Lee’s Summit, Mo. will join the KC metro area’s soccer renaissance when ten new FIFA-approved youth soccer fields open for play this fall as part of the first phase of the Paragon Star development, a $250 million project spanning 190 acres located at View High Drive.
Bill Brown, chief operating officer, Paragon Star, LLC, and president and owner, Spectrum Strategies, LLC, shared details about the project, which is the vision of developer Flip Short, at a recent breakfast hosted by CCIM Kansas City.
Although the project is located primarily in Lee’s Summit, portions of it straddle Kansas City, Mo.
“[W]hich has been interesting because one of the things we’ve enjoyed the most was needing to go and get approvals for almost every step along the way from two different municipalities who have two very different codes and approaches to development. So when I get the question ‘Why did it take so long?’ that’s one of the factors that we dealt with,” said Brown.
The project has been in the works for several years and faced other hurdles from the outset. Brown said they learned early on that there was a 22-acre wetland in the middle of the planned sports fields. In addition, FEMA notified the developers that it was raising the floodplain level by four feet. Resolution of both issues cost the developers $5 million before they even had a single plan approved.
"Maybe more traditional developers would have looked at the numbers from the front end and passed on the project," Brown said.
Brown said Paragon Star is designed to have five facets, matching the number of points on a star: sports and recreation, entertainment and dining, office space, residency and lodging.
The sports and recreation zone will feature a youth soccer complex, which Brown described as a world-class facility. There will be ten soccer fields sanctioned by FIFA. Beneath the synthetic turf product, which will cover all of the lighted fields, will be shock beds and an organic wood product that will drop the field temperatures by 20 to 30 degrees.
“Youth sports travel is about a $16 billion a year industry right now. We just need to get a little piece of it,” said Brown.
Brown said the goal is to give youth soccer players and their families an experience unlike they get at any other youth soccer location.
“So we're very focused on meeting the family needs in addition to the youth sports participants, and we think with this, we’re going to be able to do it. You don't have an entertainment district adjacent to the fields at any of these other complexes,” he said.
The recreation area also will feature what Brown described as a concession stand on steroids, with upper-level viewing decks. In addition, plans include pickleball courts, sand volleyball, a ropes course and a climbing wall.
The Little Blue River snakes through the development. And, Brown said they will be developing a new trail head to serve the Little Blue Trace Trail and the Rock Island Trail which adjoin the property. In addition, there are plans for a dog park along the trail.
More than 90,000 SF of the project will be dedicated to entertainment, retail and dining venues, which will surround an open-air green space plaza where there will be live music, sports watch parties and other community events. This area, named The Village at Paragon Star, also will feature the Magic Tree, a well-known Lee’s Summit holiday attraction that supports different philanthropic causes.
Construction on The Village site will begin in August, Brown said, with a plan to open in fall 2023.
Plans for the entertainment area also include two hotels.
The project will include a mixed-use building with 35,000 SF of Class A spec office space and over 35,000 SF of retail space. In addition, Crown MedRealty Partners is developing a 60,000-SF medical office building.
Later this year, likely September or October, Brown said construction will commence on a four-story, 390-unit luxury multifamily project which will have a little less than 40,000 SF of commercial space on the first level.
Brown said a 513 parking stall garage currently is being built in Marshall, Mo, and half of the garage will be delivered on-site on November 1. Infrastructure, the concrete road, sidewalks and parking lot for the project have been installed.
“This is to be a regional destination,” said Brown.
Brown said Paragon Star has plans for more development beyond the 190-acre multipurpose project. The developer owns an additional 200 acres and expects to develop on both sides of I-470.
“The 470 corridor is only going to grow. It’s going to be a College Boulevard on the Missouri side. There’s a number of projects that are springing up in addition to ours. . . . 470 is only going to continue to become more important to economic development in the Kansas City market and for the state of Missouri," Brown said.