More twists with recreation center project: KU Endowment now requiring city to pay for land; UPDATE Self's Foundation again planning donation to city

Posted by Chad Lawhorn February 15, 2013 at 11:21 a.m.

More twists with recreation center project: KU Endowment now requiring city to pay for land; UPDATE Self's Foundation again planning donation to city

Think of it like a buzzer beater, or more accurately, like three of them. The buzzer is about to sound on this more than year-long debate on whether the city should move ahead with a $25 million recreation center in northwest Lawrence.

City commissioners at their meeting on Tuesday will consider signing an agreement that moves the project toward a bid letting.

But before they do, three new twists and turns to this ever-changing proposal have come in just before the buzzer. Here’s a look:

• If you are like me and thought Kansas University Endowment was going to donate the 26 acres the city’s recreation center will sit upon, you were wrong.

City Manager David Corliss now has confirmed the city is set to pay KU Endowment $780,000 — or $30,000 an acre — for the site.

The $780,000 will be applied to the $25 million maximum price KU Endowment has guaranteed the city project to come in at. In other words, the fact KU Endowment is charging the city for the land won’t increase the maximum price the city will have to pay for the project. So, you’ll have to decide how much any of this matters. I’m not exactly sure at the moment why KU Endowment wants the land to be paid for rather than donated, but I’ve been told that because of the way the deal is structured with various LLCs and such that donating the land may be problematic from a legal or tax standpoint. But I don’t have firm details on that. If I get some, I’ll update this.

But the idea the city will have to buy the land does seem worth noting because one of the reasons the city is pursuing this project is because it believes it is getting a value. Yet, the city is now paying $780,000 for a 26-acre recreation site when it already owns a large site near Overland and Wakarusa drives, which the city long touted as an excellent site for a center. Some folks may be surprised that the city would pay for a new recreation center site when it already owns one.

I suspect a few people also may note that when the city was considering building the project on the west side of the South Lawrence Trafficway, it was proposed the city would receive a donation of 50 to 60 acres of land — from the Schwada family — that the city would own outright. That proposal didn’t call for the city to pay for the land.

Corliss said the $30,000 per acre the city will pay to KU Endowment is equal to what KU paid for the property. Again, the $780,000 doesn’t increase the maximum price the city will have to pay for the project. But it does increase the chances the check the city writes to KU Endowment will be bigger than it would have been otherwise.

• UPDATE: Well, count Bill Self and his Assists Foundation back in the game. I just talked with Erin Zimney, executive director of the Assists Foundation, and she said the organization is still very much planning on making a donation — likely in the $1 million range — to the city's recreation center. That was welcome news to city officials because on Thursday afternoon City Manager David Corliss told me the city no longer was planning on receiving a donation from the foundation. I had heard that same sentiment from other city officials in off-the-record conversations as well. Zimney said she's not quite sure why the city thought the donation was off the table, other than the city and the foundation had not talked about the possibility in recent months. The last public statement from the Assists Foundation was in March, when the project was still slated for property on the west side of SLT. "Our plan has always been to support a recreation center, if indeed it does happen," Zimney said. She said Self and his wife, Cindy, were both very excited about what a recreation center could provide for area youths. Zimney said the foundation likely would wait until after the city accepts a bid to build the recreation center — which likely would be in mid-April — before it formalized a donation to the city. Zimney said she did not think the foundation would be financially supporting the KU portion of Rock Chalk Park, although she said board members found that project to be exciting as well.

If you remember all the way back to November 2011, when the city was contemplating a $15 million center on land at Wakarusa and Overland drives, one of the driving forces was that KU Coach Bill Self’s Assists Foundation was prepared to make at least a $1 million donation to the project.

Well, Corliss now has confirmed to me that the city is no longer expecting that donation. This isn’t much of a surprise because the idea of a donation from the Assists Foundation hasn’t come up much recently at City Hall. Ever since the project grew and moved to the east side of the SLT, I had gotten the sense that the idea of a donation to the city was up in the air. But now we have a city official confirming it.

I’ve heard it is still possible that the Assists Foundation may make a donation to the project, but its money would go to KU Endowment. I haven’t yet chatted with the Assists Foundation, but I’ll attempt to do so and provide an update.

• You also may remember that one of the added benefits of having a recreation center that is much larger than a standard recreation center is that there would be room to house a “wellness center.”

Indeed, the 181,000-square-foot design has about 7,000 square feet for a wellness center. What it doesn’t have at this point is anybody to run it.

The assumption has been that Lawrence Memorial Hospital would operate a wellness center, although what exactly would be included in that center hasn’t been very well defined yet. But city officials have confirmed that LMH hasn’t made any commitment to be part of that wellness center, and is not likely to make a commitment before the city will bid this project.

In other words, the recreation center will include about 7,000 square feet of what the building industry calls “spec space.” It is still possible LMH will want to do the wellness center. I cover the LMH board and the subject has come up, but so far the board hasn’t engaged in a full-blown discussion about becoming involved in the project.

Various city officials told me the city always can request proposals from other health care companies that want to run a wellness center in the city.

That could get very interesting. There is speculation that KU Hospital would be a group interested in running a wellness center in the city. And who knows if other Kansas City or Topeka hospitals would be interested in the space as a way to better attract Lawrence patients to their hospitals.

