Plans for the ongoing Promontory redevelopment at 91st Street and Metcalf Avenue took another step forward this week.
What happened: At Wednesday’s meeting, the Overland Park City Council’s Finance, Administration and Economic Development Committee passed an amendment approving developers’ request to swap out retail for multi-family housing at the much watched site.
What it means: Under the amendment, the mixed-use development’s first-floor retail component will be replaced with “brownstone-style” apartments.
- This would add 20 living units to the overall development, increasing the total from 130 to 150 apartments.
- The amendment also gives developers more time to submit a tax increment financing plan, an agreement allowing the city to collect incoming property tax revenue from the Promontory site. The deadline would extend from July to December of this year.
What is TIF? Tax increment financing is a public financing tool through which a private 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.
In determining whether to grant TIF, consideration is given to whether a development would be financially feasible without TIF.
Changes to CID: Since this means retail wouldn’t factor into the project’s Community Improvement District funding as much as it did before, the amendment also reduces the cap for how much developers can be reimbursed through sales tax revenue collected within the boundaries of the special district.
- The amendment reduces the CID cap from $9.8 million to $7.8 million.
Bigger picture: This is the most recent step in a years-long redevelopment project.
- The Promontory project’s second phase broke ground in December with construction beginning on SERV, an entertainment complex with pickleball courts and restaurant kiosks, just to the south of the apartments planned for the third phase.
Timeline: The amendment approved Wednesday changes some key dates in the project’s timeline, including the end date of the third phase.
- Demolition of the existing building, which included a Half Price Books that is now moving to the nearby Nall Hills Shopping Center, is set to wrap up on Jan. 1, 2023.
- Following that, the project’s third phase is now expected to kick off in July 2023.
- The expected finish date for the third and final phase of the development, which includes the brownstone apartments, has been pushed back a year to December 2025.
