The Mission Gateway financing saga will continue this fall.
During a Wednesday public hearing, New York-based Cameron Group LLC and GFI Development Co. presented their fifth iteration of a tax-increment-financing plan for the site, along with a community improvement district proposal.
But City Administrator Laura Smith said in an email that council members “were not positioned” to take action on the proposal and have decided to continue negotiations with the developer. Both the public hearing and final action have been pushed to a special City Council meeting on Nov. 21.
“At that meeting, we anticipate taking additional public comment, and for the Council to vote on the TIF ordinance, CID ordinance, the redevelopment agreement and preliminary development plan,” Smith said.
Even though the final action was delayed, both the city and developers still aim to start construction in early 2023.
“(The timeline) will have some impacts, but the goal is still to be under construction as soon as possible in 2023,” Smith said.
The developers requested the City Council terminate the project’s TIF plan from 2017 and establish a 22-year community improvement district, which raises the the CID sales tax rate from 1% to 2%. It also will seek a revised 20-year TIF redevelopment agreement.
If it’s approved, the developers will build the first phrase, which includes:
- 49,752 square feet of “small-shop” commercial or restaurant spaces
- a 90,000-square-foot entertainment space
- 373 apartments
- related site work, surface parking and a parking garage
For the last 16 years, the site on Shawnee Mission Parkway near Roe Avenue and Johnson Drive has seen little work. The developer’s previous development agreement expired in December 2021, also ending the city’s negotiating position. The site was up in the air until the project’s newest version was announced in February.
As part of the new redevelopment agreement, Mission would receive $26 million of incremental new property, sales, and tax revenues from the entire Mission Gateway project during the 20-year TIF and 22-year CID terms.
According to the developer’s timeline submitted to Mission, the project’s second phase will begin in the second quarter of 2023. Both phases are supposed to finish by the end of the third quarter in 2025.
