The Lenexa City Council on Tuesday advanced a measure to consider approving tax-increment financing (TIF) plans for the Sonoma Pointe multifamily residential and Sonoma Plaza retail developments in City Center, setting a public hearing date for June 5.
Lenexa-based Oddo Development is the projects’ developer.
Sonoma Pointe will have about 320 multifamily units in multiple buildings on roughly 29 acres near Loiret Boulevard and 87th Street Parkway, according to a Tuesday memo from Assistant City Attorney Sean McLaughlin to the council. Construction started late last year, Ryan Powell, Oddo Development’s director of construction, said after the meeting. The residential complex is being marketed as Sonoma Hill.
Sonoma Pointe’s proposed 20-year TIF plan would reimburse the developer for eligible costs using up to 50 percent of the increment of new taxes generated by the development, with a maximum reimbursement of $3 million, starting when at least one of the buildings with at least 150 units is completed. After that, the city would be entitled to receive 100 percent of the increment and any balance for the remainder of the 20-year TIF term.
Sonoma Plaza would occupy nearly 26 acres near Loiret and 87th and would have about 144,000 square feet of retail in multiple buildings. Its proposed 20-year TIF plan would reimburse the developer using up to 40 percent of the TIF increment for up to 12 years for a maximum of $4 million, after which the city would be entitled to receive 100 percent of the increment and any balance for the remainder of the 20-year TIF term.
Last October, the council approved having the city pay an estimated $4.4 million for road improvements for Sonoma Plaza, setting stage for work on one of Lenexa’s last large undeveloped tracts inside Interstate 435. Oddo Development will repay the city in the next 15 years, with interest.
Sonoma Plaza is expected to include a grocery store, senior living facility, several restaurants, a gas station and other components.
TIF is public financing tool by which a developer of a blighted property is reimbursed for eligible development and infrastructure costs using the increment of new property or sales tax revenue generated by the development. Consideration of whether to approve TIF is made using the “but-for” principle, which means considering whether a development wouldn’t be financially feasible but for TIF.
