Wichita City Hall poised to help bring major development to the downtown riverbank
City Hall is poised to approve another mammoth development on the banks of the Arkansas River and solidify hundreds of parking spaces to serve the new baseball park that’s replacing Lawrence-Dumont Stadium.
The new development will include a variety of uses, including a flagship hotel, apartments, shops, restaurants, office space and public plazas at the current site of the Metropolitan Baptist Church, just north of the new ballpark under construction at the northwest corner of Maple and McLean.
On Tuesday, the City Council will receive a presentation on the project and its financing package, which will include potentially tens of millions of dollars in public subsidies and upwards of $100 million in private investment.
City Manager Robert Layton is recommending the council take three weeks to evaluate the plan over Christmas and bring it back for a vote on Jan. 7.
The proposed plan, coupled with a baseball village project planned adjacent to the stadium, would create a more-or-less unbroken line of development along the west bank from Maple on the south to Douglas on the north.
The existing boardwalk along the river would be replaced with a more stylish “promenade” between the businesses and the river bank, similar to the walkway along the River Vista apartment project to the north of the site, which was built by the same developers.
“We want to create a real city center for Wichita,” said George Laham, one of the principal developers of the site. “What we’re proposing to the council on Tuesday is truly not just about the Metropolitan Baptist Church site, but a comprehensive plan.
“Our goal (is) to integrate the church property into the existing Delano businesses and neighborhood, working in a compatible way with the ball park so everything works together.”
Laham said the plan “takes into account the needs of parking, of a walkable district, the needs of baseball, Delano, Delano businesses and Delano residents.”
The genesis of the development was talks with the Metropolitan Baptist Church, which has a huge building surrounded by copious open space and parking.
The church was built in 1969 and the congregation no longer needs all the space, so it was a natural site for a development, Laham said.
Laham and his partners — Dave Wells, Dave Burk and Jerry Jones — don’t have firm dates for breaking ground or completion, but will develop the property as market conditions allow, he said.
Part one will be a new church for the Baptists, he said.
“The church is our first priority in this project,” Laham said. “Until we . . . make sure they’re taken care of, nothing will happen. Once we get through our approvals with the city, we’ll be out marketing the project and we’ll work with the church on their plans for the future and the rebuilding, get that figured out, so once we get them situated, then we’ll be able to move forward.”
The plan also starts to bring into focus the parking situation, a question that has dogged the stadium project since it began.
▪ The city will be purchasing land west of Sycamore between Douglas and Maple for $3 million, the fair market value established by appraisal, Layton said. In phase one, to be completed next year, the city will build 175 parking spaces at the north end of the site primarily to support the stadium.
▪ The developers of the church site and city have agreed to a parking easement that will provide 100 parking spaces, either surface or garage, north of the stadium for free public use. The city will pay Laham and his partners $400,000 for the parking easement.
▪ The city is planning a combination parking structure and park-and-ride transit station — exact location to be determined — that will have more than 500 spaces and can serve as parking for the stadium and the Delano business district. The city has not yet decided whether there will be a charge to park in that facility, Layton said.
“We’ll have 800 new spaces to serve the stadium and the Delano area,” Layton said. While the plan is fluid and will change as building plans and tenants are solidified, “What it does show is a substantial amount of parking is available to support the stadium.”
The new stadium will be the home field of the Wichita Wind Surge, a Triple-A minor-league team affiliated with the Major League Miami Marlins. The team is scheduled to start playing at the new stadium in April.
Lou Schwechheimer, principal owner of the Wind Surge, said he supports the developers’ efforts north of the stadium and team management will work with them to assure a seamless transition between their project and the baseball-themed Ballpark Village.
The village will be developed by the team owners on four acres of land between the stadium and the river, which the city gave them as an enticement to move the team from New Orleans to Wichita.
“Whatever would be beneficial to Delano and the businesses in Delano and ultimately the stadium proper, we’d certainly welcome,” Schwechheimer said. “I have a lot of respect for George and Dave and Dave and Jerry and we will look to support whatever effort they have put through. We’re neighbors and I have an enormous amount of respect for what they’ve done in the last couple of decades in Wichita.”
Schwechheimer said he’s also pleased that the parking issue is well on its way to being solved. He said he met recently with U.S. Rep. Ron Estes, R-Wichita, who shepherded through $14 million in federal funding for the combination transit center/stadium parking garage.
“You can never have enough parking,” Schwechheimer said. “We certainly would encourage as much parking as possible.”
Financing the project
To facilitate the development by Laham and his partners, the city is using just about every public finance tool at its disposal, including:
▪ Tax Increment Financing or TIF, which diverts future property taxes to improvements.
▪ A Community Improvement District or CID, which will levy an additional sales tax in the project area to support the development.
▪ STAR bonds, a state-authorized program, which diverts future local and state sales taxes to public improvements supporting the development.
▪ Industrial Revenue Bonds, which will relieve the developers from paying some of the sales tax that would otherwise be due on their construction materials. IRB’s ordinarily fully exempt those materials from the sales tax, but the development partners have agreed to split the tax break 50-50 with the city.
The city will give the developers their cut of the revenue collected from the special tax districts around the ballpark.
The city will get the first $10 million collected at the church site from TIF and CID revenue. The developers will get the next $30 million, and the city and developers take a 50-50 split of anything collected above $40 million.
The City Council will discuss the boundaries of both districts on Tuesday.
If Laham and his partners fail to develop 60,000 square feet of commercial space within 10 years, the city has the right to terminate the incentives.
Land for parking
The stadium needs more parking because it was built on top of Lawrence-Dumont’s primary parking lot, shoring up space east of the stadium for the Ballpark Village that the city sold for $1 an acre, with the expectation that revenue generated in the district will help pay for the stadium.
To get the 175-space surface lot west of the stadium, the city will pay Laham and his partners $3 million for 3.16 acres between Sycamore and Oak from Texas to Maple.
Laham and his partners have been piecing together parcels west of the stadium since January 2018, The Eagle first reported in March. At the time, they declined to discuss their plans for that property.
The city didn’t announce it was tearing down Lawrence-Dumont Stadium and building a new stadium until September.
Layton, the city manager, said he doesn’t know why Laham’s group started buying land west of the stadium so early, but he said there was no coordination between the developers and the city to eventually do this land deal.
“None whatsoever,” Layton said. “We’ve been talking about changes to the baseball stadium for a few years, and it took us over a year to negotiate a deal. I think people knew we were working on it, and then it took a year before we actually landed the team. ... I never had any conversations with that group, and I’m not sure I know anyone that did. But it wasn’t a well-kept secret.”
Additional details of the development agreement will be discussed at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the City Council Chambers on the first floor of City Hall, 455 N. Main.
