When you build developments based on tax incentives from governments, rather than market forces, you end up with the Kansas City Power & Light district developer screaming at the city for not doing more for the development. I admit, I am not very knowledgeable about this development, but I certainly could have told you that major, professional sports teams are hard to come by. Anyone creating a plan based on a hoped-for NBA or NHL team would be taking an enormous risk. I have to wonder: Would this particular risk have been taken if tax incentives had not reduced potential losses in the first place?
Anyway, it is a true guilty pleasure to read about developers who don’t build anything without tax giveaways (Cordish is doing this in St. Louis, too), and about the fights between city officials who court them. The most egregious line in the correspondence quoted in the article is where Cordish decries the city’s allowance of festival liquor licenses in parts of the city other than downtown. The audacity! How dare city hall allow people to have fun outside of the power and light district! I don’t generally side with the government, but it is hard not to do so here. Excellent series of articles by the Star.
