Black & Veatch still plans to overhaul its Overland Park headquarters, but a new version of the proposal shows some significant changes, including hundreds more housing units and the scrapping of a public park.

The $1.1 billion project, officially dubbed Overland Park II and located at 11401 Lamar Avenue, aims to convert the company’s 22-acre HQ property into a mixed-use campus along the key College Boulevard corridor.

Black & Veatch’s plan promises to be one of the biggest redevelopment projects in Overland Park’s history, backed by the company’s $286 million ask for public incentives, a package that would be larger than what was awarded for the much-discussed Brookridge project.

The engineering and construction firm first floated the proposal last year. However, the plan has changed in some key ways since the Overland Park Planning Commission gave the green light to the initial application.

The revised plan features more office space and less retail, more multifamily housing, a bigger hotel, plus the addition of a daycare.

Notably, some planned green space in the project will no longer be earmarked for a public park, and all internal streets on the site are now intended to be private.

Last year, city officials and representatives from Black & Veatch disagreed on several terms laid out for an incentive district, including who would be responsible for paying for the public park.

How those details impacted Black & Veatch’s decision to change its 2025 plan is unclear. Jane Chandler, director of external communications for the firm, called the move “a constructive step as we continue to improve designs based on thoughtful feedback from city leaders, our employee-owners and community members.”

In late 2025, Chandler said the company was “committed to creating a world-class redevelopment of our longstanding headquarters campus in Overland Park.”

“Our goal remains unchanged: to transform our campus into a dynamic destination that supports innovation, sustainability and community connection,” she said at the time.

However, when asked, she did not provide specific reasons for why Black & Veatch revised its initial plan

New Black & Veatch plan has more housing, no park

This latest version of the Black & Veatch headquarters redevelopment plan features 88 townhomes and 700 apartment units, for a total of 788 multifamily units, up from 559 multifamily units in the original plan.

It also has 1,000,000 square feet of office space, up from 988,850 square feet, previously.

The majority of that office space — about 750,000 square feet — would be set aside for Black & Veatch’s new headquarters.

There is also 162,00 square feet of retail, a slight decrease from 163,396 square feet previously, and the tweaked plan now calls for a new 25,000-square-foot daycare center.

The hotel planned within the development is now forecasted to be bigger, with a total of 250 rooms instead of the originally proposed 160 rooms.

Other changes center around a proposed green space.

In the 2025 version of the plan, this was to be a two-acre park that would be dedicated to the city for public use. However, the new plan has the green space set aside for private use.

The proposal also includes a seven-story structured parking garage with 3,768 spots, plus 245 surface parking spaces throughout the campus.

The new development plans, if ultimately approved, would be built out in five phases.

“I think the whole overall layout is a nice step forward from what we had the first consideration,” said Commissioner Thomas Robinett during the April Overland Park Planning Commission meeting.

Black & Veatch redevelopment falls in key corridor

In the past, city leaders have looked to the Black & Veatch project and other proposed redevelopments along the College Boulevard corridor as examples of how to remake what Mayor Curt Skoog has described as the city’s historic “core industry” of corporate offices.

He said, of the Black & Veatch project in particular, that it takes an office complex “surrounded by fields of concrete parking lots” and turns it into a more active space with multiple uses, something decades of planning around College Boulevard and Metcalf Avenue have identified as a top city priority.

“That’s what we need to do to make sure our businesses are successful, our industry of office is successful and our community is successful,” he said.

More recently, Councilmember Drew Mitrisin has offered similar sentiments.

“The city of Overland Park and our community have spent years planning for the future of College Boulevard, and we’re now on the doorstep of seeing that vision come to life,” he told the Post in a written statement.

“[T]he area is poised for a new era. These ‘live-work-play’ investments will position our city and residents for decades of growth and opportunity while fostering the quality of life that makes Overland Park special,” he added.

Mitrisin pointed to other investments in the corridor as well, including the relocation of Overland Park City Hall to an office tower on College Boulevard and forthcoming mobility improvements around College and Metcalf focused on foot and bike traffic.

City has approved TIF district for project

Earlier this month, the planning commission voted 9-0 to recommend approval of the new Black & Veatch rezoning application and development plans. It goes to the Overland Park City Council next, and is scheduled to be voted on during the May 4 meeting.

Additionally, though the city council established a tax increment financing (or TIF) district in July 2025, the city has yet to approve a development agreement that would lay out the terms for the incentive package.

That is expected to go to the Overland Park Finance, Administration and Economic Development Committee next month, then to the full city council for consideration at a later date.

Black & Veatch has also requested that the city establish a 2% Community Improvement District — a special sales tax whose revenues are paid to a third party for a set amount of time in a defined area to reimburse eligible development costs — and sales tax exemptions on construction costs delivered via economic development revenue bonds. Details for both of those incentive tools still need hammering out.

Under the initial application, Black & Veatch requested a combined $286.5 million in public financing incentives. That ask from would be larger than the $200 million incentive package Overland Park approved for the $2 billion Brookridge Golf and Fitness redevelopment near Interstate 435 and Antioch, which is now dubbed Meridian.

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