What’s in it for us?

Salt Lick Success in Reno County… While Topeka Gets Stuck Holding the Bag on Lauren’s Bay

By Henry McClure July 12, 2026

There’s a big story unfolding out in Reno County right now that every Topeka taxpayer and elected official should be watching closely.

Jim Klausman — the same Topeka-based developer who has left a trail of unpaid taxes and special assessments across Lauren’s Bay — is pouring tens of millions of dollars into an $80 million, 45-hole destination golf and hunting resort east of Hutchinson called Salt Lick Golf & Hunting Resort. He’s already invested nearly $45 million of private capital, secured a STAR Bond district, industrial revenue bonds with a 10-year property tax abatement, community improvement districts, and is seeking roughly $26 million in STAR Bond financing. Construction is underway. The first championship course is targeting a 2027 soft opening. Full resort operations are aimed for late 2028.

Impressive. Ambitious. Exactly the kind of private-led, high-impact tourism project Kansas needs.

But here’s the part that should make every Topeka resident sit up straight:

While Klausman is out there developing a multi-phase, world-class resort on 620 acres of sand dunes near Prairie Dunes — and lining up millions in public incentives from Reno County and the State of Kansas — his companies still own more than 100 lots in Topeka’s Lauren’s Bay subdivision (near SW 47th and Wanamaker) that collectively carried nearly $7.9 million in unpaid back taxes, special assessments, and delinquent fees as of late 2025.

Shawnee County had to file a lawsuit in September 2025 against Klausman and others seeking to collect millions on roughly 86 properties he controls. City records and reporting showed his entities accounted for the vast majority — more than 84% — of the unpaid obligations in that failed subdivision.

The City of Topeka, for its part, negotiated a heavily discounted settlement on just 15–16 of those lots: Klausman agreed to pay $525,333 ($2.25 per square foot) instead of the full past and future special assessments that would have totaled nearly $961,000 on those parcels alone. The city then layered on Community Improvement District and Reinvestment Housing Incentive District tools to help him restructure and move forward on a small slice of the problem.

Meanwhile, the rest of the mess largely sat. And when he came back asking for still more incentives on additional Lauren’s Bay lots, the City Council rightly balked and eventually saw the request pulled.

So let’s ask the obvious question: What’s in it for Topeka?

Klausman has shown he can raise and deploy tens of millions for a splashy project 100+ miles away in Reno County. He has shown he can navigate the STAR Bond process, work with architects of national reputation, and deliver a destination asset that will generate new sales tax and visitor spending for someone else.

But when it comes to cleaning up the long-standing financial hole he and others left in southwest Topeka — vacant lots, unpaid specials that burden the rest of us, delayed housing production in a city that desperately needs it — the pattern has been delay, discount, and more requests for public help.

That is not partnership. That is not loyalty. That is not reciprocal.

Developers who want public incentives in Topeka should first demonstrate they are current on their obligations to Topeka taxpayers. Period. If a developer can find $45 million in private equity for a golf resort in Hutchinson, he can find a way to make the City of Topeka and Shawnee County whole on Lauren’s Bay without needing another round of abatements, RHIDs, or sweetheart settlements.

Reno County did its due diligence and structured a deal around new incremental revenues generated by the project itself. That’s how these tools are supposed to work. Topeka, by contrast, has spent years chasing dollars that should have been paid years ago while the same developer chases the next big opportunity elsewhere.

Topeka does not exist to subsidize developers who treat our city like a second-class priority.

If Klausman wants to be celebrated as a visionary who is elevating golf tourism in Kansas, great — start by finishing what he started (and left unfinished) right here at home. Pay the taxes. Clear the specials. Build the houses or sell the lots to people who will. Then come talk about the next incentive package.

Until then, the question remains simple and unavoidable:

What’s in it for us?