The Port Authority of Kansas City has moved on from one builder’s plan for a $91.6 million parking garage at Berkley Riverfront and instead will fold that site into the Kansas City Current’s mixed-use development around CPKC Stadium, now expected to hit $1 billion in total investment.
Port KC on Monday approved two measures relating to Parcel 9, the riverfront’s last big property without approved plans; it’s now temporary gravel parking outside CPKC Stadium. The first measure formally rejected a proposal by the Parking Company of America (PCA) for what, as of this summer, was a five-level, 1,491-space garage split between public stadium parking and an adjacent future mixed-use project to be built by The Cordish Cos
The second measure authorized Port KC to negotiate several big changes to its master development terms with the Current’s KC WFC StadCo LLC. The planned changes include removing the port’s obligation to provide 2,000 parking spaces for the team’s 11,500-seat stadium. Rather, the Current would become responsible for building its parking during its coming phased construction. Port KC CEO Jon Stephens said Monday that the Current’s parking needs remain “indeterminate.”
Port KC would sell Parcel 9 to the Current at market rate, increasing the team’s riverfront project area by roughly 5 acres, to 19.2 acres total, and its investment amount by $200 million, to $1 billion overall. The port’s terms require the Current to complete all phases of its present $800 million project within a decade. The team would get additional time to develop Parcel 9 but be required to proceed with vertical construction within a set timeframe, or the port could buy the property back.
Additionally, the amended terms would open the door for the Current to pursue hotel construction, beyond the apartments, offices, retail and public park space in its prior riverfront plans. Any hotel would be eligible for a 10-year property tax exemption, equal to what the team will receive for its apartment projects. And a port improvement district would be created around Parcel 9 to benefit an eventual project by imposing and redirecting a new 1% sales and use tax.
“We believe that these two actions are beneficial to Port KC, beneficial to the development of the riverfront and, ultimately, beneficial to the city,” Stephens said.
CPKC Stadium’s parking has been a hot-button issue since the venue’s March opening, with purposefully fewer spaces than seats to encourage multimodal transit at the riverfront, rather than just car traffic. The year before, Port KC issued a request for proposals for Parcel 9, seeking a mixed-use project and a garage with at least 1,500 spaces. In June 2023, the port started negotiating with PCA and Cordish, the only respondents. But no further details were public before the Kansas City Business Journal made open records requests this year and in July chronicled local officials’ work on, and concerns with, an incentive structure the developers had sought.
PCA insisted on a city backstop of bonds that Port KC would issue to fund the garage’s construction. The bonds would have been paid down through garage revenue, and potentially other public funding streams, but those sources were not expected to fully cover annual debt service, plus operations and maintenance, for a number of years. PCA wanted the city to cover the bond shortfalls — estimated up to $29.5 million over 13 years for an original nine-level, 2,732-space garage plan. Cordish, too, wanted other incentives for a $126.5 million project with 186 apartments and 89,800 square feet of retail and office around the garage.
But Mayor Quinton Lucas’ office and City Manager Brian Platt objected to the requests in January, with Platt noting in an email that “the total cost to taxpayers is simply too much.” During the ensuing back-and-forth, Port KC moved to terminate its RFP for Parcel 9, and PCA threatened to sue the agency. The parties ended up continuing discussions, reducing the garage’s size and desired incentive amount — to include about $8 million in city bond coverage over seven years.
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