Johnson County Macy’s closed years ago. Here’s the plan for an array of tenants there

An old Johnson County Macy’s may become a Hen House, a restaurant, more shops and offices, according to updated city documents.

But years after the department store closed, construction has yet to begin — and questions still remain about which tenants will fill the 125,000-square-foot space.

In 2020, Macy’s closed its location at 71st Street and Mission Road, at the south end of The Shops at Prairie Village. Months later, developer First Washington announced the space would undergo a “once-in-a-lifetime” transformation.

Development plans submitted to the Prairie Village Planning Commission in 2021 depicted a multi-use building with offices on top, a supermarket on the middle level and a gym on the lowest floor.

But in March 2023, developers filed new plans. In lieu of a gym, the redrawn blueprints depict a 4,000-square-foot restaurant and three other retail tenants, according to documents reviewed by The Star.

While developers with First Washington have kept tight-lipped about the project in public meetings, city officials say they’ve been told the supermarket will be a Hen House.

“Since that building is not just going to be all Hen House, (developers) have to figure out other tenants,” Prairie Village’s city administrator, Wes Jordan, told The Star this week. “It sounds to me like it’s going to get there. They have to go back to review a few things and don’t know how long it’s going to take.”

Jordan added he hadn’t heard anything about the project in over a month.

Further evidence that a Hen House may be moving in: a traffic engineering study included in the 2021 plans said the “supermarket is assumed to be a relocation” of a tenant at 6950 Mission Road (Hen House’s current address at the north end of the shopping center). It says the current location is “also proposed to be redeveloped to retail use.”

Balls Food Stores, the parent company of Hen House, did not respond to The Star’s request for comment.

At a city council meeting in December, senior president of First Washington Gregg Zike confirmed that the company had executed leases for the building, with more to come. But Zike would not detail what had been signed.

Zike hinted that the project had faced some changes and setbacks, including rising construction costs and interest rates.

“We’re currently working on various options for merchandising. … We’re evaluating the entire plan,” Zike said at the meeting. “If we need to come back to the planning commission, the city council during the year if plans do change, we will do that.”

First Washington canceled its groundbreaking ceremony that was set for last November. Developers did not respond to The Star’s requests for comment.

At one point, Jordan said, Genesis Health Clubs had planned to move into the building’s bottom floor. Officials with Genesis would not say whether that’s still true.

“We hope to have announcements on the Prairie Village location in the coming months,” said Jake McCabe, vice president of marketing for Genesis.

Macy’s had been open in the spot since 2006. As was the case for several other Kansas City area Macy’s locations, before that, the locally owned Jones Store department store had operated there, since 1958.