Kansas City completed its final phase of financing Thursday for the downtown entertainment district and transferred the real estate to The Cordish Co. for development.

In a release after the market closed, the city said it had completed the transfer after selling $115 million in revenue bonds on Thursday. The variable-rate bonds were sold with an initial interest rate of 3.57 percent and will be re-evaluated each week.

Cordish now will begin development of the Power & Light District, which encompasses seven downtown blocks and the renovation of both the Midland Theatre and the Empire Theater. The city will be responsible for utility and streetscape development as well as 3,000 new parking spaces for the district.
Those projects are financed by $109 million from the Missouri Downtown Economic Stimulus Act and $186 million in tax-increment financing.
The sale represented the city's final financing of $295 million to develop the downtown district. Including the city's investment, the district's total projected cost is about $800 million.

The district is scheduled to start opening in the summer of 2007.

© Kansas City Area Development Council