NorthPoint Development is set to buy the RACER Trust site in Wyandotte County, 80 acres of property in the Fairfax Industrial District that was once a General Motors plant. Visit website

An agenda for Monday’s Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kan., Economic Development & Finance Committee indicates that the Revitalizing Auto Communities Environmental Response Trust has picked NorthPoint Development as the buyer.

The agenda also stipulates development incentives to attract 1 million square feet of new industrial space at the RACER Trust site with more than $40 million worth of investment there.
NorthPoint CEO Nathaniel Hagedorn was not immediately available for comment. A spokesman for RACER Trust declined to comment.

The Kansas City Business Journal reported in October that NorthPoint was in the running for purchase rights on the RACER Trust site, along with a group tied to Zimmer Real Estate Services LC.
The old GM plant became part of the RACER Trust in 2011 and was the largest environmental trust in U.S. history.

RACER Trust was charged with the disposition of 89 former GM sites in 14 states in the aftermath of the automaker’s 2009 bankruptcy.

UG officials have been working with RACER Trust on helping redevelop the largest vacant tract in the Fairfax Industrial District.

The UG is considering an industrial revenue bond issuance that would lead to property and construction-related sales tax abatements for the RACER Trust developer.

Also being considered is a community improvement district that would set a $1.20-a-square-foot special assessment for a 10-year period that would provide funding for NorthPoint on a pay-as-you-go basis.

NorthPoint would have access to 25 percent of the CID revenue once it makes capital investments of $10 million, half of CID revenue when it invests $20 million on the site and the balance of the CID revenue when it completes $30 million in investments.

ARTICLE BY: KANSAS CITY STAR – BY STEVE VOCKRODT

Date: Friday, February 4, 2013

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