KCRag Forum

http://www.loopnet.com/Listing/20393823 ... lton-MO/If can expand picture could see more.

You can't see more past all that parking, have to drive to see anything

Just in that Picture that looks like it has Dollar Tree but nothing reported on it to open in it.

Hi. Apparently I haven't bothered to log in for many years at this point, I'm usually a reader, not a contributor. But this year I left the Jackson county department of assessment to join my previous director from there at the company that's been developing Belton gateway. It started before my time (not that I can change the world now) but as somebody who's lived between downtown and UMKC for the past 12 years or more, the big box strips do kind of rub me the wrong way. It's not 4 corner JoCo sea of parking lots bad, but I suppose some day depending on how the south side comes in it could be.

Anyway, I'm new myself to going to streets numbered in the triple digits. And I really don't know what suggestions to bring to the table about site plans on something like this. As in I don't think tenants looking to be right off the highway in Belton are also concerned about walkability and bike racks. There's something that could be done that drags people up into the development like Briar Cliff, but I don't think that's what tenants or residents there are looking for. And I assume nobody wants to park behind the store.

I hate seas of parking lots, but in areas where multi story parking doesn't yet make sense financially, is there a better arrangement or solution? Having viable entrances in two sides of each building?

Seriously, I'm not trying to be defensive of big box stuff. But it's really different environment when the people from Harrisonville are excited about Fazoli's going into Belton as a good Italian food option.

Also, I think that 3d rendering may have used some place holder names but Dollar Tree isn't anything planned. The next probably from what is on there now is Ulta.

It's not about doing multi story parking or not, it's the overall design of most strip malls is just bad. It's a bad design for the businesses in them because the designs discourage visiting multiple stores.

Shopping can do this in a way that makes it easier to share customers with other stores nearby. So I don't find what I need in Target, I can walk to Home Depot easier than driving somewhere else.

Go look at Zona Rosa. It's suburban in design. it has TONS of surface parking with a few garages mixed in. It's worth noting that at least two big box stores moved from nearby strip malls to it.

So how did it do things better? It took a cue from the Plaza. It put the parking in places where to go to one store provides easy access to multiple stores at the same time. if I park behind Marshall's I can easily walk into a number of other shops without needing to move my car because it's not that far and there's a sidewalk there. If I walk in Dick's I can walk out the other side and straight into Barnes and Noble. At Zona Rosa people walk a lot.

Now let's look at Belton shopping

The Home Depot and Target in Belton have entrances at around three downtown city blocks apart and there's no sidewalk between the two. The target sidewalk ends on one side of the street and the other side is a driveway for Home Depot. The lack of walkability between the two means many people don't visit both stores in one trip. This means that someone who is within sight of the other store has to make extra effort to visit both. It reduces the value of the location.

Go look at all the shopping along North Ave as a whole. How many buildings have a direct path between them as a whole? Price Chopper to Taco Bueno? Nope.

How about Applebees and Kohl's? Why could the Kohl's not be designed differently so it's not 50 parking spots away from the pad sites? Wouldn't Vintage Stock love to share customers with Kohl's rather than have a mostly empty parking lot in between?

Restaurants locate in centers because people go there. Do you think Jose Peppers would love to be the restaurant of choice for Target shoppers? People like to make the easy choice. But at the same time people that have chosen to go to Target can find it as easy to eat somewhere else. This reduces the rent the developer can get from Jose Peppers. Imagine if Jose Peppers was in the parking lot next to target instead, so their entrances were 20 feet apart.

There's people who have no sidewalk to the closest grocery store they can see from their home. Some houses back up to stores it's safest to drive to. That's absurd.


We know that long skinny shared parking can work. You don't need a 700 spot parking lot for every building. How about Target and Home Depot position themselves so they have 700 spots they share instead of 1100 spots that always sit half empty? Just turn the Home Depot 90 degrees and put a hotel or office building or more shopping in behind it. Less parking, sharing customers, walkable, more revenue for developers


So how do you make Belton Gateway walkable? It's not hard to have a dramatic improvement.

You always put the stores at the street. Academy Sports should be right along Y Hwy and face the entrance to the SW. This is one entrance you can reach from both sides. The Hobby Lobby Faces the SE at it's current location.

You have a set of four buildings that you can put a bike lane into the nearby neighborhoods without removing a single parking spot. It also does one interesting thing, look at how more parking is now closer to both stores.

Dickey's BBQ is going some where so is Raising Cane's. If they backup to highway that might be fine and fill other empty lands to.
http://www.showcase.com/property/521-Ma ... i/10328832 Next to Menards shows Buildings but no names yet. Also Green word is not Dollar General but something else and Third name shown would be a Small chain looks like. Also Pad Sites have Buildings on them but not have been approved yet other then Kneader's Bakery.

http://www.lane4group.com/wp-content/up ... hure-3.pdf Near it what Food Place would you like to see on go on Pad Site filled.

Whole Foods Green Word,Dress Barn among phase 3 but nothing annouced yet or approved.

mgsports wrote:Whole Foods Green Word,Dress Barn among phase 3 but nothing annouced yet or approved.

There has been no announcements announcing these stores! These are names that have not been announced.

Whole Foods in Belton

http://www.belton.org/Archive/ViewFile/Item/1825 Ultra part of lot 8.

http://www.loopnet.com/Listing/545-E-Ma ... /14013632/ Shows a empty building next to Five Below and that other lots on phase 2 under development but haven't been approved by city to put something on them.