The Country Club Plaza is in trouble. How can Kansas City fix it? Take our survey | Opinion
When developer J.C. Nichols started laying the foundation for the Country Club Plaza more than a century ago, he had his doubters. Many Kansas Citians thought the idea of a dedicated shopping center, constructed miles away from downtown and designed to attract customers who would drive their own cars, was doomed from the start — “Nichols’ Folly,” they dubbed it.
The naysayers were wrong, of course. The Plaza quickly became one of our city’s most famous attractions, both for visitors from out of town and people who live all over the metropolitan area. Today, crowds still fill the streets for the annual Thanksgiving night holiday lighting ceremony, and pedestrian traffic is always shoulder to shoulder at the Plaza Art Fair.
But the Plaza’s future is looking hazier than ever. As The Star’s Eric Adler and Anne Spoerre reported this week, the shopping district’s co-owners Taubman Centers Inc. and the Macerich Co. recently defaulted on a loan payment, seven years after (over-)paying $660 million for the property. Multiple storefronts stand vacant, and Mayor Quinton Lucas frets about the 3-acre “pit” where an abandoned Nordstrom department store was supposed to be built.
Two recent Plaza-area shootings have some potential shoppers spooked, and no doubt remembering that unusually cool August night 12 years ago when three teenagers were injured by gunfire as then-Mayor Sly James and former City Council member Alvin Brooks ducked for cover. Ironically, they were there to meet with members of Aim4Peace at Mill Creek Park on 47th Street to discuss what do to about the large groups of young people who gathered in the streets, too often becoming disorderly and violent.
Anyone who’s lived in KC for long has felt the massive changes to the Plaza’s character over the years. Just a few decades ago, it counted many mom-and-pop shops among its tenants, and there were no high-rises blocking the views northward along 47th Street. Today, most of its stores and eateries are the same national chains that dominate shopping centers across the country.
Amazon, COVID-19 changed retail shopping forever
The retail landscape has been changing rapidly in the Amazon age, as consumers no longer have to leave their homes for most of their purchases — a pattern many doubled down on during the COVID-19 shutdowns. People need a reason to venture out for a destination shopping trip possibly more than ever before.
But the retail market is eternally in flux, said Aaron Mesmer, executive vice president of development and acquisitions with Block Real Estate Services. Among the major real estate sectors, “retail evolves the most, because it has to evolve to meet consumer preferences, the behavior patterns of people,” he said. “I think it will always be the category that changes the most over time.”
He points out that there hasn’t been a lot of new construction around town over the past decade, and the area’s major “100% corner” retail centers — such as the shops at 135th Street and Metcalf Avenue in Overland Park — remain healthy and stable.
Courtney Beaumont, an agent with Chartwell Realty, sees the momentum of real estate moving in a new direction — into a part of Kansas City that has been in need of economic development for decades.
“I’ve been selling commercial and residential real estate for 22 years, and the development is moving farther and farther east,” he said. “The Paseo and east from there is where smaller and first-time investors are going to start flipping houses now. Troost will be back its old glory days.
“Chase Bank just opened a new branch on Troost,” he noted. “When you see a retail bank branch on something that was considered a dividing line of the city — I hated that — it’s really become the new Main Street.”
So if the action really is moving elsewhere and the Country Club Plaza is at the brink, what can pull it back? It’s a given that its face today is radically different from the district that opened for business 100 years ago. Its Spanish-influenced architecture, central location and historical pedigree continue to make it a touchstone destination — for now.
But what changes need to happen to keep people coming back? The Plaza is too important to wither away. Take our reader survey here. We’ll summarize your best suggestions for the center’s owners and tenants, and our city leaders.