The question becomes whether the city — which technically owns Lawrence Memorial Hospital — is really interested in allowing the city-owned recreation center to be used as a way for a potential LMH competitor to gain a toe-hold in the community?

Another option is the city could use the 7,000 square feet of space for additional recreational purposes. There already are groups that are looking to change the design of the center. A group of local handball and racquetball players have asked the city to consider building a couple of courts in the center. An even more unique proposal has come from horseshoe pitchers.

Apparently, indoor horseshoe pitching is becoming more popular, especially since the sport’s demographics are trending toward the older side these days. Many older pitchers no longer like to be out in the summer heat or winter’s cold to pitch in tournaments.

Now, if indoor horseshoe pitching gets added to the facility before Tuesday’s meeting, that truly will be a buzzer beater worthy of Sportscenter.

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Stop_the_Madness 4 months ago

It sounds like the value of the improvements to the land have been reduced by $780,000.

koman 4 months ago

Well said.

Catalano 4 months ago

And this from the staff report:

If the City does not proceed with recreation center:

§ If city doesn’t proceed with recreation center, then the city would agree to reimburse RCP for its actual costs to prepare the pad-ready recreation center site and would negotiate its participation in the necessary infrastructure supporting the KU facilities.

So how much would that cost us?

Taxpayer2 4 months ago

What has changed to the bottom line? Still $25M. Still getting a $1M donation that goes away without this. Still have an opportunity for a wellness center. Nothing has changed. Build it.

just_another_bozo_on_this_bus 4 months ago

If it's such a great deal, it ought to be easy to convince the voters in a referendum election. Wouldn't you like the ability to vote for it, taxpayer2?

https://www.change.org/petitions/city-commission-city-of-lawrence-public-vote-on-the-public-financing-of-the-regional-rec-center

fedupwithliberals 4 months ago

bozo we don't vote on every single thing. thats why we have a representative democracy. we vote for the people who oversee these things. putting it to a vote is just another form of obstructionism.

just_another_bozo_on_this_bus 4 months ago

We voted on the library. We voted on the T. We vote on lots of things. We deserve a vote on this, too.

foodboy 4 months ago

More shoes have dropped on this project than an octopus with a Nike contract. Every week or so, some new detail dribbles out. It is time to say NO until the public really knows all the details of this murky project and not wait until it's underway .

Pepe 4 months ago

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse of a deal for the city, this comes along. Please commissioners, don't do this.

deec 4 months ago

This thing has been a scam from the get-go, and it just gets dirtier and dirtier.

beatnik 4 months ago

a week before voting to approve the taxpayers are made aware of more changes to what we were led to expect, mr. corliss and the city commission really need to stop and get all the details out in the open. honesty and openness in government is important, i'm going to go out on a limb here and say i believe mayor schumm is an honest man and will call a halt to this project and go back and start over, hopefully i am correct

Keith 4 months ago

Smoke and effin mirrors all the way down. And yet our bought and paid for commissioners will make sure this gets done before the upcoming elections so there's really nothing we can do about it.

TheSychophant 4 months ago

This project is getting more outrageous by the minute. The current City Commission's arrogance in continuing their efforts to "push" this project through is appalling.

mdlund0 4 months ago

It would seem that we have lots of carts and no horses. KU endowment already bought the land, so it would seem that the city has some arm twisting that it could do here: Donate the land or we're out and the utilities are on you. Also, "Spec Space" with no tenant before a decision is made? Seems a bit dangerous.

jack22 4 months ago

But Fritzel said he was doing this becasue he loved us and now he wants us to give the flowers and ring back?

lawrencechick 4 months ago

Once again, can we please get back to building the original West Lawrence rec center. If we have all this extra money, build another outdoor pool which is a guaranteed success. Anything else should be a private venture.

TheSychophant 4 months ago

I like your idea. I think most of us agree that there is a shortage of indoor recreational space in Lawrence. An appropriately sized rec center in the West Lawrence area, where most of the newer development has occurred, is probably in order. Also, a second pool, perhaps next to the rec center, would seem to make sense. The downtown pool is well used and typically crowded. A pool in West Lawrence would attract not only current users of the downtown pool, but also folks who now choose not to go all the way downtown and hassle with the crowd and parking.

Surely we can do both for far less than 25 million dollars on land the city already owns. i

merrill 4 months ago

This city memo indicates the cost coming in at 32 million $$$$$$$ http://www.ci.lawrence.ks.us/assets/agendas/cc/2013/02-19-13/rcp_staff_memo.html

Is this number before or after "these new twists"?

How can the city vote on this matter? This memo implies the CC may vote this Tuesday.

leftylucky 4 months ago

Maybe the city should charge 2 million a year for the environmental damage to baldwin creek park and drainage rights .

pizzapete 4 months ago

Prime farm land goes for about $4,000 an acre and I'm not even sure this land would be considered good farmland. Sure after the city invests $75 million putting in new roads, sewers, traffic lights, etc., it could be worth $30,000 an acre, but why in the heck should we be paying full price for the land if we're the ones paying for all the infrastructure needed to make this land so valuable or even useable?