Opponents challenge tax incentives for BNIM headquarters

Petition signatures were turned in to the Kansas City clerk’s office Wednesday to challenge tax breaks for BNIM’s new headquarters in the Crossroads.

If election boards verify in the next few days that at least 100 valid signatures were gathered, the project will be halted at least temporarily. Petitioners then have until early December to gather about 3,400 signatures for a referendum.

Jennifer Wolfsie, a parent leader in the Kansas City public schools, spearheaded the petition drive and turned in more than 150 signatures, with the expectation that they will more than meet the threshold to start the referendum effort to overturn a recent City Council vote.

She said she gathered many signatures on school playgrounds, at Tuesday’s polls and with the help of the Urban Summit, a group of African-American community leaders and activists in Kansas City’s urban core.

The petitions ask the City Council to repeal a measure it adopted Oct. 29. The council voted 9-1, with one absention, in favor of tax incentives to pave the way for a new headquarters at 1640 Baltimore Ave. for the BNIM architecture firm.

The building is owned by developer and philanthropist Shirley Helzberg, whose development team, Walnut Creek Ranch LLC, plans to renovate the building. BNIM had hoped to occupy it by late 2016, but a referendum could postpone or derail that schedule.

Supporters on the council praised BNIM and said the new headquarters would be a fabulous addition to the Crossroads. Jerry Riffel, attorney for Helzberg’s development partnership, had told the council it could not be built without the tax incentives, and council members argued the project was good for schoolchildren as well as the rest of the city.

Riffel declined to comment Wednesday on what possible impact the referendum effort might have on the project.

Wolfsie said she and her supporters have no quarrel with the project or BNIM, but they question the need for ongoing tax incentives in the up-and-coming Crossroads, especially because those tax breaks take potential future money away from the school district.

If Wolfsie and others gather 3,400 signatures, they could compel the council to repeal the tax incentive or put them on an election ballot for voters to decide, possibly next April.

This story was originally published November 4, 2015 at 4:53 PM with the headline "Opponents challenge tax incentives for BNIM headquarters."