Petitions challenge KC convention hotel, but a legal battle is likely

A group appears to have collected enough petition signatures to challenge Kansas City’s new convention hotel, but that could also tee up a legal battle with the city.

Kansas City election authorities on Wednesday received petitions with more than 800 signatures that seek to put the planned $311 million hotel project to a public vote.

Those signatures supplement more than 1,300 valid signatures that Citizens for Responsible Government had already gathered on the hotel question and appear to be well above the 1,700-signature threshold required for Kansas City initiative petitions.

Shawn Kieffer of the Kansas City election board said the signatures should be counted by late Friday or Monday.

Dan Coffey, a spokesman for the petitioners, has said the public deserves a vote on the downtown convention hotel proposal, since it involves substantial public subsidies.

But City Attorney Bill Geary said in a statement Wednesday that a citizen-led petition must still be lawful, and this one may be problematic. That’s because the City Council has already authorized an agreement with the hotel’s developers and the city manager has signed contracts for financing and other aspects of the deal.

“The city cannot enter into agreements and then unilaterally change those agreements, even if voters want the agreements breached,” Geary said. “This is the apparent purpose of the initiative being proposed for the convention hotel project. However, all agreements between the city and the hotel developers have been executed and are binding on the city.”

The city announced plans in May to build an 800-room Hyatt hotel just east of the Bartle Hall ballroom, which would be the first new convention headquarters hotel built in Kansas City since the Reagan administration. Supporters hope the hotel could open by mid to late 2018.

It would be built on property generally bounded by Truman Road and 16th Street and between Baltimore Avenue and Wyandotte Street. Most of the land is owned by the city, but a building on the site is owned by the American Hereford Association.

The city is contributing about $50 million to the project (bonded over 25 years) and land valued at $4.5 million. But the city is not guaranteeing the debt, and the financing does not rely on the general fund.

While the petitions are in limbo, a city agency that works to encourage investment in urban renewal areas approved several measures Wednesday to keep the hotel project moving forward.

The Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority authorized the transfer of city-donated land for the project to the LCRA, which the agency would then lease to the developers.

The agency also agreed to solicit bids from bond counsel firms and from appraisal firms for work related to the project.

Mike Burke, an attorney working with the developers, said Wednesday that they are still negotiating with the American Hereford Association to buy its building. He said final details of the management agreement between Hyatt and the hotel’s owners are still being fine-tuned.

This story was originally published September 23, 2015 at 2:41 PM with the headline "Petitions challenge KC convention hotel, but a legal battle is likely."