What's being built in Olathe

[mgsports]

These projects are under construction or have
applications pending:
Kansas State University Olathe Innovations Campus
KBA Venture Accelerator, the first building in the K-State
Innovations Campus, near College Boulevard and Lone Elm
Road, is moving forward. It will consist of an incubator for
bioscience companies with office and laboratory space. The
Kansas Bioscience Authority anticipates construction to begin
by the end of 2009.
West Village Shopping Center
? A retail building in front of Walmart is under construction
at the northwest corner of K-7 (Parker) and Santa Fe. It will
include Jimmy Johns restaurant, Sports Clips haircuts,Game
Stop and Panda Express with additional retail space available.
The building is expected to be completed by the end of
summer 2009.
? Plans were recently approved for a Burger King restaurant on
another pad site at K-7 and Spruce Street, and plans have been
submitted for Commerce Bank on the adjacent lot.
CVS Pharmacy
The City is currently reviewing building permit plans for the
CVS Pharmacy at the southeast corner of K-7 (Parker) and
Santa Fe Street. The development will include a prominent City
monument feature and circular sitting wall at the corner of K-7
and Santa Fe, and pedestrian connections to adjacent Calamity
Line Park.
Ridgeview Corporate Centre
Final plans have been submitted for the first building in the
Ridgeview Corporate Centre Office Park, a five-story office
building, at the northeast corner of College Boulevard and
Ridgeview Road.
Subway
Plans have been submitted to convert the former Sonic
restaurant at the southeast corner of Santa Fe and Keeler Street
to a new Subway restaurant. The Subway restaurant is relocating from Santa Fe and Cooper Street.

[Melling]

So Olathe actually has a downtown.  It's where they keep the jail, and government buildings.  Apparently, at some point, the city plans to spruce it up a bit.

http://www.olatheks.org/Development/Downtown/Envision

[mgsports]

ARBY'S ROAST BEEF RESTAURANT 13790 S BLACK BOB RD
FARRAH ANDERSON DENTAL OFFICE T/F 18130 W 119TH ST
JOHNNY BRUSCO'S NYS PIZZA T/F 11180 S LONE ELM RD

[valcour]

So Olathe actually has a downtown.  It's where they keep the jail, and government buildings.  Apparently, at some point, the city plans to spruce it up a bit.

http://www.olatheks.org/Development/Downtown/Envision

Yeah, they have been working on that for years.  That is why the city bought up Alexander and Ray's and some of the other buildings on Santa fe.  They finally expanded the downtown parking garage the past couple of years.  The plan is to improve the streetscape in the next few years then have the county build a new courthouse in the area.  After that they are trying to build a river market type building; rehab the Mill Creek Center into something (no one seems to know what); and rebuild the library building in another place.  Then they want to attract a mix of retail and housing - like every other city in the metro.

[loftguy]

Valcour, any idea what kind of "River Market" building they hope to construct?

[valcour]

Valcour, any idea what kind of "River Market" building they hope to construct?

Well they pretty much just have a conceptual plan right now, so nothing is guaranteed.  The concept is a large, open building with permanent stall-type business sites around the outer wall - like the permanent vendors at the River Market.  Then in the open area they would have temporary booths. It would be more of a permanent farmer's market than the weekend ones they have at Mahaffee now.  

They have been desperate to get something going downtown, and it is thought that that type of permanent farmer's market would be a traffic generator.

EDIT:  Hmmm - I went to the plan linked above and it does not have that river market type building - it just indicates mixed retail.  The building I am referencing I saw in one of their public forums to go over this plan, but I don't see it in the plan on the web site.  It might have been listed as just a possibility, but I saw it on one of the drawings and loved the idea so it stuck in my head.  I used to visit markets like that when I was stationed in Germany.

[Melling]

Yeah, they have been working on that for years.  That is why the city bought up Alexander and Ray's and some of the other buildings on Santa fe.  They finally expanded the downtown parking garage the past couple of years.  The plan is to improve the streetscape in the next few years then have the county build a new courthouse in the area.  After that they are trying to build a river market type building; rehab the Mill Creek Center into something (no one seems to know what); and rebuild the library building in another place.  Then they want to attract a mix of retail and housing - like every other city in the metro.

What I find shocking about downtown Olathe is that it has a good deal of employees, but few restaurant options.  It seems like there are empty storefronts that could easily serve the lunch needs of the daytime population.  I wonder if the city is too concerned with whether it can become a "destination."

Oh, and here are some random old photos of downtown Olathe:
http://search.jocohistory.org/cdm4/item ... X=1&REC=19
http://search.jocohistory.org/cdm4/item ... x=148&y=61

[LenexatoKCMO]

What I find shocking about downtown Olathe is that it has a good deal of employees, but few restaurant options.  It seems like there are empty storefronts that could easily serve the lunch needs of the daytime population.  I wonder if the city is too concerned with whether it can become a "destination."

I think you are pretty much limited to lunch business.  The sidewalks roll up at 5 around the courthouse.  And what residential is around there is mostly populated by older folks who probably don't eat out much.  You have a lot of lawyers coming and going from the courthouse but almost none of them are officed anywhere near there - they probably eat lunch when they head back over to college blvd. 

[valcour]

That's it exactly - downtown is a ghost town when the sun goes down (sorry couldn't resist that).

They really want to come up with a concept that keeps the town center alive at night, and they have been struggling since before I moved to Olathe (14 years now) to make the downtown a destination.  They want to keep the government center there and add a town square and other attractions to draw after dark.  They also want to rehab the Mill Creek Center (the original town high school) into some sort of performing arts/recreation/something interesting place - but no one has figured out how to do that yet.  It is a beautiful old brick building that is underutilized.

[Melling]

I think you are pretty much limited to lunch business.  The sidewalks roll up at 5 around the courthouse.  And what residential is around there is mostly populated by older folks who probably don't eat out much.  You have a lot of lawyers coming and going from the courthouse but almost none of them are officed anywhere near there - they probably eat lunch when they head back over to college blvd. 

That makes sense.  However, Lee's Summit has revitalized its downtown to include a number of eateries.  The situations are not entirely similar, but Olathe might still benefit from studying what Lee's Summit has done.  When I was a kid, I used to spend a good deal of time in downtown Lee's Summit.  It probably had more shops than you find today in downtown Olathe, but they were mainly frequented by townies (e.g., my family).
http://www.downtownls.org/shops.php