Creekside at I-435 and Highway 45 in Parkville, Missouri, is a 300-plus-acre mixed-use project (often cited as about 337 acres) led by local developer Brian Mertz, not a national homebuilder or REIT. Mertz owns Parkville Development and related LLCs (Parkville Development 50, 70, 140, 38, etc.) plus PC Homes LLC. He is a University of Kansas accounting and business graduate, a CPA, a longtime Platte County resident, former CFO at S&T Enterprises, and later a Park University trustee and Parkville EDC board member. He has said the baseball-complex idea came from a trip with his son: why didn’t the Northland have a destination like that? Cost estimates have moved from roughly $300–$335 million at approval toward $350–$380 million as phases added on.
The land had been annexed into Parkville around 2000 and sat mostly empty after an earlier scheme failed in the 2008 downturn. The city ended up owning large tracts and was making about $300,000 a year in Neighborhood Improvement District (NID) payments on Brush Creek and Brink Meyer debt. Getting that land developed—and getting off those NID transfers—was a central city goal.
What Parkville did
The city did not just rezone a private tract. It:
- Sold city-owned land into the project. About 70 acres for The Meadows were tied to a $4.8 million purchase price; later the board sold about 50 more acres to Parkville Development 50. CID proceeds were structured so part of that money paid the city and helped retire NID debt.
- Entitled the master plan in late 2018. Planning and Zoning held marathon hearings (one ran 6½ hours). The Board of Aldermen gave final approval to the main quadrants on November 6, 2018. Creekside Industrial (Capital Electric’s ~72,800-sq-ft HQ) followed later (P&Z Nov. 2018; city page lists Nov. 17, 2020).
- Layered Missouri incentive tools in 2019: TIF plan and contract, CIDs, a TDD, Chapter 100 bonds on the commercial side, PILOTs, economic-activity taxes, and hotel tax rebates. The TIF Commission recommended the TIF 7–4 after a three-hour hearing; Park Hill School District’s two seats voted no.
- Took title under Chapter 100 on commercial parcels (fee simple in the city’s name, leasehold to the developer or hotel partner). That is how Missouri Chapter 100 works: city ownership supports property-tax exemption, with PILOTs instead of full ad valorem tax. Authorized commercial Chapter 100 bonds were reported up to $171 million, with a 2019–2026 term on that issue.
- Kept amending the map. In 2026 the Board of Aldermen approved voluntary annexation, rezoning, and prelim plans for Creekside West—about 246 more patio homes, duplexes, and triplexes. A nine-hole “Irish golf” (wedge-and-putt) course also went through P&Z in 2025 under Parkville Development 38.
Staff who carried the file included community development director Stephen Lachky and city administrator Joe Parente; Mayor Nan Johnston publicly argued the deal got the city off NID payments and would produce new sales and hotel tax. Parkville EDC also spoke in support at the TIF hearing.
CID, TIF, TDD, Chapter 100 — not RHID
There is no RHID. Rural Housing Incentive District is a Kansas statute. This is Missouri. The stack that was used:
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Tool
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What it did at Creekside
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TIF
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~$52 million in reimbursable project costs on ~124 acres in 14 redevelopment areas. PILOT share stepped up: 50% years 1–11, 65% years 12–17, 75% years 18–23. Combined with EATs, hotel rebates, CID/TDD, and Chapter 100.
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CID (Meadows)
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Special assessments on finished apartments and single-family homes—not a sales tax. About $10.5 million in listed costs, including $4.8 million of old NID costs. Used in part so Mertz could buy city land and the city could retire NID debt. Assessments can run up to 30 years.
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Second CID
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One-cent sales tax CID on commercial area.
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TDD
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Transportation Development District for road/access costs.
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Chapter 100
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Commercial tax abatement via city title + PILOT; bonds authorized on the commercial program. Hotel rights later assigned to Creekside Hotel Partners, LLC (2021).
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Developer counsel (Rouse Frets White Goss) later described the package as about $52 million in incentives layered with two CIDs, a TDD, three Chapter 100 projects, a TIF plan, and two city land purchases. Local coverage at the time put the combined package over $60 million. State Auditor Nicole Galloway’s broader 2018 CID report was cited by critics as a warning about stacked, developer-heavy districts. Mertz’s side argued there were no city-backed bonds, the developer took the construction risk, incentives were leaner than some earlier Parkville deals, Park Hill would net more than $4 million over the incentive period, and after TIF the city and county would see several million a year in property, sales, and lodging tax.
Community process
This was not a quiet approval.
- Fall 2018 P&Z took hours of public comment on density, product quality, buffers, and whether a private youth baseball complex would actually draw (skeptics pointed to an earlier city soccer-complex study that had gone the other way). P&Z recommended Meadows with conditions, including cutting planned apartments in half and sending the final plan back. Some “no” votes on Old Town.
- A September 2018 developer–neighbor meeting produced some buffer and green-space tweaks. Mertz and his team said they changed the plan in response.
- Citizens for a Better Parkville, a PAC, formed to fight this specific plan (not all growth). After the Board of Aldermen passed the ordinances in about 45 minutes on Nov. 6, 2018, with no public comment, the group posted that it was disappointed the board had reversed P&Z conditions and warned of political consequences. They also alleged Sunshine Law and ethics problems; those were advocacy claims, not adjudicated findings in the clips reviewed here.
- Park Hill schools opposed the TIF recommendation. Neighbor Tim Albright and others kept raising buffer and process issues into the industrial hearing. Weston Coble, then running for alderman, questioned whether stacking TIF + CID + TDD + Chapter 100 would starve the general fund.
Once buildings opened, local coverage shifted. The Platte County Landmark (“From nothing to wow,” 2022) and the Kansas City Star (2023 Cityscape) treated Creekside as a new Northland hangout: Johnny’s Tavern, Ten & Two Coffee, Plaza Mariachi, hotels packed on tournament weekends, The Infield jumbotron, the LED “Parkville Tree.” Mertz told the Star the baseball complex had drawn almost a million visitors from 19 states in a year and that the site still needed a grocery store. Park Hill bought about 29 acres from Parkville Development 70 for $1.4 million for a future elementary school. Thrive at Creekside (264 apartments + 100 townhomes) sold to Gold Block Ventures, then MLG Capital partnered in—the first multifamily permit in Parkville in 50 years, per the buyer.
Who owns what now
Mertz’s entities remain the master developer and still file new pieces (golf, Creekside West). Individual assets have been sold or assigned: multifamily to Gold Block/MLG; hotel Chapter 100 rights to Creekside Hotel Partners; city still holds fee title on some Chapter 100 commercial tracts with ground leases. Aristocrat Realty’s Michael Meier has marketed the project for Mertz. Capital Electric occupies the industrial building. NSPJ Architects did major pieces of Old Town / Meadows.
Bottom line for someone who watches CID/TIF: Parkville used the classic Missouri stack—TIF + CID + TDD + Chapter 100 + city land sale—to restart a stalled interstate corner, get off failed NID debt, and underwrite a private baseball destination plus housing and retail. There was real opposition on density, school-tax diversion, and process speed. There was also a documented public-hearing record, a split TIF commission, and later annexation to grow the same master plan. RHID was never part of it.
