KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- City and state leaders are devasted by the loss of the soccer stadium project in Kansas City, Missouri. But they say losing the office park part of the project could be even worse, economically.
"That could be 3- or 4-thousand good paying jobs. Losing the Cerner expansion could have an even more devasting effect on our economy," said city council member John Sharp, who represents the area.
Sharp has worked with other officials for more than two years to try to redevelop the former Bannister Mall site.
Sharp also revealed to NBC Action News some of the details of how the deal fell apart.
"We initially offered everything the developers asked for at both the city and state levels." said Sharp.
The city offered a super TIF tax break, and the state added another TIF and more tax credits worth tens of millions of dollars.
Sharp says ten days ago, the city offered the developer an additional incentive. Kansas City, Missouri would pay for infrastructure work to get the site ready. That would have saved the developers another $30-50 million.
But Friday, the developer sent back a simple e-mail saying the stadium and office park would go to Kansas.
"They never got back to us after our last offer, until Friday afternoon. There was never any counter offer. It was just kind of, 'Thanks, but no thanks'," said Sharp.
Sharp also criticizes the developer for not taking care of the site better. He says if it were in Johnson County, they would never allow it to have problems with trash and weeds while trying to attract retailers.
Sharp says the city had only one more economic tool to offer. It would have meant backing all the bonds with the city's full faith and credit, as they did for the Power and Light entertainment district downtown.
But in today's economy and with the city's current financial situation, it's doubtful the city council would be willing or even able to offer that kind of support.
