A women’s flight school is the newest addition to a sweeping set of proposed developments in Lawrence that a developer is seeking to link with a STAR bond district.
The Centennial Flight Center would be a partnership with the K-10 Development Group, which is led by Wichita businessman Phil Bundy, and The Ninety-Nines, an international organization of women pilots.
The group is seeking to build a hangar, a training school and a 24-unit apartment building “for people to come and train at Lawrence Airport in conjunction with The Ninety-Nines,” said Clancey Maloney, chair of the city’s Aviation Advisory Board, during a Wednesday meeting.
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The development group is proposing multiple projects along the Kansas Highway 10 corridor that wraps around southern and western Lawrence.
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That includes a commercial project called the 1059 (formerly New Boston Crossing) anchored by a large soccer complex in south Lawrence, and a development called Beacon Landing with housing and attractions on recently annexed land on the western edge of Lawrence.
The flight center, which would be attached to the regional airport in North Lawrence and not actually adjacent to K-10, would be the third major piece of the development.
“We believe this flight center will be a huge, not only PR boost for the city, but also is great for women,” Brian Clothier, the K-10 Development Group’s special projects manager, said during a presentation to the Lawrence Board of Realtors last week.
The group seeks to cobble together the projects with a broader STAR bond district.
STAR bonds, or sales tax and revenue bonds, are a type of state financial incentive that uses increases in sales tax revenue in a district to fund a project.
The STAR bond proposal for this series of K-10 developments would entail the city issuing bonds, which are purchased by private investors, and using that money to help pay for initial infrastructure needs related to the projects.
Then, over the course of a maximum of 20 years, nearly all new sales tax revenue generated from the projects would be redirected to pay back the bond debt, instead of going to the city general fund.
The proposed STAR bond district doesn’t just include the new projects — it also includes the new Costco, which the developers said was necessary to get the project started. That means the city would forgo much of Costco’s new sales tax revenue in a gamble that directing that money to the developments around K-10 would be worth it in the long term.
Ultimately, the flight school could dovetail into a larger conversation about how the airport can be a linchpin of economic growth for the city.
The developers plan to pitch the flight school and STAR bond project as part of their presentation at the Tuesday, Oct. 13 Lawrence City Commission meeting.
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Cuyler Dunn (he/him), staff reporter, has worked with The Lawrence Times since April 2022. He can be reached at [email protected].
Read his complete bio at this link. Read more of his work for the Times at this link.
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