Developers say they hope to break ground on the project in March 2019 and finish in spring 2020.
The Lenexa City Council has unanimously approved a development agreement for an estimated $16 million mixed-use project called The Lofts at the southeast corner of 87th Street Parkway and Renner Boulevard in Lenexa City Center East Village.
The project will sit on roughly 1.1 acres and is planned to comprise a five-story, horseshoe-shaped building with about 10,000 square feet of office space on the first floor and 67 apartments on the second through fifth floors, and a two-level parking garage. The council approved the development agreement at its Tuesday meeting. Ward 4 Councilwoman Mandy Stuke was absent.
The project’s 20-year tax-increment financing (TIF) plan is expected to generate about $4 million, according to a Tuesday memo from City Administrator Eric Wade to the council. Wade told the council at Tuesday’s meeting that the TIF plan, contingent on council approval, would give the developer as reimbursement for eligible costs:
100 percent of the increment of new tax revenue from the project for the first five years of the TIF term
50 percent for the sixth through eighth years
45 percent for the ninth and 10th years
The city would receive all the TIF increment from the 11th through 20th years.
The project also includes industrial revenue bonds (IRBs) to be issued by the city for the developer to finance the project’s construction and exempt the developer from sales tax on construction materials. A community improvement district (CID) will be created to assess a 2 percent retail sales tax, with 1.2 percent of the tax revenue going to the city and 0.8 percent to the developer as reimbursement for eligible costs.
Hal Shapiro, principal with The Lofts’ developer, REAL Property Group, based in Kansas City, Mo., said after the council’s Aug. 21 meeting that he hoped to break ground in March 2019 and finish the project in May 2020. The 67 apartments would occupy about 58,000 square feet of rentable space, with roughly 17,000 square feet of additional space for common areas.
Shapiro called the residential units “boutique apartments” that would be “small, artsy and cool.” Rents would range from roughly $950 for a 530-square-foot studio to about $2,200 for a 1,450-square-foot two-bedroom apartment.
The Lofts will sit immediately south of another mixed-use development called The Yard, an estimated $15 million development to include offices, two restaurants and an outdoor-entertainment area planned for the southeast corner of 87th Street Parkway and Renner Boulevard in Lenexa City Center East Village. The council also unanimously approved its development agreement Tuesday.
Scott Anderson of CRQ Development is the The Yard’s lead developer. He said after the council’s Aug. 21 meeting that he hoped to break ground early next year and complete the project by the summer of 2020.
City Center East Village, on the east side of Renner and the south side of 87th Street Parkway, includes the B.E. Smith Building, Hyatt Place Hotel and Convention Center and Ignite restaurant.
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