Prairiefire Revenue Study

Overland Park, Kansas

In Overland Park, one of the fastest growing municipalities in the greater Kansas City metro area, the Merrill Companies developed Prairiefire at Lionsgate, a mixed-use residential, office, retail, restaurant, entertainment, and museum development. Because of the complexity and costs associated with the mixed-use development, Merrill Companies worked with the City of Overland Park to establish both a Community Improvement District (CID) and a Sales Tax Revenue District (STAR) for Prairiefire at Lionsgate. .

Development Strategies was asked to analyze the market for dining, shopping, and entertainment at Prairiefire and project sales revenues that could be generated to support both financing mechanisms. Development Strategies created an economic model that detailed existing retail, restaurant, entertainment, and museum competition, projected future sales, and estimated the tax revenues. These studies provided critical demographic analysis, competitive analysis, and revenue projections included within the public offering documents for potential bond investors.

Completed to date are:
• Over 210,000 square feet of retail, restaurant, and entertainment space with tenants such as REI, Fresh Market, Cinetopia, Rock & Brews, Wasabi.
• The Museum of Prairiefire, a 41,000 square foot museum that has a unique partnership with the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York. The museum will house permanent exhibits and display ten exclusive AMNH exhibits over the next five years.

The final phase of development will include approximately 300 upscale apartment units.