Great Bend City Council members approved moving ahead the issuance of industrial revenue bonds and other incentives to help bring a six-screen theater to downtown Great Bend.
The bonds will help pave the way for a $2.4 million project that will be constructed at Lakin and Kansas.
The council also approved city incentives for the project, which involve:
• A $300,000 contribution from the sales tax incentive fund to DC Real Estate Holdings for the theater project.
• The city would develop a Community Improvement District for 15 years. It was explained Monday night the CID, which would only impact the movie theater, would add a 2 percent cost, something like an extra sales tax, that would benefit the theater project, but would not affect any other downtown businesses.
• The city would “contribute one half of the expense of the attorney fees ... for the issuance of the IRBs, estimated at about $13,000.
• The city would also “support and submit a request for the issuance of a 10-year property tax abatement for 100 percent of the project eligible for the IRBs.
The city incentives were unanimously approved.
The council also approved motions that would adopt a resolution of support for the issuance of the IRBs; an ordinance that makes the issuance possible; and a motion that allows Mayor Mike Allison to sign any paperwork that comes up on the project, involving the bonds. Those were approved with Councilman Randy Myers opposed.
Councilman Dale Westoff abstained from all of the votes.
Regarding the importance of the project, Mayor Allison commented at a recent council meeting that every economic development plan for the community for years has included the need for a new theater, and the community was excited this past year when local businessmen Dennis Call and Chad Sommers invested about a half million dollars in purchasing and renovating the current triple theater on west 10th Street.
Call and Sommers told the council earlier that this next step will be an even larger investment and will be a huge step towards making the community an important destination for this region of the state. Call explained the plan is for there to be new construction for a smaller facility for Bank of the West, as the south end of the block, where the part of the current parking lot is located.
Then the current bank building will be demolished and the new six-screen theater will be constructed.