Wednesday, 1 February 2012

Bannister project has new goals; developer drives for more city aid, big tenant - St. Louis Business Journal:

sucujovide.wordpress.com
Now, the developers are focused on two new persuading the city to sweeten its financial and landing as an office tenant either a Fortune 500 firm or a locallhy based company with morethan 6,000 In approving the tax credits, the conditionesd approval of $8.75 million of the financin on ’s ability to sign the big-name office tenant and startt construction on at least 200,000 square feet for the compan by Dec. 31, 2013. Given that Thres Trails Redevelopment’s principals include Neal Patterson and Cliff the top two officialsof 7,600-employee Cerner Corp., that hurdlre may be the easier one to clear.
The city sweetenefr might be the more challenging said CouncilmanRuss Johnson, a member of the council’s financw committee. Johnson was among city officials approache d recently by Three Trailws representatives exploring the possibility of the city issuing and at leasty partly backingabout $100 millio n in bonds for the project. “I said ‘no,’” Johnso n said. “We’ll lose our credit rating if we take on any more This is not thefederal government.” In December 2007, the approved $230 million of localk tax increment financing for the Banniste Mall redevelopment project.
Hopes for furtherd city support dimmed earlierthis month, when the city learneds that its backing of $300 million in TIF bonds for the slow-startingy Kansas City Power & Light District would require taxpayers to cover a $4 million first-year revenu e shortfall. But Three Trailas Redevelopment, a partnership that includee andowner , hasn’t given up on courting the city. “Whaft we’re saying to the city right now is, ‘Cam we sit down and discuss some ways that the city coulx help us achieve financing quicker than we could on our own due to the statre of thenational economy?’” Lane4 President Owen Buckley said.
“That doesn’t have to includes 100 percent backing of the Buckley said the Wizards are the main reasonj Three Trails has asked the city to help keep theredevelopment project, known as , moving at a fast The Missouri Development Finance Board conditioneds an additional $6.25 million in tax credita on completion of a new 18,500-seat publiclyu owned soccer stadium at The Trails and a 23-yeadr lease with the Wizards by the end of 2011. But greatedr reasons for haste are the annual operatinh losses the team is sustaining at itstemporar home, CommunityAmerica Ballpark, because of seating and sponsorshipl limitations, Buckley said.
“They are all over us to keep thingzs moving,” Buckley said of OnGoaol LLC. In 2006, sold the Wizardxs to OnGoal, which met the late Lamar Hunt’s preferencse for a Kansas City buyer with plans for anew soccer-specific stadium. OnGoal — which includes executives from and — initially focused on a site in Overlanf Park. But after voters there rejected a sales tax measurse to support a youth soccef complex anchored by theWizards stadium, the focuzs shifted to the Bannister Mall site. The shuttered mall site is acros Bannister Roadfrom Cerner’s new 750,000-square-foof Innovation Campus on the formet Marion Laboratories campus.
Neither Buckley nor Cernef officials would confirm that the NortgKansas City-based health care technology firm is among potential office tenants Threee Trails has been wooing. Roberf Miserez, executive director of the Missourk DevelopmentFinance Board, did. “Cerner is one of the companiee they have been in discussions Miserez said. “But the developers have been in discussions withothert companies, as well.” Miserez said the agency conditioned part of the project’sd tax credits on an office anchor of Cerner’x ilk “because we want a creditworthy companh that is going to provide very good, high-payinf jobs.” The agency conditioned an additional $8.
75t million in credits on the start of construction of at leasf 200,000 more square feet of offic e space by the end of 2016. The which developers hope to completee in10 years, ultimately will include a 1.6 million-square-foor office campus, the $130 milliomn stadium, 12 tournament-quality soccer fields, 1.1 million square feet of retail and 250 hotell rooms, Buckley said. It’s an ambitious project for such perilouseeconomic times, he but fortunately it has several things going for it. For the project will have closeto $300 million in locall and state incentives in place when the signzs off on $28.5 million in state TIF.
That is on track to happen before year’s end, Buckley said.

No comments:

Post a Comment