A scaled-back incentives request for the proposed $133 million Strata project has been approved by the Kansas City Council despite becoming a lightning rod for how the newly elected officials will approach economic incentives for major developments.
The 7-4 vote came after tense and heated debate Thursday on whether to grant incentives to the high-end office tower that has been languishing in City Hall for much of the last year. The project was first announced in late 2018.
Strata’s developer — a partnership among H&R Block Inc., Kansas City-based developer Copaken Brooks and Overland Park-based commercial realtors Jury & Associates — put together the reworked deal after facing resistance from the newly elected City Council and Mayor Quinton Lucas. On Oct. 24, the council delayed consideration of the agreement to give the developer two weeks to reshape its incentives request.
In the end, mostly new and some tenured elected council members — along with the mayor — staunchly opposed the project but it still had enough votes to pass.
Read the rest of the story in the Kansas City Business Journal.
