KANSAS CITY, Kan. (KCTV) – On Thursday, the Wyandotte County Board of Commissioners approved the sale of up to $123 million in STAR Bonds for American Royal. The nonprofits’ move to Kansas has been a decade in the making, with construction paused since last spring.
“We put around $120 million of private funds in, but until we could get to this step and get STAR Bonds available to the project, we had to put everything on hold,” said Jackie McClaskey, the president and CEO of American Royal. She spoke with KCTV 5 ahead of the meeting. “With this action that we’re anticipating tonight, we will be back at work, we will be restarting construction, and you’ll actually be able to see some events at the American Royal this fall.”
The original STAR Bonds district was approved in 2016. McClaskey says they were ready to start construction when the pandemic hit. The nonprofit took a three-year pause before restarting talks with the Unified Government and the state of Kansas…