Hotel developer wants assistance on Crossroads project, looks to the Port Authority

%{[ data-embed-type=”image” data-embed-id=”” data-embed-element=”aside” ]}%

Back in February, I reported about how the Port Authority of Kansas City wanted to flex more development muscle.

In years past, the Port Authority was a sleepy Kansas City agency that was more commonly associated with being the landlord for the Isle of Capri, slow plans to redevelop the long-neglected Missouri riverfront and the Richards-Gebaur Air Force Base (not to mention the occasional scandal).

Over the last year, however, the Port Authority (which now goes by the name PortKC) started involving itself into development projects that were not really close to what anyone considers a port. The most prominent example was its financing of the old Kansas City Board of Trade building’s redevelopment. The building that once housed commodity traders was purchased by a business affiliate of Leawood’s Mariner Wealth Advisors.

There, and elsewhere, PortKC used its authority to issue Chapter 68 bonds. Those enact a property-tax abatement for the BOT building’s new owners, which in turn facilitated River Market architecture firm Populous’ move to the Country Club Plaza area.

Since then, PortKC has been involved in other real estate deals. More recently, PortKC granted a tax abatement to bring a manufacturing company from Cass County to south Kansas City’s CenterPoint Intermodal. It granted another tax break for a speculative industrial building near the old Bannister Mall site.

Then on Monday, a hotel developer asked PortKC’s commissioners whether they would consider assisting a Crossroads Arts District hotel project to the tune of $15 million. PortKC voted to think about it.

The project in question is a 112-room extended-stay hotel at 20th Street and Main. Kansas City has done no small amount of work to get this plot of land ready for development. It got rid of a viaduct that came off the Main Street bridge between Pershing Road and 20th Street onto Walnut. 

Last year, Kansas City sent its attorneys to fight a billboard company that owned a sign on the development site. Main Lodging Partners, an affiliated business entity of well-respected developer Jason Swords, said the billboard was a hindrance to the hotel development. 

And the project is adjacent to the 2-mile streetcar line, an undertaking of the city’s that’s often said to be a catalyst for private development.

But the project is still after public help.

The Kansas City Star reports that Dan Fowler, a Northland councilman and a PortKC commissioner, voted against Main Lodging Partner’s request, saying that the streetcar should be an incentive of its own and that other places in Kansas City need financial help besides the Crossroads and downtown. Fowler’s five other colleagues voted to at least consider the request.