Council approves Landmark RHID plan to support downtown upper‑story housing

The Hutchinson City Council voted Oct. 7 to adopt a Reinvestment Housing Incentive District (RHID) development plan and approve a development agreement to support redevelopment of Landmark Apartments at 1 N. Main.

The RHID program, described by Dave Sotelo, the city’s director of strategic growth, helps “turn unused space above downtown businesses into housing,” allowing the tax increment from a property’s increased value to be set aside for up to 25 years to reimburse developer construction costs. Sotelo told the council the Kansas Secretary of Commerce approved the district and reaffirmed eligibility for the Landmark building.

Developer Justin Perjant of Pomeroy Development—representing Meyer Landmark’s project team—said construction is well underway and that “the rough‑ins on the mechanicals…are pretty well completed,” adding that the project has a seven‑figure owner equity contribution plus long‑term debt and state and local incentives. Perjant described the capital stack as complex and said the owners have committed millions of dollars of equity and debt to the conversion.

The project is a single‑parcel upper‑story RHID rather than a district covering multiple parcels; Perjant told council a single‑parcel approach keeps accounting clearer and ensures the tax increment created by this property only reimburses this developer’s costs. Sotelo said the city mailed notices required for the RHID protest period and that the county and school district can formally protest within the statutory period.

Council approval at the Oct. 7 meeting authorized the development agreement and the ordinance establishing the RHID. The vote was recorded as a unanimous roll call approving the resolution.

What happens next: the statutory protest period will run, required intergovernmental notices have been sent, and staff will return with any final documents and a development agreement for mayoral signature. If protests do not prevent the district, the RHID reimbursement mechanism would only apply to the incremental taxes created by the Landmark project and would last 25 years as allowed under Kansas law.