Kansas City Council rejects ‘truly outrageous’ incentives for luxury Hotel Bravo
The Kansas City Council on Thursday rejected an incentive package for a luxury hotel proposed to neighbor the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.
The vote brings an apparent end to a years-long effort by developers Eric Holtze and Whitney Kerr Sr. to bring a 5-star hotel to the Crossroads Arts District.
“What we have is an ordinance that’s kind of been around for a little while,” said Councilman Lee Barnes, 5th District at large. “Almost as long as some of my colleagues, actually a little longer than some of my colleagues.”
Only Council member Katheryn Shields, 4th District at large, voted in favor of a plan to allow developers to use tax increment financing to help pay for the venture. The other 11 members present voted against that plan (First District Councilwoman Heather Hall was absent).
Developers expected the hotel and an accompanying rehearsal hall for the Kauffman Center to cost about $132 million. To help fund the project, they’re sought more than $50 million in tax incentives.
Because the Kansas City TIF Commission in October 2019 recommended denying the incentive package, it required a supermajority vote to approve it.
The vote is an unusual one in Kansas City, where city officials are generally friendly to development projects. In many cases, developers will request to pull projects from council agendas until they can ensure they have enough political support for approval.
But the hotel has struggled to gain political support for years now.
Visit KC, the Hotel & Lodging Association of Greater Kansas City and the Loews Kansas City Hotel all opposed the project, citing low occupancy rates at the region’s existing hotels.
Last week in a council committee meeting, developers claimed that it would help boost Kansas City’s population growth. That pitch didn’t sit well with some members of the Neighborhood Planning and Development committee.
Council member Andrea Bough, who represents the 6th District, said she would love to see the hotel go up in the Crossroads.
But she said she was concerned about the level of incentives requested by the developers to build the project. She said there’s no guarantee the hotel would earn five stars. And she also doubted that a luxury hotel would lead to population growth.
“I don’t necessarily think if we build a five-star hotel we will become Nashville or become Austin or we will become any other city,” Bough said.
Developers said the hotel would eventually bring new tax revenue to a now-empty site. But the project was seeking a 20-year redirection of property taxes to help fund construction costs.
Kansas City Public Schools officials said local students should not have to bear the burden of such tax breaks to build high-end projects in wealthy parts of the city
“Your decision isn’t really about whether or not you need to add another publicly funded fancy hotel downtown,” said Kathleen Pointer, the school district’s senior policy strategist. “It’s about is this city ready to start actually saying no to truly outrageous incentives?”
This story was originally published October 7, 2021 at 4:28 PM.
