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Feb. 2009 site for Gateway East is still just a weed patch.
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Kanas City Star Nov 1st, 2008 update BIG PROJECT IN MISSION BESET BY NEW DELAYS AMID FINANCE WOES The developer of the proposed Mission Gateway redevelopment has pushed back its expected groundbreaking to next spring, citing financing problems related to the global credit crisis. In June, developer Tom Valenti of the Cameron Group said he had hoped to begin construction on the $300 million mixed use project in October, but this week he said that timetable had proved unworkable. The development is planned for the site of the razed Mission Center at Shawnee Mission Parkway and Roe Avenue. The city had wanted to issue a bond to begin site preparation work and utility installation, Valenti said, but "the municipal market is in a state of paralysis." "I'm hopeful in the spring we can build the whole thing," he added. The 416,000 square foot retail development would be anchored by a 1.5 million gallon saltwater aqauarium tourist attraction. He has been approved for $63.2 million in STAR bond assistance from Kansas. The project also calls for 100,000 square feet of office space, 125 condominiums, a 150 room hotel and four level garage. Mike Scanlon, the Mission city manager, agreed the recent turmoil in the national and international credit markets had thrown off the city's timetable. But he added that officials also want guarantees from the developer before issuing up to $8 million in tax-increment financing bonds that would be backed by the city. "We didn't want to issue anything with general obligation backing unless there was a guarantee everything was going to be built," he said "While we were working through that, the financial meltdown occurred." The city wants Valenti to personally guarantee 35 percent to 50 percent of the TIF financing and obtain a second mortgage on the property. The private lender for the Gateway project is HSBC BANK of New York. In the meantime, there has been impatience in Mission over progress on the project and the tall weeds that have grown on the high profile 26 acre site for the project. The mall was demolished two years ago. Scanlon said Valenti agreed to mow 20 feet on each side of the fence surrounding the site, but left the interior vegetation to help prevent soil erosion. "There's a perception that because there are weeds growing the developer is bandrupt, but that's not the case," Scanlon said. Scanlon said Valenti had briefed Mission city officials in mid October. He described 6o percent to 75 percent of the leases for the project as being solid. "He's moving in the right direction," he said. To reach Kevin Collison, call 816-234-4289 or send e-mails to kcollison@kcstar.com ANCHORS SET FOR MISSION GATEWAY (KANSAS CITY STAR SEPT 6, 2008) DETAILS ARE UNVEILED FOR FITNESS CENTER, AQUARIUM, HOTEL AND MOVIE THEATER. The developer of MISSION GATEWAY on Friday announced details on anchor entertainment tenants, and promised a series of tenant announcements over the next 60 days as deals are finalized. "We're not just entertainment. We're not just retail. We're not just hotel. We're not just office. We're not just residential," said Tom Valenti, president of the Cameron Group, the East Syracuse, N.Y., developer of Mission Gateway, at a news conference at the Sylvester Powell Jr. Community Center in Mission. "We're a combination of all of these, and that's what will make it truly sustainable. It's how we distinguish ourselves from other lifestyle centers.". Mission Gateway is a $300 million plus, mixed-use development slated for the site of the razed Mission Center mall at Shawnee Mission Parkway and Roe Avenue. An August 2010 opening is scheduled. The entertainment tenants, which had been announced without details over the last few months, have been finalized, Valenti said. They are: THE KANSAS AQUARIUM; A 70,000-square foot, three level center with about 2 million gallons of water, 15,000 fish from about 300 different species, and one of the largest acrylic tunnel aquariums in the world where visitors will be nearly surrounded by fish. It also will have catwalks over the tanks for feeding-time viewing- teachers who will travel in a 200-mile radius to prepare students for visits. The aquarium will have facilities for conferences, a full-service restaurant, an "aquarium bar" in the lounge, a food court and a retail shop. It also will turn into a club after 9 p.m. on some evenings, and host special events on other evenings. UPSCALE HOTEL The Widewaters Group, a New York real estate development and management company, plans a 150 to 170 room, five or six story upscale, national flag hotel with a full service restaurant. URBAN ACTIVE FITNESS The family fitness center will offer such amenties as a cardio movie theater, flat screen TVs at each cardio machine, a smoothie bar, a women only fitness area and month by month memberships. Urban Active was founded in Lexington, Ky., in 1994, and now has almost 30 locations. STUDIO MOVIE GRILL The eight screen movie theater will offer plush leather chairs that swivel, roll and tilt, with individual tables in front for full service dining. Servers will take customers orders for food such as pizza, hamburgers, and chicken fried steak, as well as orders for wine and liquor. The theater also will be available for corporate presentations. "This is exciting new," Rob Johnson, president and chief executive officer of the Northeast Johnson County Chamber of Commerce, said Friday, "When I talk to my counterparts around the country I hear a lot of negativity out there. We don't have that." All of Mission Gateway's components will be interrelated, Valenti said. For example, the hotel will be a service for the aquarium's out of town patrons, while the fitness center will offer scuba diving courses in which graduates can later swim with the sharks in the aquarium - after the sharks have been well fed, Valenti said with a smile." First proposed in 2005, Mission Gateway has been revised several times by the Cameron Group. Plans now call for 420,000 square feet of retail 125 residential units, 100,000 square feet of office space, and a 2,200 space, four level parking garage. Leasing interest took off this summer after the state approved $63.2 million in STAR bond assistance for the project. The aquarium deal - which was announced in June, through mentioned more than a year ago - also heated up efforts to put an aquarium in downtown Kansas City. . |
