Remember David Cordish?
By teaming up with Moshe Tal on a pitch to develop what is Lower Bricktown, he ended up finding himself less than welcome here in Oklahoma City. But in the decade since, he’s been busy doing urban entertainment districts across the country. I’m told some folks in OKC are talking with the Cordish folks about making another bid, this time for Core to Shore. So with this in mind, it might be interesting to look at Cordish’s latest development in Kansas City, brought to us courtesy of Oregon Live:
It’s Friday night at the Power & Light District, a shiny new eight-block redevelopment that sits on what was once a blighted dead zone abutting downtown. The district was decades in the making, an on-again, off-again desperation move by a city hollowed out by urban sprawl.
On this evening at least, under the influence of a carefully programmed sensory barrage, the strategy seems to be working as the crowd gets into its booze-fueled groove.
“Any place should have a place like this,” gushes Shawn Burkhardt, a 22-year-old from Topeka, Kan., eyes wide and beer in hand. “Definitely, in Kansas City, this is the spot to be on Friday and Saturday night. I guarantee it.”
Click on image for full size
“This spot” is Kansas City Live, a kind of entertainment food court that sits on one block at the heart of the Power & Light District. The Cordish Co., a privately held development company from Baltimore, has built comparable districts in Baltimore and Louisville, Ky. Now the Portland Trail Blazers hope the company can revitalize the Rose Quarter in a similar fashion.
At first glance, the area is corporate hip, a formulaic mixture of “entertainment concepts” that seems out of step with Portland’s homegrown sensibilities.
Yet Cordish says the $850 million Power & Light District attracted 8 million visitors to downtown Kansas City last year — 28 percent from more than 100 miles away. Backers say they can adapt something uniquely Portland for the Rose Quarter and provide a catalyst for the convention center and other developments.
“We can’t pick up what’s in Kansas City and plunk it down here,” said Larry Miller, president of the Blazers. “It would have to be specific to Portland.
Paul Bellman, a 45-year-old from North Kansas City who was relaxing under a heat lamp in the Live block, is hardly an expert. But he says the concept might travel well.
“This is really cool,” he said, “as long as you have the business and the local demand to make it profitable.”
And there’s the rub. The year-old Power & Light District is hemorrhaging taxpayer money. Opened amid an economic free fall, leasing rates and sales taxes have failed to hit city projections. Cordish has sued Jackson County to lower its property tax assessment in the district and has developed a local reputation for hardball negotiating and tin-eared community relations.
Meanwhile the city, which issued $295 million in bonds to pay for infrastructure and some building costs, has been forced to dip into its general fund to cover its debt service.
Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser, who is seen by the business community as anti-development, is philosophical about the district, launched during his predecessor’s tenure. It’s a “good product,” he said, and it’s nice to have crowds of people and night life where none existed before.
But he doesn’t believe government should be building bars and restaurants. And as a former city auditor, he harbors few illusions about the economics involved.
“It’s never going to make money,” he said. “I can’t imagine how it could make money.”
To read the entire story, go here.
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Comments
I don’t know much about Cordish, but he definitely backed the wrong horse in OKC with Moshe, which cost him some cred at city hall. I think this article confirms that OKC’s approach was the correct one – don’t pay for stuff like this with bonds that send you into debt. Pass a tax and pay-as-you-go. I think a fallacy though in the article is that you can just pick up these districts, plop the same concept in another city and expect it to succeed. That rarely works. It would definitely be a mistake to make C2S a second entertainment district, but pull the CC away from there and what’s left other than the park? ULI doesn’t think we’ll need office space any time soon; retail doesn’t seem to be going anywhere I guess housing could be a possibility.
Ehh, so very hard to say. I think Cordish has a lot of good projects, but the KC project does smell of way too much corporate welfare, but come on that’s exactly what Bass Pro Shops turned out to be. So if in the end lower bricktown could have been something like Cordish’s other properties, then I think time has shown that Cordish was definitely a better choice than Randy Hogan’s lower bricktown.
Eventhough the KC project is sort of cookie cutter, look at the smaller urban AMC that they have. Harken’s is a suburban theater plopped in the middle of downtown and Lower Bricktown has been a huge disappointment and there is absolutely nothing urban about it.
