So Freightquote recieved 37 million in incentives to build a 45 million dollar office building in KCMO.... (St. Louis: sale)

[kcmo]

I know this was mostly a "playing hardball" response to the poaching that Kansas does (they have offered similar ridiculous incentives multiple times to lure companies across state line),

I just don't get this. KC people freak out (start facebook pages, referendum votes etc) over proposals to use public money to actually improve basic infrastructure (airport, transit etc), but then this kind of stuff is totally tolerated and ignored.

Once again, I would like anybody to find a single example of such outrageous incentives being handed out to a company. Where else but KC can companies get 60% to sometimes over 100% of the cost of a brand new office building to move across town or across the street.

I have watched Baltimore and DC say no to a few million in incentives for much larger projects.

Where is the outrage KC? Think of what the KC region could have funded with all this corporate welfare.

[kcmo]

Other recent crazy deals:

Teva Neuroscience moved from KCMO to Kansas (47 million in incentives to build a 46 million dollar building and move 400 employees less than file miles across state line to Overland Park)

AMC moved from KCMO to Kansas (45 million in incentives to build a 30 million dollar building and move 400 employees from Downtown to Leawood)

Fishnet moved from KCMO to Kansas (14 million to move 175 employees from Downtown KC to the already built, and subsidized Sprint Campus in Overland Park)

Applebee's moved back to KCMO from Kansas (12.6 million to move 325 employees to an existing office near state line road in KCMO from Lenexa) Applebee's had already taken incentives and left KCMO once for Overland Park. They then left Overland Park for a brand new heavily subsidized building in Lenexa before moving back to KCMO. I'll give them a few years in KCMO before they jump again.

These are all suburban projects. Even though this is an insane amount of incentives, it's all going to develop new sprawl, often at the expense of the urban core (AMC, Fishnet etc). Crazy. Just Crazy.

People wonder why taxes are high in metro KC and yet metro KC has little to show for it (transit, trails, parks, regional cultural funding etc)

[MidWestCityNative]

If the city of KCMO is concerned about taxes being too high, then why is it still clinging to venues that have been obsolete for some time? i.e.: Aside from the American Royal, who else uses Kemper Arena anymore? It has been underutilized for the past 6 years now, and it's become a huge waste of the city's tax dollars. The AR could always move their event to the Sprint Center.

KC (the govt and people) needs to realize how much tax money could be saved by letting go of things that are no longer relevant.

[kcmo]

I don't know that this is really relevant to the topic of corporate welfare, but I'll bite.

The Kemper Arena situation has been an issue that the city has not had a lot of control over. The reason that arena is down there in the first place is the Kempers and the American Royal and the reason it's still in operation is for the same reasons.

I agree with you, the city needs to unload that arena, but they can't unload something that nobody wants. It will cost more to tear it down than to keep it barely open, at least for now.

I screamed bloody murder when the city was about to put 30 million dollars into that arena thinking what a waste of money, when what KC really needs is a new arena in a better location. Everybody thought I was crazy, the residents of KCMO blew up and threw a fit at even the idea of building anew arena and taking away their precious Kemper. Kemper is fine!. Parking downtown would be a disaster etc. People were more worried about finding parking downtown than the actual fiscal issues that were about to take place pouring money into something that had no future and losing years of events, toursim money etc in the process. The same thing is happening with KCI's terminal. The city wanted a new arena, but without the public's backing, they were forced into an expensive and wasteful renovation.

Well, Kemper was not fine and the renovation did absolutely nothing. Actually Kemper continued to lose dates and was being passed up right and left by concerts and finally the NCAA said no more events in KC at Kemper.

That finally woke KC up, but even then, it was an extremely difficult sale to the public to replace Kemper, and considering the city had just used a ton of bonds to renovate and build a parking garage, it made walking away from it that much more difficult. Plus the American Royal still wanted to remain and be the primary tenant. So it was sold to the public that Kemper would become a dirt arena and host agricultural events, tractor pulls etc while sprint center would be the concert and sports venue.

That was the only way to get it done. The city had to appeal to the public and the AR. Does it make senes for a city of any size (let alone KC's size) to maintain two 20k seat arenas (plus the 10k seat municipal?). Absolutely not. But the sprint center was a key part in kicking off the downtown revitalization. Without the Sprint Center, many of the other downtown projects would be dead or scaled back.

So the city kept Kemper and built Sprint. Eventually over time, all events moved to Sprint, even the agri events and even part of the AR have moved to Sprint.

The city needs to cut its losses now and close Kemper or give it away, but now the AR wants the city to tear it down and build a 5k seat venue in its place. KCMO just can't do it anymore. If the AR can't use Kemper, even though it was designed and renovated for them in the first place, then they can find a way to fund tearing it down and building a smaller venue themselves. Or better yet, move the AR downtown and stop pretending like the West Bottom has some sort of agribusiness or entertainment district future. Use Muni and Sprint for the AR or use the exiting AR complex in conjunction with the downtown venues. Don't build anything around the AR anymore. That event just does not have the popularity in KC to support it's own stand alone arena and the West Bottons may as well be Olathe with how it interacts with Downtown. The AR and Kemper have had 40 years to do something with the West Bottoms. It's not going to happen. They could even move the AR to Independence to their arena.

KC needs to stop spreading itself so thin anyway and concentrate events and activity into less areas. If places like Staples (LA) and Verizon (DC) can host multiple pro teams and still get every concert and circus, I'm sure Sprint Center can handle much less.

Like KCI airport, the city tries to please its residents rather than doing what is generally in the best long term interest of the city and in the end, the city still gets blamed for the outcome. But the city can't fund what should be done when the residents don't agree.

Having said all that, keeping Kemper open right now is a drop in the bucket compared to the economic bistate war that is plaguing the metro area.

[MidWestCityNative]

Originally Posted by kcmo

Like KCI airport, the city tries to please its residents rather than doing what is generally in the best long term interest of the city and in the end, the city still gets blamed for the outcome. But the city can't fund what should be done when the residents don't agree.

Couldn't agree more. That's the outcome when your city is so sprawled out in the suburbs and across the state line. Downtown just needs to grow more in population, crime has to be eliminated, the KC school district needs to get their act together (by doing more than just hiring new superintendents every other year), and the KCMO government needs to make urban planning and business more of a top priority. We won't get anything done around here if we frequently give up and quit.

People don't realize (or don't care) that KC is often negatively compared to its peer cities (Denver, St. Louis, MSP) when it comes to business, job creation, infrastructure, etc. But that can change if people start realizing what's wrong and what needs to improve. The healthier our economy, the healthier and happier our citizens are (especially future generations).

Likewise, the Kansas side needs to realize that in-metro competition is wrong. KC should be competing as a whole with other US cities, not with itself.

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by MidWestCityNative

Couldn't agree more. That's the outcome when your city is so sprawled out in the suburbs and across the state line. Downtown just needs to grow more in population, crime has to be eliminated, the KC school district needs to get their act together (by doing more than just hiring new superintendents every other year), and the KCMO government needs to make urban planning and business more of a top priority. We won't get anything done around here if we frequently give up and quit.

People don't realize (or don't care) that KC is often negatively compared to its peer cities (Denver, St. Louis, MSP) when it comes to business, job creation, infrastructure, etc. But that can change if people start realizing what's wrong and what needs to improve. The healthier our economy, the healthier and happier our citizens are (especially future generations).

Likewise, the Kansas side needs to realize that in-metro competition is wrong. KC should be competing as a whole with other US cities, not with itself.

Can't say I disagree with any of that!