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Comment about Gateway East (nothing official just observation and hear-say)
Underground drainage was dug up and rats went everywhere into Mission homes and businesses. Construction has stopped - no construction equipment on site at all and nothing done above ground - heard contractor has walked away? site has sat so long grass / weeds are growing on bare dirt construction area. Heard that this project has been VERY COSTLY for city of Mission. "almost bankrupting city" This is just hear-say from business in Mission. |
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The good news, Nelessen said, is that the many surface parking lots have the potential to be something more. The vision plan that emerged would focus more on residential structures for West Gateway, and the "East Gateway" -- the area that includes Mission Center mall -- would focus more on retail and office use. The buildings in West Gateway would range in size, with two-story buildings on the outer edge increasing in size to six- to eight-story buildings along the core fronting Metcalf Avenue. Retail would be small, so as not to compete with larger stores in East Gateway. Parking would be hidden, either underground or embedded in buildings. The plan calls for two signature parks to be added to the area. In addition, an interconnected rapid-transit plan would be necessary, Nelessen said, with lines connecting East Gateway and West Gateway, as well as other planned routes in the area. To be sure, there are challenges, said Martin Rivarola, community development director of Mission. Residents who attended the public forums were concerned with the effects on infrastructure, rents and traffic. They wondered how it would be implemented. Officials have not yet estimated the possible cost. The plan calls for private investment, and several developers attended the unveiling on Dec. 2, Rivarola said, including representatives of Zimmer Real Estate Services Inc., Hunt Midwest Enterprises, Gale Communities, RED Development LLC and Dial Realty Corp. of the Kansas City area and the Cameron Group LLC of East Syracuse, N.Y. Officials are weighing their options. A 90-day moratorium during which the city cannot accept any land-use applications for the area is in effect until Feb. 16. The plan still has to be approved by the planning commission before going to the City Council for a vote, probably in the first quarter of next year, Mission Mayor Laura McConwell said. If adopted, the plan would be implemented in phases. "The biggest obstacle is building consensus," said Scott A. Michie, vice president of community planning for Bucher Willis & Ratliff. "We've achieved that." T.M. Lapp | Lapp is a freelance writer in the Kansas City area. |
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Urban design consultant Tony Nelessen of Princeton, N.J., clearly remembers his first trip to Mission: It was August, and after he met during lunch with city officials to discuss plans for the district known as West Gateway, he asked for a couple of hours to roam the area on foot to get a feel for the area. "My first impression was that it was terribly pedestrian-unfriendly," he said. "It was hard to walk around. There were these great big parking lots, and cars were whizzing by, the drivers looking at me like I was crazy to be walking there." Furthermore, "it felt like 105 degrees," Nelessen said, with not so much as a tree to offer cover from the unforgiving sun. Nelessen, president of Nelessen Associates urban design firm and a professor at Rutgers University, returned Dec. 2 to help unveil Mission's "vision plan" for West Gateway, roughly bounded by Metcalf Avenue to the west, Shawnee Mission Parkway to the south, Lamar Avenue to the east and residential neighborhoods to the north. Nelessen's consulting firm worked with Bucher Willis & Ratliff Corp. of Kansas City, having three community meetings before drafting the final vision plan. The feedback that poured in at these public meetings supported redevelopment, with 83 percent of participants asserting that the city should encourage development that includes retail, mixed-use buildings and residential structures along with landscaping. Officials shared the results of their work in a presentation replete with many of the photographs that Nelessen took as part of his initial reconnaissance. "This is what you have," he said, showing a photo of a vast, sloping parking lot. "This is what people want," he said, replacing it with a photo showing a scene with tree-lined streets, green space, wide sidewalks, and -- what is currently missing from Mission -- pedestrians. He also showed photos of former houses off of Johnson Drive that have been converted to businesses, their former front yards now concrete parking lots. "Most people agreed that land in the West Gateway study is so valuable that parking lots, single-story buildings and underutilized parcels of land should be redeveloped at higher intensity," he said. |
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