Paragon Star ‘broke ground’ 14 months ago, so why hasn’t anything been built?
More than a year after developers of the Paragon Star soccer complex in Lee’s Summit held a public groundbreaking ceremony, they are still working to get the multi-million-dollar project started.
Representatives of lead developer Phillip “Flip” Short were before the Lee’s Summit City Council on Thursday requesting its support for a new agreement to help pay for transportation improvements in and around the project.
William Brown, project coordinator for Paragon Star LLC, and attorney Christine Bushyhead told council members that they needed to replace the current “transportation development district” so they could add additional property, generate additional revenue and change the list of projects being funded. A court will ultimately need to approve the new district, called a TDD, but the council has to sign off on it.
The council eventually passed a resolution granting that support on a 5-3 vote, but some council members expressed frustration that the project, first proposed to them in 2012, remained essentially in the planning stages.
“This thing needs to get going,” Councilman Rob Binney said. “I think it’s just wearing everybody out.”
The $400 million project is planned for 210 acres near Interstate 470 and View High Drive. It would be anchored by a sports complex with 10 soccer fields, a clubhouse, trailheads serving the Little Blue Trace and Rock Island Corridor trails, volleyball and pickleball courts, zip lines and even a Ferris wheel.
A second phase would feature a 185,000-square-foot “village” containing restaurants, bars, shops, two hotels with a combined 232 rooms, office space and 380 high-end apartments.
Lee’s Summit already has approved a number of economic incentives for the project, including $13 million in tax-increment financing and the formation of a community-improvement district, which imposes a special 1-percent sales tax to help offset costs for developing the sports complex.
The TDD, which levies its own 1-percent sales tax for transportation projects, currently covers almost 208 acres running from the project site down I-470 and including the Summit Woods Crossing shopping center. The proposed new TDD would more than double in size to almost 490 acres, adding in most of the property of the Paragon Star development and some additional tracts along I-470.
The expansion is expected to generate an additional $7 million in sales tax revenue, bringing the district’s estimated total to $35 million.
The original TDD project list included a new I-470/View High interchange, roads within the development and some surface parking. The new TDD would keep most of the road projects, switch around some of the surface parking, add an access road on the project’s eastern boundary and build a 400-unit parking garage for the commercial space.
The developers celebrated an official groundbreaking for Paragon Star in November 2016 and said the soccer fields would be ready by this spring. But permitting delays and a failed attempt to annex 96 additional acres for the project from neighboring Kansas City last fall pushed work back further.
Brown also said that past agreements tied the construction of infrastructure in the development to tenants committing to start building in the commercial area but that many of the prospective tenants the developers have approached won’t commit to building until there are defined plans for infrastructure.
“I think it remains an outstanding project and one that the city is going to be very proud of, but I think there’s got to be some things that we need to change up,” he said. “(The) request for this replacement TDD is a key portion of getting the project moving forward.”
Brown said that work getting the new TDD up and running will likely take about six months, assuming a Jackson County Circuit judge approves it, after which construction on the recreation complex can begin.
He said he now expects the soccer fields to be ready by mid-2019.
David Twiddy: dtwiddy913@gmail.com
This story was originally published January 20, 2018 at 5:53 PM with the headline "Paragon Star ‘broke ground’ 14 months ago, so why hasn’t anything been built?."