Facing tide of public criticism, Port KC delays vote on Plaza tax break
The Port Authority of Kansas City delayed a pivotal vote Monday on whether to grant decades-long property tax exemptions to the Country Club Plaza’s new owners after facing sustained public opposition from school officials, library leaders, teachers and parents.
The delayed vote followed a chaotic start to the meeting that included a Zoom hack exposing attendees to pornographic images.
The Port KC Board of Commissioners had been expected to vote on a plan that would provide Gillon Property Group, which owns the Plaza, with exemptions on property taxes for up to 30 years to support a roughly $1.5 billion redevelopment of the historic shopping district.
The delay came amid mounting criticism over how quickly the proposal moved toward a vote. The full terms of the tax incentive plan were not made public until Monday, the same day commissioners were scheduled to decide on it, and taxing jurisdictions most affected by the deal — including Kansas City Public Schools and the Kansas City Public Library — said they did not receive key financial details until Friday, when Port KC announced the special meeting.
Opponents argued the compressed timeline left little opportunity for meaningful public review of a proposal that could shape school and library funding for decades.
“Outside of the initial pro forma, we have not received updates about this project,” said Abby Yellman, CEO of the KC Library. “We haven’t had updates regarding where the numbers sit or what the abatement looks like outside of this meeting today. The lack of communication makes it difficult for all of us to really assess what those impacts are, and it also makes us hard to be a partner in this work.”
“We deserve to be brought to the table early — not evaluating a deal that still didn’t meet our most basic requests in the dead of night, hours before the vote,” said KCPS Superintendent Jennifer Collier. She called the proposal Port KC presented Monday “a loss for our teachers, our students and our residential taxpayers in Kansas City.”
The meeting, held virtually on Zoom, was hacked shortly before it began at 2 p.m. A video containing hardcore pornography and loud noises played for about a minute for roughly 160 attendees before the feed was shut down. The meeting was paused and later restarted, at which point Port KC CEO Jon Stephens apologized for what he called “very offensive content.” He said the agency blocked and reported three participants connected to the hack.
New terms for the Plaza
The proposal Stephens unveiled Monday moved closer to what school officials had asked for in recent weeks, but fell short of meeting their requests fully.
Like other Port KC-granted incentives, the deal relies on Port KC’s unique legal status as a state-chartered agency exempt from property taxes. Under the proposal, Port KC would take ownership of the Plaza property and lease it back to Gillon, removing the property from the tax rolls. Instead of paying property taxes, Gillon would make payments in lieu of taxes — PILOTs — under terms negotiated with Port KC.
Under Port KC’s original November proposal, Gillon would have paid annual PILOTs that amounted to less than what the Plaza paid in property taxes in 2024. The new proposal brings the PILOTs in line with what it currently pays. Those payments would remain flat for the first three years, then increase by 1.5% annually in years four through 20, and by 2% annually in years 21 through 30, generating an estimated $209 million for the taxing jurisdictions over the full term.
“This has been characterized as the district getting more money — let me be clear, this simply brings the base taxes on this up to what we received last year,” Collier said.
Collier said KCPS also requested to receive 30% of the tax revenue from any new growth at the Country Club Plaza, ensuring the district would benefit from increases in property value even while some parcels received long-term tax breaks. But Port KC’s new proposal did not include that.
Collier also said Port KC’s offer to raise the PILOTs by 2% annually came with a caveat that the district come out with a statement of public support Monday, which Collier called an “inappropriate PR request” and compared to being “held hostage.”
Stephens defended the structure during Monday’s presentation, emphasizing that the Plaza has lost 50% of its appraised valuation since 2021 due to declining occupancy and deferred maintenance.
“The Plaza has experienced significant decline,” Stephens said, leading to “a loss of tenants, a loss of office and occupancy.”
“And to be clear, this erosion has been more than a loss of just prestige. It has resulted in significant loss of tax valuation, and that means loss of dollars through Jackson County tax assessments to schools and other vital services.”
He said Gillon was committed to stemming that loss and reinvesting, and that the deal would provide “certainty for the taxing jurisdictions as they plan their annual budgets” by guaranteeing payments even if the property’s value continues to decline.
“There will be no continued decrease and no unknowns related to the payments,” Stephens said, contrasting the fixed PILOT structure with the uncertainty of standard property taxes on a declining asset.
But school and library officials argue the proposal still represents a decades-long sacrifice. The guaranteed baseline may prevent further losses from the Plaza’s declining value, but the 1.5% to 2% annual increases don’t keep pace with inflation or the salary increases necessary to retain teachers.
What’s next?
Several speakers during the public comment portion of the meeting argued that a massive commercial real estate tax break that shortchanges the schools would be inconsistent with the will of Kansas City voters, who earlier this year approved a $474 million school bond with 85% of the vote.
Stephen Himes, an Academie Lafayette parent and board member of the Education Law Association, said Port KC risks undermining its own mission by continuing to issue so many tax breaks that strain public funding for schools and other local services.
“If an unelected body like Port KC asserts this much authority over a public institution’s jurisdiction, does it not think this community won’t be mobilized to assert some statutory pressure on it?” Himes asked. “The state legislature is what gives it these powers, and those powers can be taken away. And if you don’t think those discussions are already happening out there, I will tell you that they are.”
Port KC has become increasingly attractive to developers because its tax incentives can be approved by the port authority’s seven-person board, without the full city council approval process required for other tax incentive projects.
The Port KC board is appointed by Mayor Quinton Lucas and includes Denvoir Griffin, an attorney at Bryan Cave; city council members Wes Rogers and Kevin O’Neill; Morgan Said, the mayor’s former chief of staff; Jack Steadman, a senior executive at C2FO, a financial technology firm founded by Sandy Kemper; Claire Terrebonne, an attorney at Williams Dirks Dameron; and Matthew Oates, an engineer at Burns & McDonnell.
Monday’s meeting came just a few days after a significant blow to the Plaza’s economic picture: insurance giant Lockton, a Plaza tenant since 2000, confirmed Friday that it plans to relocate its global headquarters to a new campus in Leawood. The move, expected to take place by 2030, removes one of the Plaza’s largest long‑term tenants and has added pressure on city officials to advance plans for revitalization.
Steadman, chair of the board, said after approximately an hour and a half of public comments that he felt it would be appropriate to hold the vote until a future public meeting in order to reach a compromise “that is more sustainable for the kids and for our school districts and all taxing jurisdictions.” He added that he’d like to see more transparency in terms of the specifics of the proposal before then.
Stephens said the Port KC staff agreed and that they would give “fair notice” as to when the matter will be heard again. That will likely be in January, though a date has not been set.
