Mission Gateway lawsuit filed last week isn’t the first time the developer has been accused of stiffing someone

Last week’s news that Henderson Engineers was suing the developer of Mission Gateway for not paying its invoices got us wondering: Have other companies involved with Mission Gateway sued the Cameron Group and its principal, Tom Valenti, to get paid?

Yup. 

Johnson County District Court records show a trail of complaints against Valenti and the New York-based Cameron Group, which holds 26 acres of prime real estate where Johnson Drive splits off from Shawnee Mission Parkway. The pattern is simple: Valenti makes a promise about the Mission Gateway project to a prospective vendor or investor. Valenti doesn’t deliver. Lawyers sort things out.

In 2010, investment bank Oppenheimer & Co. sued Cameron and Valenti. Oppenheimer was hired in 2007 to help the Cameron Group get public incentives to help finance what at the time was a lavish mixed-use development, including condos and office space and various kinds of retail.

The agreement said Oppenheimer would get paid an amount equal to 2 percent of the $50 million in sales-tax revenue (STAR) bonds that the developer wanted in order to finance Mission Gateway. STAR bonds are inducements that redirect state and local sales taxes generated by a project back into the development itself. They’re meant to be used for projects that attract tourists from at least 100 miles away, which explains why Valenti at one point wanted to bring a massive aquarium to the old Mission Center Mall site. 

The Cameron Group received approval from the Kansas Commerce Department to use STAR bonds, which meant that the developer owed Oppenheimer $1 million within 30 days. Valenti’s firm paid $200,000 but refused to offer up the rest. Oppenheimer sued to collect the remaining balance. The Cameron Group made vague claims that Oppenheimer “failed to perform.” The case settled in 2012.

Oppenheimer again sued the developer a year later, claiming that the Cameron Group didn’t live up to the terms of the 2012 settlement agreement. A Johnson County judge ordered Valenti’s firm to pay Oppenheimer $800,000 and tacked on another $4,000 in legal fees.

An advisory firm called Oceanview Development sued the Gateway Developers (the business entity created by Valenti and the Cameron Group to develop Mission Gateway) on almost exactly the same grounds as the Oppenheimer case. Oceanview Development was hired to help secure tax incentives. Oceanview’s lawsuit says it was owed $198,500 by July 2008 for helping the Gateway Developers get approval for $63 million in STAR bonds, and that Valenti’s firm didn’t pay.

As in the Oppenheimer case, Oceanview settled with Gateway Developers. As in the Oppenheimer case, Oceanview sued once more when Gateway Developers didn’t follow the settlement agreement. And, as in the Oppenheimer case, a Johnson County judge ordered Gateway Developers to pay Oceanview — this time $198,500.

A 2010 lawsuit filed by the Johnson County Community College’s Board of Trustees charts a somewhat different path against Gateway Developers. In that case, JCCC signed a five-year lease in 2002 for an extension campus at Mission Center. At that time, the mall was managed by Copaken White & Blitt (now Copaken-Brooks). The Cameron Group terminated JCCC’s lease after buying the mall in 2005, which it had the right to do if it gave the college 300 days’ notice. The Cameron Group gave 131 days’ notice, according to JCCC’s lawsuit.

Valenti told JCCC that he wanted the college to lease space at the redeveloped Mission Gateway and encouraged it to lease temporary space elsewhere while he went to work at building the new project. JCCC occupied space at the old Mission junior high school and waited, like everyone else, for Valenti to start work at Mission Gateway. JCCC says Valenti kept promising that groundbreaking was right around the corner.

“In doing so, the developers were concerned with nothing other than their own financial interests,” reads a court filing by JCCC. “The developers knew development was not imminent, yet they kept baiting the college to stay interested so that the developers could meet its lender’s occupancy requirements.”

JCCC eventually received a judgement of $229,800 against Gateway Developers, plus another $82,443 in legal fees.

Valenti is still chasing development dreams on the barren ground that greets Mission’s visitors from the east. His proposal now is little more than a Wal-Mart-anchored strip mall. He wants $25 million of the public’s help to make his project work. Mission hasn’t set a date on when it plans to take up Valenti’s latest and smallest proposal.

Valenti has admitted that his unrealized promises (he calls it being “overly optimistic”) have cost him his credibility. His Mission Gateway debacle has cost him — and a number of other people — more than that.