‘Developer’ Sued Over Shirt Bill
BY DAVID MARTIN
A principal in the dubious effort to build a $980 million entertainment and sports resort in Kansas City, Kansas, is being sued over a $591 dry-cleaning bill.
Five Star Dry Cleaning recently filed a small-claims action in Johnson County against bodybuilder-turned-developer Craig Chambers. The dry cleaner complains that Chambers, the managing director of Sport World Live, has not responded to repeated requests for payment.
Chambers, a former Mr. Missouri, has been chased by creditors in the past. Researching Sport World Live last summer, I discovered that he had filed for bankruptcy in 1996. Last year, a credit-card company went after one of Chambers’ bank accounts in order to collect a $3,625 judgment.
Sport World Live is an unrealistically ambitious proposal to transform a KCK floodplain into a Disney-like destination, with athletic fields, a five-star hotel, an events center, a shopping center, an RV campground and an “international village.” The Unified Government approved tax-increment financing for the project last summer, in spite of the thin credentials of the development team. At the time of the vote, Chambers was managing an equipment-rental business in Gladstone.
Eight months later, tangible progress remains elusive. Most conspicuously, the developers have yet to acquire the necessary land.
Chambers did not respond to an interview request through an attorney who has worked with the Sport World Live team. One of his partners, Overland Park businessman Tom Lyons, insists that work is being done. Buying the land, he tells me, is “a small piece” of the puzzle.
