Wichita approves targeted sales tax hike, development deal with riverfront group
A major commercial development next to the new baseball stadium under construction downtown won approval Tuesday from the City Council.
In a related action, the council approved the creation of a new tax district covering areas around the new ball park in Delano and much of the WaterWalk, where sales taxes will be increased by 2 cents on the dollar to help pay for projects in the area. The sales tax increase won’t apply to businesses along Douglas from McLean to Seneca.
The newly approved development is spearheaded by George Laham at and around the current site of the Metropolitan Baptist Church at 525 W. Douglas. Laham has partnered with fellow downtown developers Dave Wells, Dave Burk and Jerry Jones.
The project is a result of talks with the 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 its space, Laham has said.
A new, smaller church will be included in the project, Laham said. The balance of the property will include a variety of uses, including a flagship hotel, apartments, shops, restaurants, office space and public plazas.
Under the development agreement, the property will be added to the sales tax district that the council created earlier in the meeting.
Money from the sales tax hike and the increase in property taxes generated by the new development will be split between the city government and the private-sector developers.
The city will get the first $10 million to help offset the cost of the new $75 million ball park. The developers will get the next $30 million to help pay for their project costs.
Anything above that $40 million will be split 50-50 between the city and the developers.
Karl Peterjohn, a former Sedgwick County commissioner, questioned the tax split.
He said the city has complained for years about getting only about 57 percent of the countywide 1-cent sales tax, and questioned why the council would be willing to agree to eventually split a 2-cent tax increase 50-50 with private developers.
“That ought to be a cautionary note,” Peterjohn said.
The existing boardwalk along the river will be replaced with a more stylish “promenade,” similar to the walkway along the River Vista apartment project to the north of the site, which was built by the same developers.
The plan, coupled with a baseball village project planned adjacent to the stadium, will create a more-or-less unbroken wall of development along the west bank from Maple on the south to Douglas on the north.
In a related action, the city voted to create a sales tax district in the Delano area to help pay for the stadium and related city projects.
That additional taxation is projected to generate about $16.5 million toward stadium costs.
The tax district stretches across much of the southern Delano business area and crosses the river to take in most of the WaterWalk property, minus the King of Freight headquarters building that used to be a Gander Mountain outdoor-products store and the condo/office building at the east side of the development.
The council passed the sales tax district unanimously, after assuring supporters of the Riverfront Legacy Master Plan that in the future, money will be diverted from it to help finance their plans for a $1 billion-plus project on the east bank, including a new performing arts center and convention center to replace the Century II.
The new stadium is being built on the west side of what used to be the site of the Lawrence-Dumont Stadium. The shift opened up land for development along the river, but also eliminates most of the old stadium’s parking lot.
The development agreement with Laham and his partners includes several provisions to create new parking that the private project and the public stadium will share.
▪ The city will purchase land west of Sycamore between Douglas and Maple for $3 million, the fair market value established by appraisal, City Manager Robert 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 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 also 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.
Overall, the development agreement will create about 800 parking spaces that can be used for events at the stadium, Layton said.
For the surface lot west of the stadium, the city will pay the developers $272,500 more than they paid for the same land as they assembled it over the past two years, according to a valuation obtained through the Kansas Open Records Act.
Michael O’Donnell, Sedgwick County commissioner for the district that includes the project, said the entire project is important to the district but parking problems need to be solved — quickly.
The baseball stadium is expected to open in approximately 100 days, but so far more parking has been taken away than added for the new, $75 million stadium.
“It is a serious situation we’re in,” O’Donnell said.
This story was originally published January 7, 2020 at 11:08 AM.
