Lifestyles of the Rich and Subsidized

Luxury has taken residence in downtown Kansas City.

And as fabulous condominium projects grow in number and opulence, City Hall continues to offer generous incentives to developers -- effectively forcing everyone who lives in Kansas City, Missouri, to subsidize the Jacuzzis, the fitness centers and even the on-site dog groomers enjoyed by downtown's newest, richest residents.

Making downtown an inviting place to live is a worthwhile objective. More residents mean animated streets, busier restaurants, less sprawl.

By one count, downtown has added 1,600 residential units since 2000. From its offices at 17th and Main streets, the Pitch has had a prime view of downtown's re-emergence. As people move into lofts and condos, we've happily noticed more people out on the streets -- at night, even, and not just on First Fridays. We've enjoyed being able to walk to more restaurants. We've even advocated spending taxpayer dollars on big-ticket dreams such a downtown ballpark -- even if a Kansas City resident isn't a baseball fan, we figured, ballparks have economic ripple effects an entire city can enjoy (Kansas City Strip, "Let's Play," February 10).

An event such as the Urban Homes Tour the first weekend of May would certainly have been a sad exhibition if not for the sorts of tax breaks that Kansas City gives to developers rehabbing downtown. Instead, buses shuttled curious visitors from building to secured building, where smiling sales reps showed models and dispensed glossy brochures.

Jason Townsend, for example, needed only a short time in a downtown office tower to realize it could be a spectacular condominium project. The granite floor, the marble walls and the bank of elevators spoke to him. "I was in here about 15 minutes, and I kept saying, 'Yes, this works. Yes, this works,'" Townsend tells the Pitch.

He was standing in the lobby of what used to be known as the Mercantile Tower (later the U.S. Bank Tower) at 11th Street and Walnut. Made of bronze-colored steel, the tower joined the downtown skyline in 1975 -- not exactly a golden age of architecture.

A modern building may lack charm or history, but Townsend isn't selling those ideas. He rechristened the building Wallstreet Tower and is marketing it as a sleek, sophisticated choice for downtown condo buyers. "We're taking advantage of what I call the Friends experience or the Sex in the City experience," he says.

At 33, Townsend is younger than the actors in those TV shows. A graduate of Rockhurst High School and the University of Kansas, Townsend was the president of a tech company and the vice president of his family's engineering business before he got into real estate.

And his instinct about the Wallstreet Tower is proving correct. Out of 145 units, ranging in price from $170,000 to $640,000, only 27 remain unsold. That's a testament to Townsend's salesmanship -- and to each unit's expansive bank of windows. "Here, the cityscape is your wall," Townsend says.

If the views don't cinch it, Townsend can tease prospective buyers with an annual property-tax bill he says will run between just $200 and $300.

A $250 property-tax bill is a pittance. The owner of a house on Olive Street, where one of the Prospect corridor murder victims was discovered last summer, owed $512 in taxes last year. Kansas City firefighter Stephen Johnson paid $1,150 in taxes on the East 79th Street home demolished by a crew from Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Across Jackson County, the recent reassessment of property values has homeowners shrieking at the size of their new tax bills.

Townsend, by contrast, had City Hall's blessing and help locking in minuscule tax bills for his future tenants. More specifically, he had the assistance of an obscure public agency called the Planned Industrial Expansion Authority. The PIEA operates out of a second-story office in the City Market. Its executive director is a tanned Staten Islander named Al Figuly, who is also the president of the equally obscure Greater Kansas City Foreign Trade Zone.

Despite its humble trappings, the agency wields great power. The PIEA can take control of private property using eminent domain, and it can issue bonds and administer tax breaks. For developers, the PIEA is like a strongman with a sharp machete, clearing a path to profits.

The PIEA is the go-to agency for many condominium developers. And the city continues to be especially helpful when it comes to the high-end projects. City Hall operates as if the housing boom were a faint murmur, offering tax abatements to developers like dowries for a homely daughter.

Every once in a while, someone at City Hall questions the logic. "Does a $1.5 million condo -- does that individual need a property-tax abatement?" asks Councilman Jim Rowland, chairman of the Budget and Audit Committee.

In fact, the incentives operate on cruise control.

They've been used to preserve pretty, historic buildings -- and buildings not worth remembering.

They've helped build affordable housing for lower-income renters -- and housing affordable to only the very rich.

The PIEA gave a huge tax break to a convicted felon with an enticing floor plan; meanwhile, urban heroes have had to beg to keep their art galleries.

City officials say they're talking about making changes -- grading proposed developments on a tougher curve, turning down the spigot on the incentives.