KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The KCATA Board of Commissioners voted no Wednesday on a developer's request for taxpayer help to build a midtown KC apartment complex.
Mac Properties already has a huge presence in Midtown, according to KC Tenants community organizer Gabe Coppage.
"They own over 2,000 units pretty much all right here in midtown," he said.
Mac Properties would like to make that footprint nearly 300 units bigger and to do that they've sought tax incentives and bonds to cover some of the cost of a new complex at Main Street and Armour Boulevard.
The incentives don't sit well with Coppage.
"Charging some of the highest rent in this neighborhood, but still constantly finding ways to try to receive public subsidies," he said. " And that is our taxpayer money."
Coppage and many others spoke at a meeting Wednesday before the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority.
The board of commissioners voted not to authorize a bond package for Mac Properties.
A big part of board chair Melissa Bynum's vote to deny the request came down to community feedback.
She also says she had too many unanswered questions to approve bonds.
About a year ago, the Kansas City Council denied a similar request for tax breaks.
"These are the places where we really need to have consensus," Bynum said. "These are the places where we've got to have some agreement about what the right thing to do for the community might be."
The developer did not say whether or not they will move forward with the project without incentives.