In fact on OKC talk’s forum you can find a lot of people who now in retrospect would have rather gone with Tal and Cordish, I mean really could their idea possibly have been any worse? If it ended up being like anything in Cordish’s portfolio, I don’t think so.
Jeffrey, we already did pass a tax with pay-as-you-go. It is called MAPS.
I have been to the Power and Light district. It is cool, but it isn’t cooler than Bricktown or Midtown. The best part about Bricktown and Midtown is that all of the developments, save the MAPS developments (Ballpark, Ford Center, Canal) was privately financed, with some tax breaks from the city.
I love developers and developments. However, they should never be subsidized with public money unless it is a TIF or it falls into the empowerment zone. Bonds are for schools and roads.
That was my point exactly Matt. That’s what we did rather than put out a lot of bonds. Gees, does anyone actually read through the entire post here?
If Moshe Tal had been given the development that land would still be undeveloped and we’d be talking about how badly OKC was taken by this huckster. Remember Mose’s anchor – a gymnastics museum/hall of fame? That was a disaster waiting to happen. We absolutely dodged a bullet concerning him.
I love how anything that’s not completely brick from top to bottom and not crammed together as tightly as possible with no parking is somehow not “urban”. If Hogan had built to your style of urban you’d be complaining that there’s no place to park. Say what you want about Lower Bricktown, it still outdraws the “urban” (chuckle) upper bricktown 3-1.
I’m beginning to think that this board exists just for people to whine and complain about everything OKC. That’s certainly been the attitude of head guy here lately. Dissapointing.
Jeffrey, if you want to read press releases I would suggest you visit http://www.okc.gov. I find it amusing to hear myself being described as someone who just whines and complains about everything OKC.
Well, perhaps that was a tad too much hyperbole on my part, but it does seem that C2S has dominated much of the space here recently without nothing much new to be added to what I thought you covered pretty thoroughly last week.
Jeffrey, perhaps there is more than meets the eye. Especially when it comes to what C2S has dominated.
I have spent time in Cordish’s Power & Light District in KC. On those ocassions it was thriving, lots of people spending lots of money in lots of chain-type establishments. I have also seen what Cordish has done in other cities. Much the same. I am torn about inviting such an entity into C2S. By bringing in some big chain players they could certainly draw traffic. But then OKC would look just like KC which would look just like their Louisville product, etc. etc. Seems our preference should be for more organic, locally grown business. That would be far more interesting. But does OKC have the chops to do it on its own without a huge “master plan?” Moreover, someone like Cordish could remake C2S in five years, could we do it on our own as rapidly? What is the trade-off? Fast and corporate vs. slow and genuine?
It would appear that everyone is missing the POINT!!!!
The issue is NOT Cordish vs Hogan, but the idea of the City in discussions with Cordish. What would his development be and WHY? Anyone concerned that there seems to be a lot of discussion happening “behind closed doors”?
Does it bother anyone that the City has yet to give factual reasons of why they want the convention center south of the Ford Center? Does it bother anyone that one minute they say it’s an open process and consensus needs to be built, then the next minute they are on record saying the best place for it is on the Boulevard south of the ford center.
Does it bother anyone that the Mayor has said repeatedly that when it comes to the site, you consider two things, where are the hotels and where is bricktown. THEN, Steve discovers that there are talks happening between the City and Cordish. AND IF….the Mayor is sincere in his two “concerns” about proximity to hotels and bricktown, how can he support the site south of Ford when it has been PROVEN by two different consultants/panels that would be the worst site.
I think it’s time for the public to start demanding that these issues be addressed by the City! Maybe everyone that reads this blog needs to think big picture and connect the dots!!!!!
Jeffrey, it is alot easier to criticize than to lead a discussion. Also, why don’t you just say what you mean instead of talking in circles.
Isn’t Cordish speaking at a conference in okc in June , sandwiched between Larry Nichols and Clay Bennett? I could be wrong about this. Someone help me.
If so, maybe it’s the prelude of things to come. I’d hate to see okc pour a ton of taxpayer money into a c2s entertainment district when we already have a pretty good one in Bricktown.