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Metcalf South stalled
Big changes coming to OP's granddaddy mall at 95th Street and Metcalf Avenue. But when?
By: Loren Stanton, Staff Writer
A plan unveiled two years ago for dramatically remaking the struggling Metcalf South Shopping Center remains strictly that – a plan.
The largely empty mall was to be transformed into a 1.35-million-square-foot mixed-use project called The Streets of Metcalf. Plans showed a large collection of new buildings both in front of and behind the current structure that would include retail, office, hotel and residential space as well as an entertainment complex.
But today, the mall looks virtually the same as it has for years, and no formal plans for redeveloping the 95th Street and Metcalf Avenue site have been filed at Overland Park City Hall.
This absence of visible progress does not mean dreams for the makeover are dead, insists Greg Walker of MD Management, one of the mall’s owners.
“We continue to work on it,” Walker said. “We are reviewing everything. You have certain constrictions when you’re dealing with so many entities.”
After announcing plans for the redevelopment, the owners later decided to turn their attention to other projects “because we saw a little bit of resistance to what we were wanting to do,” Walker said.
As for who or what posed that resistance, Walker declined to say. He did say, however, that all members of the mall’s ownership group are on board with plans.
“We have … ownership in position to move ahead, and we hope we can get all the other parties involved to move ahead in the same direction,” Walker said.
While he did not identify who all the other important players might be, he said support from city and county officials as well as the existing department stores could be important. Those stores, Macy’s and Sears, anchor the mall at the north and south ends. In between, the cavernous hallways of the building are lined by vacant storefronts.
MD Management had contracted with Alberta Development Partners of Greenwood Village, Colo., to handle development of Streets of Metcalf, and the Lane4 Property Group of Kansas City was charged with retail leasing contracts.
Alberta no longer is involved in the project, though the company continues to work with MD Management on a suburban Denver mall project.
When the decision was made to put the Metcalf South project on hold, Walker said his company turned its attention instead to redeveloping the East Hills Shopping Center in St. Joseph, Mo. He said that project now is nearing completion.
No timeline is in place for future action on Streets of Metcalf.
“That will be determined when everybody is ready to move ahead together,” Walker said.
Overland Park officials are keenly interested in what could happen there.
Earlier this year the city adopted the Vision Metcalf plan for extensive redevelopment of the thoroughfare corridor, and Mayor Carl Gerlach said the intersection at 95th Street “is an integral part of Vision Metcalf.”
Gerlach said he knew of no preliminary contacts ever being made with the city by MD Management regarding plans for the redevelopment. But he said the time might be right for something to happen at that intersection.
“I have heard a lot of interest expressed in the development community about the 95th and Metcalf area,” Gerlach said.
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The largely empty mall was to be transformed into a 1.35-million-square-foot mixed-use project called The Streets of Metcalf. Plans showed a large collection of new buildings both in front of and behind the current structure that would include retail, office, hotel and residential space as well as an entertainment complex.
But today, the mall looks virtually the same as it has for years, and no formal plans for redeveloping the 95th Street and Metcalf Avenue site have been filed at Overland Park City Hall.
This absence of visible progress does not mean dreams for the makeover are dead, insists Greg Walker of MD Management, one of the mall’s owners.
“We continue to work on it,” Walker said. “We are reviewing everything. You have certain constrictions when you’re dealing with so many entities.”
After announcing plans for the redevelopment, the owners later decided to turn their attention to other projects “because we saw a little bit of resistance to what we were wanting to do,” Walker said.
As for who or what posed that resistance, Walker declined to say. He did say, however, that all members of the mall’s ownership group are on board with plans.
“We have … ownership in position to move ahead, and we hope we can get all the other parties involved to move ahead in the same direction,” Walker said.
While he did not identify who all the other important players might be, he said support from city and county officials as well as the existing department stores could be important. Those stores, Macy’s and Sears, anchor the mall at the north and south ends. In between, the cavernous hallways of the building are lined by vacant storefronts.
MD Management had contracted with Alberta Development Partners of Greenwood Village, Colo., to handle development of Streets of Metcalf, and the Lane4 Property Group of Kansas City was charged with retail leasing contracts.
Alberta no longer is involved in the project, though the company continues to work with MD Management on a suburban Denver mall project.
When the decision was made to put the Metcalf South project on hold, Walker said his company turned its attention instead to redeveloping the East Hills Shopping Center in St. Joseph, Mo. He said that project now is nearing completion.
No timeline is in place for future action on Streets of Metcalf.
“That will be determined when everybody is ready to move ahead together,” Walker said.
Overland Park officials are keenly interested in what could happen there.
Earlier this year the city adopted the Vision Metcalf plan for extensive redevelopment of the thoroughfare corridor, and Mayor Carl Gerlach said the intersection at 95th Street “is an integral part of Vision Metcalf.”
Gerlach said he knew of no preliminary contacts ever being made with the city by MD Management regarding plans for the redevelopment. But he said the time might be right for something to happen at that intersection.
“I have heard a lot of interest expressed in the development community about the 95th and Metcalf area,” Gerlach said.