From Johnson's County Gazette

[mgsports]

Lowe's planning to build near 175th Street and I-35 sometime when the economy turns around.
Backyard Burgers has closed in Olathe at I-35 and rumored to be replaced with Church's Chicken Rumor and Noah's Ark Gift Shop moved to the same shopping center and moved to Baskin Robbins former place was for 30 years.
Hearing Rumors that the Great Mall will become part Legoland and part Restaruants. Red Development may be the new owners. Some day it will be razed. The Land will become so insanely vaulable that it won't support the illfated Great Mall of the Great Plains.

[NDTeve]

So RED is moving Legoland to the Great Mall? Not a bad idea.

[kanasalumn]

so is Legoland really into reality???  Is it more reality than we thought about the Oz theme park in DeSoto that failed

[GRID]

legoland is dead in kc.

[ShowME]

What a bunch of crap for a part of town that already needs help.  Add to it the loss of jobs (Embarq and Sprint to name a few) and the recession we're in lasting for years and this area is only going to get worse.

[GuyInLenexa]

The only recent news I have heard on The Great Mall is that their owners, Glimcher Realty Trust, is planning to close on the sale of the mall in December of this year.  The unamed buyers have only come up with ten percent of the capital needed.  In the current economic conditions, I feel that the mall will sort of stay like it is.  I would be surprised to see if the proposed buyer will be able to come up with enough money.
Each week we see retailers closing stores, going out of business, and putting brakes on their expansion plans.  Every city all over the country will be affected by the lack of willing tenants to occupy space.

As far as Legoland is concerned, I also feel that it will not plan a KC location in the near or far future.  As an owner of commercial property and the opinion of several other experts I know, the economy has yet to feel the full impact of commercial property collapsing like the housing industry has already done.

Expect to see ghost malls and empty strip centers  far into 2010, that is if we are lucky.  The same thing happened to TX in the oil bust in the 80s, only this will be national.  On the positive, TX came out stronger when it was all over.

I hope my feeling is wrong, but I doubt it.
 

[valcour]

Backyard Burgers has closed in Olathe at I-35 and rumored to be replaced with Church's Chicken

This has happened - Church's is open at the old Backyard Burger site (just east of I-35 on Santa Fe/135th Street.  Picked up some chicken there the other night, and it was pretty good.

[trailerkid]

So RED is moving Legoland to the Great Mall? Not a bad idea.

This idea was kicked around by Olathe city leadership like 3 years ago. Legoland wasn't into it.