When Wichita announced plans to demolish Lawrence-Dumont Stadium and build a new Triple-A ballpark, city leaders promoted the $80-million-plus public investment as a catalyst for private development surrounding the stadium. The city sold land to developers for $1 an acre, moved McLean Boulevard, agreed to a subsidy package and tapped the state’s COVID-19 emergency funds to help boost private development on the west bank of the Arkansas River. Now, to spur private development, the city is poised to give to developers a key revenue stream that originally was supposed to help pay down stadium debt. If the City Council doesn’t approve the change, the city could lose the project — along with more than $39 million in projected city revenues from hotel taxes, guest taxes, added sales taxes and diverted state sales taxes over the next 20 years. City officials say EPC Real Estate Group won’t build a hotel, apartment complex, parking garage or 10,000-square-foot retail space without creating a tax increment finance, or TIF, district for the private development. That money was originally dedicated to help pay for the stadium under the original 2019 agreement.
Source: Local News | Wichita Eagle
