The Shawnee City Council has given the long-troubled effort to remake the mostly vacant Westbrooke Village shopping complex a fresh start with a new developer.
On Monday, the council approved a resolution for the assignment and restated redevelopment agreement for Westbrooke Green — a new plan to remake the derelict strip mall at 75th Street and Quivira Road.
The resolution passed by a 5-2 vote, with Councilmembers Tony Gillette and Mike Kemmling in dissent. Councilmember Jacklynn Walters was absent.
The new agreement puts the project in the hands of a new Kansas City, Missouri-based developer called Westbrooke Partners LLC.
“For most of the people here in this room, they hate to see it in the condition that it’s in. But for us, it’s a blank canvas,” said P.J. Guastello, owner of Westbrooke Partners LLC.
Redevelopment includes old and new agreements
Per the original agreement, the revamped project will still include a grocery store as its main tenant in a space larger than 50,000 square feet. A tenant has been secured for that space, Guastello told the council Monday, though he did not name the company.
Also transferring from the original development agreement are several upgrades to the decaying property, including improvements to its facade and signage, resurfacing of the parking lot, repairing sidewalks and rehabilitating landscaping.
There can be no gas stations, car washes, pawn shops, storage spaces, payday loans or body shops in the complex, according to the agreement.
Incentives will remain the same, including:
- A 20-year tax increment financing, or TIF, district that is set to expire on Dec. 17, 2037
- A community improvement district, or CID, around the development that expires on Dec. 31, 2042
- Industrial revenue bonds for sales tax exemptions on eligible construction costs
The new agreement protects the city if it fails again
The new agreement approved this week by the city council also includes new protections for the city, including benchmarks that the developer must meet by certain dates to receive funding.
“What that means is the developer starts out with zero incentives,” City Manager Paul Kramer said. “The TIF or the CID, they start out with zero cap, and upon completion of agreed upon milestones, (they get more funding).”
The agreement also includes clawback provisions for every month the project does not meet its goals.
“The goal here is to incentivize the development and to penalize delays,” Kramer said.
Because the project has already been delayed for years, Kramer said the developer agreed with the new terms.
“I will say that the city proposed these (and) there was very little pushback from the developer because they understood that this project has been languishing awhile and we needed certain protections,” he said.
The original agreement goes back to 2017
The Westbrooke Village complex at 75th and Quivira was once a busy shopping center. After its anchor store Dillon’s closed in 2008, surrounding businesses gradually followed suit.
Originally, the project to remake the complex was in the hands of an entity known as MP Westbrooke North LLC, a joint venture of Mission Peak Capital, based in Kansas City, Missouri, and New York City, and Extell Development Co., based in New York.
In November 2017, the developers received millions in TIF and CID funding, with a plan to make it a combined mixed-use residential and retail space.
The project made headway on just one promised aspect of the overall plan: Razing old buildings in the plaza and building The Chadwick Apartments at Westbrooke Green.
For years, not much has happened with the project
Despite the completion of the apartments, progress on the commercial side of the project has been slow, with no new businesses moving in and the property being “largely vacant and a blighting influence,” Kramer said during his presentation at Monday’s meeting.
It’s also been a source of frustration for city councilmembers.
“I don’t know if I have any problems with this (new agreement),” Councilmember Kemmling said. “But I’ve seen drawings on this site before that never materialized, and I’m hesitant to let (the previous developer) reassign this try to make a profit with the way they’ve treated this site here in Shawnee.”
“It’s a very aggressive timeline”
Guastello told the council he has a history of restoring blighted shopping centers in the Kansas City area, and he hopes to do the same with Westbrooke Village.
“I feel like it’s a very aggressive timeline that we can meet,” he said. “I made a lot of concessions to make sure that the city was taken care of but that we could also be successful in this project. It’s a great piece of property.”
While hesitant, Councilmember Kurt Knappen expressed his support for the new agreement.
“This is not something I would have voted for in 2017,” he said. “I don’t like the idea of a CID and I definitely don’t like the idea of CID on top of a TIF. But here we are 10 years later, and it’s a blighted area with no other developer coming forward. The residential (side) that was done was done really well. It looks great and we’ve got to get the other half done.”
Go deeper: Shawnee’s Westbrooke Green complex has been vacant for years. What’s the hold up?
