The new owners of the Metcalf South Shopping center have submitted plans for its redevelopment.
Last week, they announced their new, multi-purpose vision for the center incorporating luxury apartments, restaurants, shops and office space.
Kansas City’s Lane4 Property Group and The Kroenke Group of Columbia purchased the center in February, 2014. The same year the Metcalf South Mall, which has long been mostly vacant, officially closed.
Ahead of the proposal, the property owners held two town hall meetings and created a website to collect comments and suggestions from the public.
“This is a very very important intersection in the city of Overland Park — there’s lots at stake here. We want to make sure that it’s done right,” Overland Park city council member Paul Lyons told KCUR's Steve Kraske on Up To Date.
Lane4 president Owen Buckley said the public meetings were extremely well attended, with more than 200 people at each, and the website received more than 1500 responses.
In general, Buckley said that the community wants a place they can access conveniently, for a variety of their everyday needs. He says that the idea of an indoor mall is antiquated.
“There hasn’t been an indoor mall built in this country since 2006,” Buckley said.
He says indoor malls require a big time commitment.
“People want to get out go to a restaurant, see their friends, run to the vet, pick up their dry cleaning, maybe a nice boutique. So really all we’re trying to do is build something that is extremely convenient, but through architecture, make it a really pleasing experience."
The new design would feature running paths and wide open grassy areas where people can convene and run errands. He says community members also said they wanted to fill the space with smaller, independent shops and restaurants.
The project is divided into two sites on either side of 95th Street. Buckley says that the north site, now occupied by an former K-Mart, would be a combination on smaller “footprint” stores, and multi-family apartment complexes, and offices. What he calls a "village on a hill."
The south side, where Sears is located and will remain, would have larger stores.
Whether this design will eventually become a reality, however, is still a thing of the future.
“This is the very beginning of the process,” said Lyons. “Its going to take us several months to really work through the process.”
The first step in this process will be a public hearing tenatively scheduled for March 16.
Lane4 will be holding another town hall meeting to discuss the development plan Feb. 11 at at 7 p.m. at the Matt Ross community center in Overland Park.
