Another Mission Gateway development plan arrives

New York developer Tom Valenti has sent Mission officials his latest plan for the long-stalled Mission Gateway project.

According to the Prairie Village Post, the development still includes a Wal-Mart store, the chain retailer that Valenti once infamously said would be the “rocket fuel” to propel his project into something more than the barren prairie it is now.

Valenti plans to throw in more retail venues, although we’re not told which ones, as well as apartments, office space and a hotel.

Mission residents have gone for a ride on each elephant of this circus before. Valenti once proposed an office building, but that went away when he couldn’t land a tenant. Apartments and hotels have also been included in earlier permutations of the still-unrealized Mission Gateway but were removed when Valenti couldn’t tie up loose ends.

His most recent proposal, from last year, was so stripped down (it was nothing more than your average Wal-Mart-anchored strip mall) that it compounded the annoyance felt by Mission council members regarding his perpetual delays in getting significant site work done.

There was a run of lawsuits against Valenti filed by contractors. (The PV Post reports that Valenti has assembled a new team of local contractors.)

This latest version appears to have more bells and whistles. But they’re the same Easter eggs that Valenti couldn’t find earlier. Valenti is certain to ask for a hefty public incentive load to make this project work. Whether Mission officials have any patience left with a developer who has squandered much of his goodwill in the community is another question altogether.