Topeka tax increment financing project struggles

by Bob Weeks on April 15, 2010

In Topeka, a residential and retail project funded with $5 million of tax increment financing (TIF) is in trouble, as the following story from the Topeka Capital-Journal describes.

The project is titled the “College Hill Redevelopment District.” Wichita has its own College Hill neighborhood, and a residential project funded by tax increment financing there has not done well, either.

Both of these projects are residential, and recent times have not been kind to residential real estate. Taxpayers are at risk when TIF districts do not meet their projections. Developers have the opportunity to earn profits to offset the losses they may incur from time to time. Taxpayers, like government, have no ability to profit from successful projects to make up for losses.

College Hill project pushes on
All 25 townhomes, 24,000 square feet of retail space remain unoccupied

All 25 relatively new townhomes in Topeka’s College Hill Redevelopment District stand unoccupied.

So does its 24,000 square feet of retail space.

But developers behind the $30 million project to revitalize central Topeka’s College Hill business district say they remain committed. This month, they entered into a contract with a large retail brokerage firm that will work to bring in retail businesses.

Read the rest of the story at the Topeka Capital-Journal.

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Tagged as: Tax increment financing, TIF districts

{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

1 tom arnold April 15, 2010 at 3:16 pm: Great article. Thanks for following Kansas Politics.
2 Ruben April 16, 2010 at 5:48 pm: Wichita’s College Hill development is in really trouble and the developer is looking for a way out. The real estate agent turned developer had zero experience in projects like this, but had many friends at City Hall.

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