Since the Kansas Speedway's opening in 2001, the area around it has exploded with commercial construction—nearly $3 billion worth. That's topped only by the investments in Downtown Kansas City since then. Among the most significant projects in western Wyandotte County:
1. Schlitterbahn Vacation Village. 30 acres, including 750,000 square feet of retail. Projected completion: 2011. Total cost: $750 million.
2. Village West. 400 acres, including 1.2-million-square-foot Legends shopping center. Completed: 2006. Cost: $573 million.
3. Casino/Hotel. Phase I planned opening: 2011. Cost: $521 million.
4. KC Wizards/Cerner Corp. project. Ground broken for 18,000-seat soccer stadium; 58-acre office complex to come later. Cost: $414 million.
5. Kansas Speedway. NASCAR site on 1,200 acres. Opened: 2001. Cost: $242 million.
6. Plaza at the Speedway. 850,000-square-foot retail center. First stores opened 2009. Cost: $200 million.
7. Nebraska Furniture Mart. A 1.1-million-square-foot retailer on 80-acre site. Opened: 2003.
8. Cabela's. The 180,000-square-foot outdoors store helped make Village West the top tourist destination in Kansas. Opened: 2002.
Almost anyone involved with what’s been happening in the Village West/Kansas Speedway region of Wyandotte County over the past decade invokes the same imagery to describe the phenomenal progress there: “A perfect storm.”
With nearly $1 billion in construction projects recently begun or announced for that zone—on top of more than $2 billion already invested—the storm continues to rage in western Kansas City, Kan. Ground has just been broken on an 18,000-seat soccer stadium for the Kansas City Wizards, a project that, combined with eventual construction of 600,000 square feet of office space nearby for as many as 4,500 Cerner Corp. employees, has an estimated value of $414 million. Almost in lockstep, plans are moving forward for construction of the first phase of a casino/hotel development overlooking the Kansas Speedway, adjacent to Village West, pegged at $565 million.
Those projects, coming in this economy, are particularly important because they will add a significant boost to regional construction activity this year. That will help keep many contractors busy until broader recovery for that sector emerges, as many project, late this year or in 2011.
A decade after Kansas City, Kan., stunned the metropolitan area by landing the Kansas Speedway, nine-figure deals
seem to be coming in waves that continue to redefine what Village West and the Speedway district can ultimately become.
But just what is it that, on a regional scale, is still setting that site apart for major development?
“I think what you see there is that the perfect storm happened,” said Brent Miles, president of Wyandotte Development, Inc. “By that, I mean you’ve got the unification of the city/county government, which is still an under-appreciated aspect of why we accomplish what we do. We have great (highway) access as a city, we have the support throughout the state the with STAR bonds,” the state-authorized financing program that relies on sales taxes generated in the district.
A REGIONAL EXAMPLE
All those elements are important, as Brent Miles notes. But other communities in the area, particularly on the Kansas side, have many of the same things going for them. What’s the real difference-maker?
“I think it’s the culture we’ve created in terms of process,” Miles said. “We’ve got an elected body that understands what the vision of this county needs to be over the next 10 to 20 years. We got out of the hole we’d been in for years, and put political differences aside. We don’t have the infighting you see in some other communities.”
Coincidentally, just days before Miles made those comments, the city of Kansas City and Jackson County ended an intramural court battle over a fundamental piece of public policy meant to promote development—the way tax-increment financing decisions are made. Even though it was resolved somewhat amicably, a legal fight over a key development tool isn’t likely to ease the concerns of business leaders about the long erosion in the business climate of Kansas City itself. The metropolitan core, many protest, has been losing out to surrounding communities.
The success of Village West is testament to the power of a focused governmental approach to development, those closest to it say.
“It is very easy, from a developer’s perspective, to work with the government in Wyandotte County,” said Tim Weaver, who led the efforts of LANE4 Property Group on the Wizards/Cerner deal. The Unified Government—first under Mayor Carol Marinovich a decade ago, then her successor, Joe Reardon, County Administrator Dennis Hays and his assistant, Doug Bach, “have all worked to streamline the process as much as possible,” Weaver said. “They have great experience, having shepherded the Speedway, Legends, Cabela’s, Nebraska Furniture Mart—they have walked these paths before. They helped keep us out of weeds and on the path.”
The financial fundamentals of the district are another difference-maker, and one unique to the region in their application. STAR bonds, which capture sales taxes generated in the district to finance continuing infrastructure improvements, give Village West an enormous advantage because of the unparalleled success of Nebraska Furniture Mart.
“Nebraska Furniture Mart, being at the top of that pyramid for sales-tax generation, is really a difference-maker,” Weaver said. “It’s the economic engine that drives it all.”
(...continued)