Youth sports mecca, with hockey and zip lines, to open in Overland Park this fall

Late last month in southern Overland Park, construction workers spent the morning preparing to install 1,500 arena seats looking down on what will become an NHL-sized hockey rink.

Nearby, crews were laying down maple hardwood planks to build out eight basketball courts, which will also serve as 16 volleyball courts. Or they can be transformed with temporary turf for soccer, lacrosse or baseball.

One floor above, Bart Lowen, vice president of development with Price Brothers, pointed to funky-shaped cut-outs in the wall, where kids will zip line from room to room, flying over families bowling and playing laser tag.

It’s all part of the expansive youth sports mecca and entertainment center underway at the 300-acre, $750 million Bluhawk development, the anchor project that sold local and state leaders on backing it with $70 million in Kansas STAR bonds in 2021. Kansas sales tax revenue, or STAR bonds are intended for exceptional projects that are expected to attract visitors from near and far.

Under the state incentive program, which has drawn controversy over the years, cities sell bonds to provide upfront capital that a developer can use for project costs. The bonds are paid back over 20 years with the sales tax generated by the development.

After some delays, Lowen said the first 260,000-square feet of the $125 million AdventHealth Sports Park, with the hockey arena as a major component, is now on track to open in October.

“Hockey is a growing sport. It’s huge in St. Louis and obviously up north,” Lowen said. “We have ice here in the city, but there’s a lot of kids that actually live in Kansas City but may actually be going to school elsewhere because they play hockey elsewhere. The biggest need for hockey right now is space, and that means sheets of ice.”

Meanwhile, Lowen said he expects to start signing leases this fall and winter for 200,000 square feet of retail and restaurants around the sports center, which will double the existing retail space at Bluhawk, southwest of U.S. Highway 69 and 159th Street.

The $75 million shopping center, dubbed The Boundary at Bluhawk, which will sit off 159th Street and Shawnee Drive, is expected to have rooftop restaurants, dozens of shops and other retail to draw in visitors from the sports park. Lowen hopes to break ground next spring, with an opening planned for the spring of 2026.

The city issued the first half of the $70 million in bonds a couple of years ago for this work. Now, Meg Ralph, spokeswoman with the city, said officials have begun talks with the developers about issuing the second half to fund the next phase of the sports facility and more retail. That would bring the center to 420,000 square feet, and add another ice rink for hockey tournaments and pickleball.

“The Sports Park is expected to attract regional and national tournaments for a variety of athletic disciplines,” Ralph said in an email. “The facility will also serve as a community asset for local sports training, practices, and entertainment.”

Combined with the shopping center, she said, “the development will provide retail, restaurant and entertainment uses attractive to visitors as well as residents of Overland Park and the region.”

Bustling Bluhawk development

The sports facility will serve as a main centerpiece to the massive Bluhawk project, which has been in the works for years.

“We are partnering with local leagues and affiliates and all the youth sports,” Lowen said. “We already have a soccer club dedicated to the facility, a hockey club and volleyball club dedicated. Just about every opportunity with youth sports you can think of, you’ll have that opportunity here.”

In addition to the ice and courts, which Lowen expects to attract tournaments, the sports hub features several bowling lanes, golf simulators, laser tag, event rooms, a full-service bar, an e-sports room, and space leased out, including for a sports academy and a pool for triathlon training.

The northern 145 acres of the site have been considered eligible as a STAR bonds district since 2016, according to city documents. At one point, plans included a Cosmosphere Innovation science and space museum, but that idea fell through.

Lowen said the Bluhawk has about 200,000 square feet of retail on 159th Street, which starts the boundary of the STAR bond district, with restaurants including Five Guys, Whataburger and Magic Noodle. Bluhawk developers previously completed 200 apartment units, single-family homes and AdventHealth South Overland Park hospital.

A few years ago the Overland Park City Council approved more than $70 million in STAR bonds for $430 million worth of work, including the sports complex and retail development. At the time, the Overland Park project beat out a competing proposal for a hockey arena in Olathe, which did not receive the state incentives amid speculation that the region could not support both projects.

The project is funded with other tax incentives as well, including economic development revenue bonds, and revenue from a transportation development district and a community improvement district, both levying additional sales tax on the site.

Next round of STAR bonds

The city in the fall of 2022 issued $53 million of the $70 in STAR bonds for the first phase of the sports facility and sizable retail development.

Lowen said the project was done in phases, to ensure the sales tax generated from the existing retail could support the first part of the work. He said the developers have worked to balance building retail to bolster sales taxes while moving forward with the sports center, expected to be the main tourist draw.

Ralph, with the city, said Bluhawk has so far exceeded expectations for sales tax revenue. Financial disclosure documents show as of the most recent debt service payment date on May 15, redemption of the bonds are ahead of the repayment schedule.

Developers are now in talks with the city on preparing financing and getting documents ready to issue the second half of the $70 million in STAR bonds. But Ralph said there is not a clear timeline for that yet.

Another STAR bond-backed project, the youth sports facility in western Kansas City, Kansas, part of the Homefield Kansas City development, opened this spring, with basketball and volleyball courts and turf for baseball.

Lowen doesn’t seem worried about nearby competition. He said the affluent Johnson County, where many families are drawn for the top-rated school systems, is an ideal place for such a sports center.

A feasibility study, commissioned by the city when considering the STAR bonds in 2021, estimated the Bluhawk development would draw 3 million annual visitors by 2027. Of that, 460,000 visitors were estimated to come for sports and entertainment by that 2027.