The Kansas City Chiefs’ plan to build a new domed stadium on the Kansas side, along with a new training facility and headquarters in Olathe, would be supported by a special incentive package for entertainment and tourism draws.
Called STAR bonds, for Kansas Sales Tax and Revenue bonds, this type of incentive involves issuing bond debt to cover part of a project’s price tag that is then paid back over a set period of time using sales tax revenues generated by retail and dining sales within a project’s defined boundary.
State and team officials last month unveiled a deal that would have public dollars account for up to 60% of the cost of a new Chiefs stadium and team facility in Kansas, with the team picking up the other 40%.
The STAR bond package shaping up for the Chiefs’ project is different and much larger in size, scope and total projected dollar amount than the typical STAR bond deal. Still, Johnson County has experience with these incentives: there are already three such active STAR bond districts in the county — two in Overland Park and one in the works also in Olathe.
Here’s a look at what those existing districts look like and how they compare to the Chiefs’ district.
Prairiefire — Overland Park
The oldest STAR bond district in Johnson County, Prairiefire was formed in 2012 and spans about 60 acres at 135th Street between Nall and Lamar avenues in Overland Park.
It centers around the Museum at Prairiefire, a natural history museum that will soon also host the College Baseball Hall of Fame museum.
Surrounding that attraction are several dining and retail venues, a movie theater, a nature trail through a restored Kansas wetlands and a fine art gallery. Some developable land still remains inside the district’s boundaries.
The development received nearly $65 million in STAR bonds and was expected to have paid back its full debt by 2032. However, in the years since the bonds were issued, repayment has been slow, and in late 2023, Prairiefire missed a key repayment deadline. (Prairiefire recently defaulted on bond debt tied to other local incentives that are unrelated to the STAR bonds.)
As of last week, Prairiefire had raised close to $38 million in sales tax revenue, according to the city of Overland Park, and had repaid $8.7 million of its bond debt.
Bluhawk — Overland Park
Bluhawk, which covers about 275 acres near 159th Street and U.S Highway 69, received $55 million in STAR bonds in 2022. Construction activity has been heavy in the district in the years since as new retail, dining and lodging options pop up rapidly.
The main attraction in the Bluhawk STAR bond district is the AdventHealth Sports Park, which opened its doors in late 2024.
It hosts several youth sports competitions and other athletic pursuits, including a professional pickleball tournament starting in 2026.
As of last week, Bluhawk had raised $15.5 million in sales tax revenue, according to the city of Overland Park, and had repaid $6 million of its bond debt.
Halo Ridge — Olathe
Halo Ridge is another STAR bond district in the works in Olathe around 119th Street and Renner Boulevard. The project already has several of its necessary approvals, including the requisite sign-off from the Kansas Department of Commerce.
This district spans about 130 acres, though the city has so far approved plans to develop just 64 acres of it at the southwest corner of the intersection.
While construction has yet to commence, the project will include an 11-acre sports-themed amusement park and a 5,500-seat sports arena, both of which will be designed to be ultra-accessible to those with disabilities.
Halo Ridge has requested $65 million in STAR bonds, though they’ve not yet been formally issued. The project comes from Loretto Companies, owned by Lamar Hunt Jr., son of the Chiefs’ founding owner and brother of the football team’s current owner, Clark Hunt.
No bonds have been issued at this juncture, so there is presently no STAR bond debt to repay in this district, nor has any sales tax revenue yet been generated or collected toward the effort.
How are these STAR districts different from Chiefs’ district?
The existing STAR bond projects in Johnson County were all formed under the original STAR bond rules first adopted in Kansas in the 1990s, which allowed for up to 50% of a project’s cost to be covered using bond debt.
Most STAR districts are usually in effect for 20 or so years and cover a set geographic area of a few hundred acres or fewer, like the three existing STAR bond districts in Johnson County.
That’s unlike the STAR bond district in the works for the Chiefs stadium, which would allow for as much as 70% of the project’s cost to be covered(though the actual estimate announced by state officials is closer to 60%).
Another big difference is the size of the Chief’s district. The state’s preliminary map of the district’s boundaries spans multiple jurisdictions, including all of Wyandotte County and a big chunk of western Johnson County that includes nearly all of Lenexa, Olathe and Shawnee.
If those boundaries hold, the STAR bond district for the Chiefs’ project would span more than 290 square miles, dwarfing any previous STAR bond district in Johnson County or elsewhere in Kansas.
The Chiefs’ STAR bond district comes out of a special, temporary incentive package put together by the Kansas Legislature in an attempt to woo one or both professional sports teams currently playing at the Truman Sports Complex on the Missouri side to Kansas.
Under that provision, the Chiefs are requesting $1.8 billion in STAR bonds to help finance the estimated $3 billion stadium project in Wyandotte County, as well as up to nearly another $1 billion for the team HQ and training facility in Olathe.
That estimated $2.8 billion in bond debt, as well as the project’s total price tag are well above any project that’s previously received STAR bonds in Kansas.
Until now, the largest STAR bond district on the books in Kansas was the Sporting KC Children’s Mercy Park development that received $150.3 million in STAR bonds in 2010.
Those bonds paid off ahead of schedule, according to the Department of Commerce STAR bond database, making it one of the most successful STAR bond projects in Kansas thus far.
This story was originally published by the Johnson County Post.
