Kansas City News Blog

For the Citadel Plaza development, it appears the Wednesday night curveball is now par for the course.

Last week, the day before the Kansas City City Council was set to hand over $20.5 million in taxpayer dollars to the developers of a proposed $90-million shopping center at 63rd Street and Prospect Avenue, city finance director Jeffrey Yates recommended the city raid the capital improvements pot to find the cash.

That didn't go over well.

This week, another idea surfaced from the finance department less than 24 hours before the money vote. The proposal prompted Mayor Mark Funkhouser to tell Yates, in a tone drenched in sarcasm: "You have an awful lot of courage."

And it, once again, kept Citadel Plaza in a holding pattern.

At the City Council's business session yesterday afternoon, Citadel Plaza champion, Councilman Terry Riley, seemed run down. He said he came to the realization that taking money from the capital improvements fund wouldn't fly. Instead, he offered a new recommendation: borrow the $23 million from the city's Aviation Department.

Many of the council members weren't just perturbed by the second unconventional financing mechanism drummed up in two week. They also aired their skepticism about the project as a whole. Councilman Bill Skaggs said he has a taxpayer-subsidized housing development, Renaissance North, in his district that's "an absolute flop." Mayor Mark Funkhouser emphasized that a half-dozen taxpayer-backed projects aren't meeting their projections and are sucking more city funds than the council intended.

Yates countered that the Citadel Plaza is different. If taxpayers sink $23 million into the project and the developers can't pull it off, he said, the city will own the land -- cleared of houses, cleaned of asbestos and ready for vertical construction.

"But is that ground worth $23 million?" Funkhouser asked.

Yates evaded the question. Funkhouser pressed: How much did Yates think that plot of land at 63rd and Prospect is worth?

"Well, I would argue it's worth $23 million, because that's what you paid for it," Yates said.

Half the room just laughed at that rationale.

The group wasn't laughing at the developer's seemingly unresolved legal issues. Back in February, the city told the Community Development Corporation of Kansas City that, before they get any money, they have to resolve their delinquent taxes and tie up their legal issues. (Since then, development firm Block and Co. has stepped in as the lead developer, with the CDC playing a less prominent role.) It appears both areas have loose ends.

Cecilia Abbott, assistant city attorney, told the council members that the CDC-KC still appears to owe more than $29,000 in property taxes for a parcel on Linwood Boulevard. That's minor compared to a $1.3 million settlement the CDC owes CCREA LLC, a Pennsylvania-based finance and real estate company that owned a handful of parcels in the Citadel Plaza corridor. The CDC contracted to buy the properties but never paid up. They have until June 30 -- if they don't, CCREA's lawyer tells me, the case will go to trial.

Despite another round of testy discussion, though, the debate ended in yet another delay.

During the legislative session, Councilwoman Cindy Circo, who represents the area of the proposed development along with Riley, offered a measure that would require the city attorney verify, within two weeks, whether the developer has cleared up its legal issues and met all contract requirements. If anything is out of line and isn't corrected within 30 days, the city would terminate the previous agreement and find another developer.

That resolution passed unanimously.

But Terry Riley was clearly frustrated, rubbing his eyes and walking around with sluggish demeanor.

"We need to come up with a creative way to get this project done," he said.

But he didn't have the votes to get it done today. Instead, the marathon controversy will be back in front of the Planning and Zoning committee -- and awaiting the resolution of a million-dollar lawsuit.