American Royal wins $155 million STAR bond deal for move to Wyandotte County
The home of Kansas City’s largest annual barbecue contest is a step closer to building its new stomping grounds in Wyandotte County, and it seems like people are getting excited.
Commissioners for the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, on Thursday by a majority vote approved a $155 million STAR bond deal, the creation of a community improvement district and a finalized development agreement that would all accelerate American Royal’s long-awaited move from the West Bottoms to western Wyandotte.
The UG’s rubber stamp means a higher portion of residents’ sales tax dollars will go toward paying off the American Royal bond debt over the next 20 years. Local sales tax revenues — generated by the project and other properties within the bond district — will now join previously-approved state sales tax revenues in financing the move.
American Royal’s bond request almost doubled from the initial $80 million it asked commissioners for in 2016. The project budget began at roughly $160 million and in the past decade grew to a two-phase, $450 million total project. The bond funding approved, as well as private and public funds, will go toward the first $375 million of that.
Public opinion
The vote followed an hour-long public hearing during which residents and businesspeople of Wyandotte County, friends and representatives of American Royal and others largely expressed their support.
Although the item snagged a majority vote among commissioners, District 6 Commissioner Phil Lopez rejected all items associated with the project and District 7 Commissioner Chuck Stites didn’t vote on it due to a professional conflict.
Thirty-six people participated in the public hearing that preceded the commission’s vote in varying formats. Seventeen people wrote letters that UG Clerk Monica Sparks read aloud consecutively, 17 people spoke in person, and two spoke on Zoom.
The 30 participants that rallied behind American Royal included people involved in local entertainment, land owners with a hand in the project and American Royal board members or scholarship winners. Those in favor lauded the group for introducing new academic and economic opportunities to the area.
Four of the six people who spoke or wrote against the measure said they were Wyandotte County residents. Some residents, like Dan Cerran of Edwardsville, said they were concerned about the move amid soaring property tax bills that have continued to trouble people countywide.
“Lord knows Edwardsville could use the traffic,” Cerran said, adding he supported American Royal’s idea but was concerned how it would affect property bills. “My beef is the immediate impact on property taxes.”
It’s likely new development, if successful, may boost already increasing home valuations that have created hefty property tax bills for residents that are struggling to keep up. Officials in varying points of the meeting suggested increased sales tax revenues flowing into the county may offer an opportunity for property tax relief. However, for the next 20 years, the sales taxes from the American Royal project itself and the surrounding district will go toward paying back the STAR bonds used to build it.
Commissioner Andrew Davis, before he stated his support of the item, suggested the county with new funds may seek out a lower mill levy rate or finance other relief measures.
Goals
American Royal wants its new, larger campus to put Wyandotte at the center of food and agriculture events and education in the region.
The first construction phase, which accounts for $375 million of the projected $450 million project, will include three arenas, a barn and exhibit hall, community kitchen, and more.
Jackie McClaskey, American Royal’s president and CEO, said the non profit hopes to wrap up the first round of construction by 2026. From there, the group will look toward finishing the project by adding more than 100 acres of festival grounds for shows and events.
The project has been in the works for nearly a decade, with a few buildings popping up across the property in western Wyandotte County since its 2023 groundbreaking. The group formally paused construction after delays prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the project’s growth and continued work on finalizing the bond and development agreements.
Chelsee Chism, director of economic development for the Unified Government told The Star earlier this week that American Royal will pay the UG $5 million when the bonds are first issued; it will then make annual debt payments to a fund controlled by the UG over the course of the bond’s lifetime.
A feasibility study conducted on the American Royal projected visitors will spend a combined $146 million in 2026 that will continue to grow in coming years, Chism said. The Unified Government will also see $500,000 more in property tax revenues after the termination of a TIF on Plaza at the Speedway, which will now contribute sales tax revenues to the project, she said.
“The contribution of (Plaza at the Speedway) is largely offset by the origination and annual payments to the UG (totaling $30M),” Chism wrote in an April 21 email. “The community will also recognize benefits from increased visitation as well as potential development occurring in the surrounding properties that are included in the STAR Bond district.”
Move
McClaskey has had a hand in American Royal’s relocation for almost a decade.
The now president and CEO of the group was formerly Kansas’s secretary of agriculture between 2013 and 2019. At the time, she helped project leaders identify a property that would allow them to set up shop on green space with larger acreage than what it had in the West Bottoms, she said.
Her time working on the state side of the project also included visiting potential locations and evaluating the project’s “foot print.” She joined American Royal in her current leadership role shortly after completing her appointed term in 2019.
Although American Royal has long wanted to change its space, the group didn’t want to abandon its KC roots, McClaskey said.
Its relationship with the Kansas City area is something the group wants to continue to serve, and McClaskey said the new space will allow it to meet varying interests across the metro.
This story was originally published April 25, 2025 at 12:09 PM.
