Council advances T & W Steel relocation plan with LCRA incentives

Lee's Summit city council moved forward a redevelopment plan on Tuesday that would allow T & W Steel Company Inc. to build a new industrial facility on a roughly 28.5-acre site on Southeast Hamblin Road using LCRA incentives.

City staff and the company's representatives told council the package combines a sales tax exemption on construction materials and a 10-year, 75% property tax abatement using a fixed pilot structure. David Bushek, chief counsel for economic development and planning, said the total project cost is about $7 million and that the incentives amount to roughly 6–8% of the project cost by the city's net-present-value calculations.

The plan proposes a new industrial building of about 53,600 square feet at 1601 Southeast Hamblin Road (the project entity is 1601 Southeast Hamblin Road, LLC). Kirk Peterson, representing the applicant, and Kenny Rush, president of T & W Steel (in the audience), said the company has been in Lee's Summit for more than 40 years and intends to remain in the city. Peterson told council the company expects to retain 31 current employees and conservatively projected six new full-time equivalent positions over the next few years.

Bushek entered exhibits 1–10 from the meeting packet into the record and summarized staff analysis. He said the parcel is inside a blight-declared redevelopment area that the council designated in 2014 (expanded in 2015), and that blight clearance is the public purpose used to justify LCRA incentives. Staff compared the proposal with past industrial incentive packages and described the request as within the range of previously approved LCRA projects on the Missouri side of the Kansas City region.

Council members who commented said they supported retaining a local business and bringing additional economic activity to a long-vacant industrial parcel. Council member Shields said the presentation was an objective review of policy criteria; Shields and other members praised keeping jobs in Lee's Summit. Assistant City Manager Ryan Elam confirmed no special regional infrastructure improvements are required for the site beyond development-standard work.

Council member Reeder moved the ordinance to second reading (bill 25-046) and Council member Hodges seconded. The motion to advance the bill to second reading was approved as recorded by the clerk.

Next steps: the ordinance was advanced to second reading for final consideration at the council's subsequent meeting; the proposal was recommended previously by the LCRA board on Jan. 29 and will return to council for final action in the coming meeting cycle.