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From: Henry McClure <mcre13@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Aug 16, 2025, 1:16 AM
Subject: Re: McClure Says Unpaid Taxes at Lauren's Bay Holds City 'Hostage'
To: Yahoo Mgmt® <carolyncogswell@yahoo.com>
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Sorry, another pesky little typo, in the seventh paragraph down before $2.4 million the word "is" has been deleted.McClure Says Unpaid Taxes at Lauren's Bay Holds City 'Hostage'
Jim Klausman, a Topeka developer who owns Wheatfield Village at 29th and Fairlawn in Topeka, as well as Midwest Health, consisting of more than 50 healthcare communities in Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Oklahoma, owes millions of dollars in back taxes on a very nice housing district near 47th and Wanamaker called Lauren's Bay. Commercial real estate broker Henry McClure, who is running for Topeka mayor against City Council Member Spencer Duncan, says taxes on these and about 100 other properties in the area have remained unpaid for a decade.
Earlier, KSNT reported Klausman had agreed to pay past-due special assessments on those properties "in return for tax incentives from the city." In April, the Topeka City Council agreed to establish a community improvement district (CID) for 16 properties in the Lauren's Bay neighborhood, as well as "three city-owned lots that have sat empty for years." A CID is a type of tax incentive.
A CID is a designated geographic area where property owners or businesses within the district agree to pay an additional tax or fee. This revenue is then used to fund improvements and services within the district's boundaries, supplementing those already provided by the local government.
KSNT reported April 9 that Assistant Topeka City Manager Braxton Copley said, "Right now they're close to $300 a month [in special assessments], by spreading them out over 20 years it's going to get them down to $185 per month for the ones owned by the developer because some of the special assessments or some of the assessments, the payment they're going to be making is going to be used to pay down principle on those future specials." This agreement only applies to the 16 lots approved by the City Council for a CID in April.
Chuck Dultmeier of Dultmeier Homes is a Topeka home builder and has been building houses since 1970. He first bought land in Lauren's Bay in 2008. Dultmeier owns 140 lots in the Lauren's Bay subdivision.
On January 9, 2024, Dultmeier presented to the Topeka City Council an offer to help the city develop the Lauren's Bay subdivision. The City Council has not acted since then regarding Dultmeier's appeal. He says waiving Klausman's special assessments holds local developers hostage and hinders the development of Topeka.
"We were told you could not develop if you owed back taxes or specials," Dultmeier said in an interview with McClure August 15. Now, Dultmeier says, with "a deal on 15 lots," Klausman will collect from the city tax-payers $2.4 million dollars over 20 years for a $700,000 investment. (The earlier report was for 16 properties.)
Dultmeier says he just wants to help Topeka by developing Lauren's Bay, but the process cannot move forward while Jim Klausman holds title to the property, yet has outstanding special assessments for ten years. Meanwhile, many lots in the area have been abandoned and are now unsightly, littered and dilapidated.
Dultmeier says he has met with Klausman on four separate occasions to work out a marketing plan that he believes, if it goes forward, would pay back the overdue special assessments "in full and more," but the only response he has gotten from Klausman is, "I'll get back with you."
"Since it's such a blighted area we left Lauren's Bay, this has hurt Topeka growing to the West," he said.
McClure says Klausman is "holding the taxpayers hostage because he doesn't pay and he doesn't build."
It is not known whether actual repayment of the special assessments is currently in process or when these special assessments will be repaid.
Dultmeier says he is grateful to the city for bond money when he was first getting started and he wants to help Topeka by helping develop Lauren's Bay.
McClure suggests meeting with the City Manager to work on resolving this issue.
Carolyn Cogswell