Committee, at which dozens of people testified, most favored the project. But Chairwoman Deb Hermann postponed a recommendation on the project after becoming frustrated by widely differing economic impact estimates submitted to her panel.

The city’s Finance Department issued an analysis indicating that the city would have a $41 million negative impact over the 23-year life of the project’s proposed financing. An analysis by the Economic Development Corp., in contrast, indicated a $45 million net benefit over the same period.
Both groups use different ways of evaluating the economics, and Hermann decided to seek additional time to sort out the issue.

Her committee has one more meeting scheduled before the end of the year.

“You just can’t give me a scenario with an $86 million swing,” Hermann said. “I’m not a financial expert. That’s why we have a Finance Department.”

Further complicating matters, Councilman John Sharp, a strong supporter of the Three Trails project, said Funkhouser had received a letter from state officials stating that any state aid for the project was contingent on the city’s granting the Super TIF assistance.

The project seeks $20.7 million in state tax-increment financing and $10 million in state tax credits.

Reerun_KC 12-06-2007 08:07 AM

Who cares? Its soccer...

Just get it out of Arrowhead.

BigRedChief 12-06-2007 08:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reerun_KC
Who cares? Its soccer...

Just get it out of Arrowhead.

Pissed me off to no end seeing those damn soccer lines on the field.:#

Reerun_KC 12-06-2007 08:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigRedChief
Pissed me off to no end seeing those damn soccer lines on the field.:#

Same here...

Just want soccer out of arrowhead...

Send it back to the Euro's where it belongs....

Eleazar 12-06-2007 08:22 AM

IMO, they need something like this that will draw people in to spend money from other parts of the city. You can't just put in a bunch of new retail shops like some other people want to do, all the retail business got run out of the area already. I don't think the neighborhood economically can support much. Hell they closed a Walmart, when have you ever seen a walmart close?

The Wizards would be better off with an intimate, soccer-specific venue and the neighborhood would be better off without the corpse of what used to be sitting there vacant.

Dave Lane 12-06-2007 08:23 AM

How about getting it out of the country!

Dave

jAZ 12-06-2007 08:38 AM

There's got to be a better project than a soccer stadium that they can build there, right?

How many people attend Wizard games?

Is it possible to build a dual use fascility that can be used for convention space the other 350 days a year?

Valiant 12-06-2007 08:38 AM

I wouldn't want the superTIF to pass either.. The private enterprise there wants it for 23 years, and that is not counting all the other discounts the city is giving them.. They literally want everything free to them..

I do find it funny that the amounts are so different when you hear them from the developers side and the city's side... Going to side on the city since they are the one footing the bill..

Valiant 12-06-2007 08:40 AM

Also of Funk's pledges when he was running was to cut down on TIFs.. There is a great article in the Pitch that shows that all of these new shopping areas have not provided the revenue generating power or jobs they said they would.. This includes Legends... The city or citizens have not gotten back anything in return for these places...

BigRedChief 12-06-2007 08:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jAZ
There's got to be a better project than a soccer stadium that they can build there, right?

Bass Pro shop was going to put a huge store right in the middle of the Bannister Mall. Build a hotel and other entertainment attractions themed around the western trails era.

Hundreds of Millions were going to be invested. But they wanted this TIF also. KC balked and the area shut down. And Bass Pro went to Independence got the TIF and are buidling a massive store at the corner of 291 and I-70.

hawkchief 12-06-2007 08:54 AM

F the plan, and F soccer. Simply a plan for a bunch of developers to get rich-quick - cloaked in "it's great for the city" BS.

BigRedChief 12-06-2007 09:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hawkchief
F the plan, and F soccer. Simply a plan for a bunch of developers to get rich-quick - cloaked in "it's great for the city" BS.

Thats the reality of business. If they don't get the money they will go down the street to the next city, as Bass Pro Shops did.

Doesn't make it right. It is what it is. Why should we pay millions of $'s to a staium for a team to play in but we have no say in how that team is run. Basically, Taxation without represntation. But we got to vote so we said it was okay to do to us.

There will be no tax increase to the public but maybe there still should be a vote?

Kylo Ren 12-06-2007 09:32 AM

I HATE soccer.

But, I would like to see something cool built in the Bannister mall area.

Phobia 12-06-2007 09:36 AM

That area is a wasteland. What is soccer going to do for it? Seems pretty flipp'n stupid to me.

Valiant 12-06-2007 09:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigRedChief
Thats the reality of business. If they don't get the money they will go down the street to the next city, as Bass Pro Shops did.

Doesn't make it right. It is what it is. Why should we pay millions of $'s to a staium for a team to play in but we have no say in how that team is run. Basically, Taxation without represntation. But we got to vote so we said it was okay to do to us.

There will be no tax increase to the public but maybe there still should be a vote?


Other then the fact that the developers are asking for more then the original TIF.. They want it for over 23 years... The other thing that pisses me off about these places is they dilapidate other areas.. No new revenue is created from these things, just stolen from other areas near by...

Lets take the northland

Barrytowne got a small TIF to be built, promised close to 1000 jobs and new business.. It has about ten jobs and 400 employees in all the stores.. It also helped further the decline of Metro North..

Then you got Zona Rosa coming with its TIF, owned by the same company as Barrytowne.. It stole businesses from Barrytrail and Metro North.. So now those places are sitting empty or soon to be empty once Circuit City moves to Zona.. Metro North is practically dead, but guess what they are talking about getting a TIF to redevelop that also..


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