After struggling financially for several years, Overland Park’s Prairiefire is set to pay off bond interest that it has been accumulating since 2020.
The details: Officials said UMB Bank is scheduled to pay $286,465 in bond interest on July 22, which the mixed-use development had previously defaulted on throughout previous years.
- The bank is a trustee for $14 million in community improvement district revenue bonds issued in 2012 by Overland Park to help finance Prairiefire through sale tax revenues generated by the property.
- A cumulative $278,660 in interest remains unpaid from three due dates in June 2020, December 2020 and June 2021.
What’s left: In addition to the bonds the development received from the city, Prairiefire is also working to pay back $65 million of the state’s Sales Tax and Revenue, or STAR, bonds also issued in 2012.
- As of February 2022, filings show $64.9 million in principal remain on Prairiefire’s STAR bonds and the total $14 million is left unpaid on its CID bonds.
- The bonds received interest payments totaling roughly $3.5 million and $697,000 between December 2020 and December 2021.
Background: An analysis by Kansas state auditors released last fall found that it could take the state decades to recoup sales tax revenues diverted for Prairiefire.
- The audit concluded it could be anywhere from the year 2046 to 2104 before Prairiefire is generating enough revenue for the state to recoup the sales taxes diverted to issue the $65 million in STAR bonds to develop the project.
Future plans: Prairiefire, which has been under construction since 2013, is now working to finish its $63.3 million second village center phase.
- As part of this phase, a 43,000-square-foot grocery store, which is believed to be an Amazon Fresh, is underway at the center, as well as new headquarters for OakStar Bank.
- Kansas City-based Messenger Coffee Co. is also building a 7,500-square-foot drive thru location.
- The remainder of Prairiefire’s village center is slated for retail and office space.
