The next time you hear the cheers for West Ridge’s “revitalization,” ask yourself: Who’s really being saved? And at whose expense?

 Westridge Mall and the Myth of the Corporate Savior

Topeka’s West Ridge Mall stands as a monument to retail’s slow death. Once a bustling shopping hub, it became a cavernous, mostly vacant shell—another casualty of online giants, shifting habits, and big-box sprawl that hollowed out middle America’s malls. In 2023, a very successful local company, Advisors Excel, stepped in and bought the property through their real estate arm, Dream Big Partners. Their plan? Convert a huge chunk (around 400,000 square feet) into their new corporate headquarters while keeping the rest as mixed-use retail, dining, and event space. Sounds like a win for a dying mall, right?

Not so fast. This isn’t some heroic rescue mission. Advisors Excel—co-founded by Cody Foster and David Callanan—is already a powerhouse in Topeka’s financial services world. They employ hundreds (maybe over a thousand when the HQ move is done), generate massive economic activity, and partner with giants like Security Benefit. They didn’t need to “reinvent” anything here. They spotted a bargain: a struggling, half-empty mall they could pick up cheap in a soft market. Now they’re pouring money into renovations, but they’re not doing it out of the goodness of their hearts. They’re doing it because it makes business sense for them.

Here’s where it stops being fair and starts smelling like classic crony capitalism. In August 2025, Shawnee County approved $48 million in industrial revenue bonds (IRBs) for the project. What does that really mean for everyday Topekans? It means Advisors Excel gets a sales tax exemption on all the new construction materials and labor. The rest of us pay full freight at the hardware store or when we fix up our own homes or businesses. The county issues the bonds as a legal conduit—no direct taxpayer risk, they say, because the company “repays” them through lease payments. But the real gift is the tax break: money that would have gone into public coffers is forgiven so a profitable private company can upgrade its real estate portfolio on the cheap.

This isn’t their first rodeo. The same principals were behind the earlier redevelopment of the old AT&T building downtown, which also scored IRB tax relief. Pattern recognized.

Local leaders and boosters treat these guys like saviors—ribbon-cuttings, glowing press releases, renderings of shiny new entrances and outdoor plazas. “Look what they’re doing for Topeka!” But let’s be honest: they’re not buying your groceries, paying your mortgage, or fixing the potholes on your street. They’re enriching themselves by leveraging public incentives on a property they already got at a discount. The jobs and economic activity they bring are great—nobody’s arguing against that—but those would likely happen anyway without handing them a special tax holiday the little guy never gets.

Anytime someone like me points this out, the pushback is predictable: “But they employ people! They do good things! Why be negative?” Fair question. Here’s a better way to think about it, without dragging religion into it: Imagine your neighbor is a wealthy, well-connected guy who already owns half the block. He buys the rundown house next door for pennies because the market tanked. Then the city gives him a tax break to fix it up, while you and every other working stiff pay full price to repair your own roof. Sure, he might host a block party now and then. But does that mean the rest of us should subsidize his property empire? Of course not. Good deeds in one column don’t erase special favors in the taxpayer column.

This is exactly how crony capitalism works: the powerful get the breaks, the connected get the deals, and the average citizen is told to cheer because “jobs.” Topeka deserves better than corporate welfare disguised as economic development. If a company wants to invest here, great—let the free market decide. But stop pretending that handing out tax exemptions to already-successful players is some noble public service. It’s not. It’s just another way the big guys keep getting bigger on our dime.

The next time you hear the cheers for West Ridge’s “revitalization,” ask yourself: Who’s really being saved? And at whose expense?