Wink Hartman Sr. on arena sale: ‘I just got run out of business, plain and simple’

Wink Hartman Sr. said he didn’t want to sell his namesake arena in Park City, but Sedgwick County forced him to.

“I just got run out of business, plain and simple,” he said. “I couldn’t afford to keep it open with the heavy property tax burden that the county assigned me.”

Since the arena opened in 2009, its highest appraisal was $14 million.

In 2020, it was $11 million, “which is just totally absurd,” Hartman said.

He said the arena was on track to make a profit for the first time in a decade, but then the pandemic hit, and Hartman appealed the appraisal.

“We even sent our financials to show we weren’t making money for the last 10 years. I had to feed the arena to keep it open,” Hartman said. “It took about a year and half because they just were too busy to meet with us. . . . They finally re-evaluated the arena at $7 million.”

He said he had to pay interest for paying a year and a half late due to the long appeals process.

The following year, Hartman said, the appraisal was back up to $11 million.

His reaction?

“I can’t probably repeat that right now.”

He appealed again, and the appraisal went back down to $7 million.

“It should have been $3.5 million,” Hartman said. “That’s what it was worth.”

That’s what he sold it for last week to Jeff Lange of Lange Real Estate.

“The first rule of business: Never go up against the government because you’re sure to lose,” Hartman said.

Sedgwick County Commissioner Pete Meitzner said he doesn’t know what Hartman is complaining about.

Meitzner said when he was elected to the Wichita City Council in 2011, development incentives and the issues surrounding them were a big deal, so he looked into them.

“I remember being surprised thinking ‘holy cow, one of the largest ones is Hartman Arena.’ ”

Park City gave industrial revenue bonds to the arena that were good for a decade.

“So he paid no property taxes for 10 years,” Meitzner said.

He said that totaled more than $5 million. He said there were also approximately $600,000 in fire district taxes the arena didn’t have to pay for 10 years.

“I don’t know what his beef is.”

Whatever it is, Meitzner said Hartman’s issue shouldn’t be with the County Commission since the county appraiser reports to the state, not the commission.

“They select the appraiser, but they do not tell us how to value property,” said Sedgwick County appraiser Mark Clark.

Meitzner said the timing of appealing tax appraisals is a process set by the state, and commercial properties take longer than houses.

Clark said in this case, it was Hartman who was slow to share all relevant information to his valuation. Once he did prove that it was Hartman Oil that was paying the arena’s bills, Clark agreed the valuation should drop. He said Hartman signed an agreement to the $7 million valuation.

Meitzner said county commissioners do estimate mill levies, and the arena property pays 158 mills, of which Sedgwick County accounts for not quite 30 mills.

“I’ve got a lot of respect for him,” Meitzner said of Hartman, “but I don’t know what he’s talking about with us.”

Outside of Spirit AeroSystems and Textron Aviation, Meitzner said the arena is “one of the largest tax-abated properties in the county.”

Hartman said he appreciates the tax abatement.

“Without that, Hartman Arena never would have been built.”

He said he “spent over $20 million after-tax money to build that arena,” which Hartman said had multiple millions of dollars in benefit to the community.

“What’s sad is I was the first person to realize the value on going to Park City.”

He called Park City government progressive.

“It was a delightful situation,” Hartman said. “This isn’t something Park City created.”

He compared Park City’s government to Sedgwick County commissioners and “the inability for them to govern without any foresight for future development.”

Hartman called the arena “a great piece of property” and said it’s one he would have liked to have kept.

“Pete has his opinion, and I respect that, but I also know where I stand,” Hartman said. “I no longer own Hartman Arena due to circumstances that I did not create.”

He said this experience changes how he’ll do business in Sedgwick County in the future.

“It most certainly does,” Hartman said.

“I’m not sure that would be very intelligent of me to take my money and throw it away again.”