Public/Private Partnerships, Finance & Incentives

We help developers, property owners, tenants and governmental entities achieve their real estate business goals through successful private and public partnerships (PPPs). Adept at the intricacies of cooperative agreements between public and private sectors, we navigate complex business relationships, government approvals and political affairs to structure creative financing solutions. 

We create public-private partnerships and counsel on the use of development incentives—such as tax increment financing and tax abatement—to complete difficult, challenging projects. Widely recognized for our work on complicated transactions, our real estate team includes highly experienced attorneys who provide legal services to cities and other public sector entities on a full range of critical issues. We blend business and market knowledge to accomplish our clients’ business objectives, efficiently maximizing investment while managing risk. 

We proactively counsel developers and municipalities in the formation of public/private partnerships and other real estate-based economic development efforts. No matter how challenging the project, we excel at strategically structuring economic incentive partnerships and transactions that benefit commerce, communities and industries alike. 

CAPABILITIES

Our attorneys understand the full range of issues impacting public/private partnerships, finance and incentive projects, including:

• Tax increment financing (TIF) and governmental incentives
• Acquisitions and sales
• Title reversal and title issues
• Mortgage lending
• Development of office buildings, shopping centers and residential projects
• Leasing (landlord and tenant representation)
• Property management agreements
• Construction and architects agreements
• Real estate litigation and alternative dispute resolutions

 EXPERIENCE

Our significant experience in the arena of public/private finance and incentive programs includes:

• Represented Anschutz Entertainment Group, Inc., the developer of the $276 million Sprint Center arena (known now as T-Mobile Center) located on 8.5 acres in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, in construction and operations issues under multiple contracts with the City of Kansas City.
• Represented the City of Overland Park on the development of the $265 million Corbin Park Shopping Center, which offered a public/private financing package to attract a SCHEELS sporting goods flagship store to the region. The financing included transportation development district (TDD) financing and use of a community improvement district (CID) layered on top of the TDD.
• Served as counsel to Freightquote.com, the largest online U.S. freight broker, in the development of its 200,000-square-foot headquarters and office space in Missouri. The project included approximately $33 million in tax credits and was expected to create more than 1,300 jobs in Missouri.
• Represented the Unified Government and its municipally owned Board of Public Utilities in their efforts to be selected by Google from more than 1,100 other municipal applicants to become the first U.S. city to have "Google Fiber"-a fiber network providing Internet connections of 1 gigabit per second to local homes and schools. We led the negotiating team and successfully completed a first-of-its-kind development agreement with Google, which commenced services to Kansas City, Kansas, in the fall of 2012. In 2013, we represented six Johnson County municipalities, Overland Park, Fairway, Lenexa, Merriam, Mission Hills and Roeland Park, in similar transactions with Google.
• Served as counsel in the renovation and redevelopment of Kansas City's Union Station, a $250 million historic restoration/adaptive reuse, the largest such effort ever undertaken in the greater Kansas City area.
• Represented East Village, LLC, the developer of the East Village Project in the redevelopment of the eastern portion of the downtown loop of Kansas City, Missouri, into a residential/mixed use development. This transaction involved property acquisition from the City of Kansas City and the negotiation of incentives for the project development.
• Assisted the City of Wichita, Kansas, with a public-private project that converted an environmentally contaminated area into a vital business district now called "Old Town." The project was recognized as a national award winner in the Ford Foundation/Harvard-Kennedy School of Government Annual Competition.
• Served as the lead transactional counsel for the City of Overland Park on the 58-acre, $43 million Prairiefire project. This mixed-use project features a 35,000-square-foot museum with exhibits from the American Natural History Museum in New York City, more than 450,000 square feet of retail space, 185,000 square feet of office space, a native wetlands area as well as other attractions and amenities. Public incentives associated with Prairiefire included the issuance of STAR bonds (a unique Kansas incentive), two separate Community Improvement Districts (CIDs), and limited Economic Development Revenue Bonds (EDRBs).
• Represented Simon Properties and The Woodmont Company joint venture in the development of a more than 300,000-square-foot outlet mall in Chesterfield, Missouri, including forming Chesterfield's first community improvement district and negotiating extensive public incentives with the existing Chesterfield Valley Transportation Development District.
• Represented the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas, in the negotiation of agreements to develop an 18,000-seat stadium, the permanent home for Sporting Kansas City, a Major League Soccer franchise, and a 600,000-square-foot office campus for approximately 4,000 employees of the Cerner Corporation. The total project costs for the addition to Village West, a retail and entertainment destination, were more than $400 million and were partially financed with $147 million in STAR Bonds for the construction of the stadium.
• Served as developer's counsel for Target and Kohl's-anchored shopping center that involved a CID and TDD, as well as a sales tax rebate agreement with the local county and municipality after TIF was deemed unavailable.
• Represented the Unified Government of Kansas City, Kansas/Wyandotte County in all phases of legal work for the $250 million International Speedway Corporation's 75,000-seat NASCAR auto race track facility constructed in Kansas City, Kansas.
• Acted as bond counsel for the Minneapolis/Saint Paul Housing Finance Board, which has issued more than $1 billion in housing bonds.