Loretto Properties’ plan to build an “ultra-accessible” special incentive district featuring an amusement park, a 5,000-seat multisport complex, housing, retail, dining and a medical facility for individuals with disabilities easily cleared its first hurdle this week.
The company — run by Lamar Hunt Jr. and his son-in-law James Arkell — has requested a Sales Tax and Revenue, or STAR, bond district.
The total estimate for the price tag of the first planned phase of development at the southwest corner of 119th Street and Renner Boulevard covering about 64 acres costs about $300 million. An official amount has yet to be set, but Arkell estimated in an interview with the Post the project would request about $54 million through the incentive.
The Olathe City Council on Tuesday voted 6-0 to start the process of establishing a STAR bond district comprising roughly 132 acres in the area known as Olathe Gateway.
“In the aggregate, this series of projects is just exceptional in all regards,” said Councilmember Dean Vakas. “And we’re extremely fortunate to have it come to Olathe. It’s a tremendous asset, not just for Olathe, but for the entire KC metro.”
The vote this week doesn’t necessarily ensure that the incentive district will be formed, but was the first step in a series expected over the next few months.
Councilmember Matt Schoonover was absent from the meeting.
What are STAR bonds?
- STAR bonds are designed to support development that will spur “major entertainment or tourism destinations,” according to the Kansas Department of Commerce.
- The debt accrued from the bonds issued to develop a project — along with interest — is then meant to be paid back over time with state and local sales taxes from within the project’s boundaries, typically supported by retail, dining and other commercial ventures.
- STAR bond districts are usually in effect for 20 years, and in larger municipalities, have minimum investment and annual sale projection thresholds of $75 million.
What is planned for the STAR bond district?
- Arkell said that the plan is to make the full district “ultra-accessible,” exceeding requirements laid out by the federal Americans with Disabilities Act.
- The centerpiece of that is an amusement park open to all that will be fully accessible regardless of disabilities.
- There will also be a multisport arena with two sheets of ice that could also be converted to host a myriad of other athletic events, from volleyball to dance and cheer.
- Additionally, Loretto has proposed a 150-room hotel, pad sites for retail and dining, and potentially some housing elements.
- There would also be a medical office building called a Multi-Assistance Center, which would be intended to offer a range of health, support and other services for individuals who have disabilities.
- All told, the arena and amusement park are expected to attract an average of 725,000 visitors each year, with an annual gross sales projection pushing $145 million inside the district.
Arkell drew inspiration from his son for the project
In 2014, Arkell and Hunt welcomed a son and grandson named Michael, who was born prematurely with a genetic condition. A decade later, Michael uses a wheelchair, has a feeding tube and is nonverbal.
Arkell said it was hard to find fun things for the whole family to do that could include Michael and his three older siblings. Even places that tried to accommodate different disabilities were not fully accessible to Michael.
That is until the family found Morgan’s Wonderland, a fully accessible and unique amusement park in Texas inspired by the founder’s daughter Morgan, about five years ago.
“All my children were able to stay together and play and enjoy themselves, which doesn’t happen in most situations in general society,” Arkell said. “The whole purpose of this park was to keep everyone together as a family, to enjoy things as a family.”
From there, a partnership of sorts was born, and Arkell said he got a blessing from Gordon Hartman, who founded the original park, to open one named after his own son. This one would span 18 acres and be called Michael’s Wonder World.
“[Hartman] had been waiting for the right person to come along, and he spent a lot of time with us and decided we were the right people,” Arkell said in an interview with the Post.
In keeping with the desire to make space for people with disabilities, Arkell intends to charge an entrance fee for all visitors, except individuals who are disabled — they will be able to get in for free.
“This is a park that allows everyone to come and not be hindered by whatever their situation might be,” Arkell said Tuesday evening.
Hunt also noted that, when getting into the process of opening a new amusement park, it helped that his family previously opened and owned for more than 20 years Worlds of Fun, a 235-acre amusement park on the Missouri side of the metro.
Youth and amateur sports would also feature prominently
Alongside an overarching mission to create a space for everyone to enjoy, Loretto also wants to invest in the booming world of youth sports.
Arkell said his three older children are involved in youth sports, and they travel all over for tournaments and competitions. Through that, he’s realized the economic potential there is for communities that are equipped to host such events since families are looking for activities to do between games.
“We think we’ve done a good job assembling uses that will make this one of the priority picks for a lot of these competitions,” Arkell said.
Leagues and tournament organizers are already making commitments to host their competitions from this future complex.
That being said, Loretto is putting a focus on helping hockey get a better footing in the Kansas City area with their plans in Olathe.
Hunt and Arkell own the Kansas City Mavericks hockey team, which plays out of the Cable Dahmer Arena in Independence, Missouri, and they plan to have an NAHL 20 and under amateur hockey team make a permanent home on the ice at the planned sports complex.
In the end, whether people are coming to the district for youth sports, to catch a hockey game or already live in Olathe, Arkell and Hunt hope to provide them with a full experience.
“We would make this sort of a destination for the whole area that people would come and they can enjoy themselves in other ways,” Hunt said in an interview with the Post.
Hunt family involved in past Olathe STAR bond project
A sport-focused venture in the wider Loretto business group was part of a 2018 effort to use STAR bonds to redevelop the former Great Mall of the Great Plains in southern Olathe.
Those plans — which ultimately fell through for multiple reasons — would have featured a 4,000-seat hockey arena, an estimated several hundred thousand square feet of new retail, dining and office, as well as multifamily housing units.
Later, Garmin bought the property and some neighboring acreage.
Arkell told the Post that the plan’s failure to materialize paved the way for the new STAR bond district planned in northern Olathe.
“Luckily, there were a couple of barriers that got in the way that forced us to look really hard at it, and we hit pause,” he said of the past plan. “It wouldn’t have been the right project.”
Next steps:
- Arkell expects to complete construction on the southwest corner of 119th and Renner in 2026, in time for the KC metro to play host to some World Cup matches and associated travelers.
- For all of that to happen on time, the city council will have to consider a formal project plan and approve a development agreement for the district by the end of the year, city attorney Ron Shaver said.
- Then, in early 2025, the city will have to approve an ordinance that would set up the issuance of the STAR bonds.
- Subsequent applications for local economic development incentives — like community improvement districts or tax increment financing districts — are also expected to come for the project down the line, though Arkell didn’t say exactly what those would be.
- While about 69 acres of property at the northeast corner of the intersection at 119th and Renner are included in the proposed district, Arkell said there are no set plans at this time to develop it.
Keep reading: Hunt family reportedly involved in latest STAR bond project in Olathe
