August 22, 2025
As Kansans continue to be affected by the APEX economic development “corporate welfare” tax handout for Panasonic in De Soto, approved by the Kansas legislature and Governor Laura Kelly, (with a lot of backroom discussions and nondisclosure agreements,) sadly it’s only the beginning.
Sunflower Redevelopment, LLC purchased/owns the 9,000 acre Sunflower Ammunitions Plant, now called Astra Enterprise Park.
John Petersen along with Partner John DeHardt /Kessinger Hunter were deeded the land 20 years ago by the US Army.
In early 2025, Kansas lawmakers handed Sunflower Redevelopment LLC a gift bigger than anyone could imagine when they passed a bill relieving them of cleanup obligations related to the contaminated land.
Had previous buyers interested in the land known that the State was able to “clean up” liabilities with the stroke of a pen, how many others would have been in line for different development opportunities, instead of the benefits favoring one KCADC-investor development company?
In this podcast video it is revealed that John Petersen (Polsinelli lawyer and Nextera legal council responsible for the highly-controversial West Gardner Solar project) is a managing partner/owner in Sunflower Redevelopment, LLC – the entity that owns the 9,000 acre Sunflower Ammunitions Plant/Astra Enterprise Park.
John Petersen, in this podcast interview, is boasting about a lot of interesting facts about his and his partner John Dart’s large land acquisition. Watch the entire interview and you can also view and copy the transcript.
What is especially concerning, which goes along with existing concerns over Johnson County’s approval of distribution of PFA contaminated biosolids (human waste) on nearby ag land as fertilizer, (a result of the Finley Brothers agreement with Sunflower Redevelopment, LLC to haul clean top soil from their properties, to cap buried, contaminated ammunitions plant debris and soil at Astra Enterprise Park – Panasonic)…is what John Petersen brags about at the 07:35 mark…
John Petersen boasts about the fact that they have their own access to the Kansas River. They OWN an extremely valuable 6 mile water pipeline directly to the river. They own all of the rights to the water access!
Recently it was announced the De Soto City Council is once again in charge of another large project that will affect Kansans, a $50 Billion Data Center.
The Data Center, approved by De Soto at the August 21st meeting, will be located next to Panasonic on John Petersen’s Astra Enterprise Park.
As we know, Data Centers require an insane amount of water to cool their massive server arrays…and as we learned in the video above, John Petersen and partners own a massive 6-mile water rights connection directly to the Kansas River – a drinking water source for the entire region!
It was also revealed in the city meeting last night that another Polsinelli lawyer, Corb Maxwell, is representing the developers for the data center! And they confirmed the water for the project would be coming from the Kansas River!
Although the Kansas State motto is “Ad astra per aspera” (To the stars through difficulties,) do we really need Kansans dealing with the difficulty of increased water shortages for drinking water and crops, just so one Astra developer can profit “to the stars” at the expense of the people?
Kansans are already faced with exiting the state to avoid their pocket books drying up from increased property tax bills, as they make up the budget differences from the favored developers receiving corporate welfare and tax abatements.
Are we going to dehydrate their bodies and send them looking to other states for drinking water too?
Citizens are increasingly in the dark on a lot of these special “economic development” agendas, only hearing about them in “legally required public meetings” after the deal is already arranged and obedient staff present reports and recommendations to elected officials, so the appearance of “due process” is played out on a stage of actors playing their roll in the charade arranged through the Kansas City Area Development Council’s (KCADC) partners.
Are Kansans going to experience rolling blackouts or astronomical utility bills, as data centers drain down the grid, while receiving special electric rates (like their special tax incentives,) saddling the people with rate increases?
Some decisions may be too large to be left in the hands of cities, counties, lobbied politicians, and their corporate NGO influencers, when they the affect the life and liberty of Kansans who have no vote nor voice in the matter.
Especially when the train is being driven by an out-of-state “economic development” machine with compromised government officials and staff rubber-stamping the regional and global agendas.
