Mission Gateway gets another extension on tax benefits

Maybe the fourth time will be a charm for Mission Gateway.

Since first approving two community improvement districts for the 16-acre site at Shawnee Mission Parkway and Johnson Drive in 2013, Mission leaders have extended the start date on those benefits three times. Wednesday’s Mission City Council meeting marked the fourth extension.

The Mission City Council unanimously and without discussion delayed the activation of one of two community districts on the Mission Gateway site until Oct. 1, 2017. A second community improvement district passed the council with councilman Nick Schlossmacher casting the sole no-vote.

Community improvement districts allow developments to charge additional sales taxes or impose property assessments within the district and use the money it generates to pay off certain project costs. In Mission Gateway’s case, its developer wants to charge a half-cent sales tax beyond existing local taxes and earmark those funds to defray the cost of the Wal-Mart-anchored mixed-use development.

Under Kansas law, the improvement districts can last for 22 years after an activation date. The clock on Mission Gateway’s CID was supposed to start ticking in October. But it makes no sense to activate a district when there’s no development there to generate sales taxes. Nothing has existed at Mission Gateway that could generate sales taxes in the decade since the Mission Center mall was demolished.

Does the new improvement district activation date mean Mission Gateway will open next year? That depends on several things.

One is getting the newest version of Mission Gateway approved by the council.

The Cameron Group, a Syracuse, N.Y., development firm, is scheduled to go before the Mission Planning Commission on Monday to present his latest project design. Those plans include a Wal-Mart Supercenter, market-rate apartments (some of which would be on top of the Wal-Mart), a hotel and some smaller retail stores.

Planning commissions evaluate technical and zoning requirements of development proposals. City councils generally go along with those recommendations.

A bigger test for Mission Gateway may occur afterward if The Cameron Group asks, as it has in the past, for addition public subsidies or for the city to issue bonds to support the project.

Several candidates who were openly skeptical of recent Mission Gateway proposals were elected in April to the Mission City Council.

Mission Gateway’s developers did clear one hurdle. Johnson County District Court records indicate that a lawsuit filed against Mission Gateway’s developers by local firm Slaggie Architects was settled.

Slaggie sued in May 2015, claiming it was owed $1.8 million for architectural and landscape services. Mission Gateway’s developers countersued, claiming the architecture firm went over budget and produced unusable work.

Neither party could be reached to comment.

Meanwhile, the Mission Gateway property is behind on its property taxes as of Wednesday night. County records show the developers owe $369,781 in taxes that were due in May, plus $7,274 in interest.

This article corrects a previous version that said both community improvement districts passed unanimously. Nick Schlossmacher voted against the second of the two CIDs.

This story was originally published July 21, 2016 at 3:38 PM with the headline "Mission Gateway gets another extension on tax benefits."