In April of 2025, the Wichita Eagle reported the roughly $500 million “Champtown” development in Park City was “full speed ahead” despite a “bump in the road.”
That “bump in the road” is the main financier of eight baseball and softball fields adjacent to the Champtown development pulling out of the project.
Additionally, the Texas company, which had already started building the fields, stopped work and filed a nearly $4 million lien against developers for unpaid work.
According to the Eagle, developer Matt Baty stated that the issues will not impact the project’s success over the next three years.
But Champtown developer Ryan Mills declined to answer questions about the lien.
The Sentinel asked Mills if the lien had been satisfied, if construction had recommenced on the fields, and the new timeline for completion.
“We would have no comment at this point on these above questions,” Mills said via email. “Schedule and status will be determined over the next few months.”
The answer indicates the lien has yet to be satisfied. This is concerning because the ballfields are expected to be a prime draw for the complex — partially funded by the controversial STAR Bond program — which is expected to include shopping, entertainment, an aquarium, ferris wheel, a butterfly “wonderland” as well as the baseball facilities.
According to KSN news, the developer, Lange Real Estate, broke ground on the 160-acre project in June of last year. It is unclear when the project is expected to be complete.
The Sentinel sent Park City Administrator Sean Fox several questions about the project via email.
We asked what factors the city believes will make this a successful tourism draw.
“Park City has been more industry-based in its focus for years, but for the past five years, it has been intentional about creating a more diverse economy that balances industry, with commercial and retail,” Fox said. ‘Champtown aligns with this strategy because it leverages our existing location advantages — our visibility from I-135, proximity to Wichita, and available infrastructure — while adding a new destination that enhances Park City’s regional identity.
The Sentinel also noted that previous tourism projects, such as the Wild West amusement park and the greyhound racing track, have not produced the anticipated results and asked what makes this project different and why.
“The biggest difference is that Champtown is being developed with a sustainable operating model and broader appeal,” Fox said. “The Wild West was highly specialized and plagued with poor management. Champtown is intentionally designed to serve multiple audiences — families, tourists, school groups, and regional visitors — providing entertainment, education, and dining all in one destination. Additionally, this project has been thoroughly vetted with feasibility studies, market analysis, and experienced operators, giving more confidence in its long-term success compared to past projects that lacked this foundation.”
Fox said the city is anticipating between 400,000 and 500,000 visitors a year to the aquarium, once it is operational. However, they admit that includes local residents as well as regional and out-of-state visitors. That a project ends up appealing largely to locals is a problem that has plagued other STAR Bond projects since the program’s inception. Much economic activity within the STAR bond project area is merely shifted from nearby areas, meaning that STAR bond gains create losses nearby.
Moreover, the Sedgwick County Zoo is also planning an aquarium project, which would be in competition with the Park City development. Fox said such a competing development “could be viewed as ‘complementary.”
“The Zoo’s aquarium will be a natural extension of its wildlife experience, while Champtown’s aquarium is part of a broader entertainment,” he said. “I would hope visitors drawn to one are likely to explore the other.”
STAR bonds do not have a successful track record
Sales Tax and Revenue (STAR) Bonds are a tool intended to help Kansas municipalities finance the development of major commercial, entertainment, and tourism projects. The bonds are paid off through increased sales tax revenue generated by the development.
As the Sentinel previously reported, a series of records requests by the Americans For Prosperity Foundation in 2022 asking for information about STAR Bonds in Kansas shows a startling lack of oversight at the Kansas Department of Commerce.
AFPF’s Director of Investigations, Kevin Schmidt, said he filed the records requests in November 2021.
One of the more disturbing things Schmidt said he found was that in many cases, attorneys for the entities requesting the bonds are writing the draft bond approval letters to be rubber-stamped by the Commerce Department.
“It seems sort of like the lawyers advising the folks getting the STAR Bonds are sort of just running the show,” Schmidt said. “I’m sure some of them are sort of form letters, but being able to just draft it for the agency that’s supposed to be doing this work and then approving it kind of just feels wrong, even if it’s not technically unlawful.”
In an email dated June 8, 2021, between North and Gina Riekhof of Gilmore and Bell, regarding a 60-acre expansion of the Village East project in Wyandotte, Kansas, North writes, “Hi Gina, we are working up an approval letter. Can you direct me to the narrative about the attraction /retail/entertainment components that will be part of the additional 60 acres? I’m sure it’s in here but a little nudge would help.”
“He’s basically saying he doesn’t know what’s in (the project), but they’re going to approve it,” Schmidt said. “There’s just red flags all through this on how much oversight commerce is doing over this.”
The e-mails produced to AFPF-Kansas — and provided to the Sentinel — show multiple instances where the Department of Commerce fails to provide any substantive oversight over STAR Bond projects. On more than one occasion, Commerce accepted draft approval documents from the law firms requesting STAR Bond approvals for their clients.
According to another report from AFPF-K, a follow-up to a 2021 audit of the program in 2024 by the Kansas Department of Legislative Post Audit found that — even using the Commerce Department’s preferred metric — the program still doesn’t work.
In 2021, the Kansas Department of Legislative Post Audit evaluated the STAR Bonds program overseen by the Kansas Department of Commerce and discovered that the program largely fails to meet its goals.
Sales Tax and Revenue (STAR) Bonds — a tool intended to help Kansas municipalities finance the development of major commercial, entertainment, and tourism projects — and, theoretically, paid off through increased sales tax revenue generated by the development simply failed to do what it was designed to do.
In fact, a 2020 analysis of STAR Bond projects in Wichita, and, notably, Park City is a suburb of Wichita, commissioned by the Sentinel’s parent company, the Kansas Policy Institute, found that they mostly shifted economic activity and jobs to other parts of the city rather than create any new jobs or activity.
“The Kansas Legislative Division of Post Audit released a follow-up to its 2021 audit of the STAR Bonds program, and the findings reveal that even allowing the Department of Commerce to pick and choose its favored metrics — improving local quality of life — doesn’t show a program that benefits taxpayers,” the report reads. “The problem with their favored metric is that ‘Commerce officials expect STAR bond districts to improve local quality of life, but they haven’t defined or measured this.’ The findings add more evidence that the STAR Bonds program should be allowed to sunset in July 2026.”
