Merriam Town Center

GRID · Post by **GRID** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 1:19 am

It's been a few years, enough time to decide if Merriam Town Center was successful or not. (I-35 & Johnson Drive)

Although it is a big box development, I think Merriam did the right thing and has not only changed its image but helped clean up the entire I-35 corridor going into KCK and KCMO.

I say this because I would rather see this type of development replace the Blue Ridge Mall than continue to watch it decay every day. Before long, the decaying Blue Ridge Mall will start to spread into the neighborhoods around it and people will start to give up.

I know they took a lot of homes and businesses in the area, but as with Blue Ridge Mall, they have a high profile location and a ton of commuter traffic to tap into.

I believe the Merriam Town Center is still fully leased as well.

Any thoughts?

KC0KEK · Post by **KC0KEK** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 7:40 am

Does anybody have any photos of the neighborhood that used to be there? I never saw it.

phxcat · Post by **phxcat** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 8:04 am

No pictures, but I used to drive by there all the time. On Johnsons Drive there was a crappy apartment complex. The area had been designated as "blighted", which is what allowedthem to tear it all down.

KC0KEK · Post by **KC0KEK** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 8:24 am

Sweet Tomatoes was set to build a restaurant there but apparently backed out. For the better part of a year, their ads listed a Merriam Town Center location as "coming soon."

Are there any official guidelines that a municpality can use to determine when an area is blighted?

Post by **dangerboy** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 9:33 am

I bet it gets a lot of traffic from people in Downtown and Midtown. It's fairly close-in, compared to places like Independence or Barry Road. Blue Ridge Mall could even more successful with all of the people around it and it's proximity to the growing urban neighborhoods. It would be a good location for Target, movies, etc. AMC won't build there since it's too close to Indep., but maybe Dickinson? TrailerGlen or GhettoGlen perhaps?

KCLofts · Post by **KCLofts** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 10:51 am

They do have a Cinemark theater there, but I wouldn't recommend it. Its overrun with kids. Nothing else in the area to do I guess.

I think this center is successful. I sometimes drive there from downtown to go to the Hen House, which is a nice place. They have a pretty good variety of stores. A Target here would be great, and they could use a few more restaurants as well.

KC0KEK · Post by **KC0KEK** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 11:46 am

I doubt that they'd put in a Target because a) there's no room and b) there's a Target a mile or so away in Mission. A Kohl's might be a good fit, though, but again, there's no room.

KCK · Post by **KCK** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 2:17 pm

GRID wrote:It's been a few years, enough time to decide if Merriam Town Center was successful or not. (I-35 & Johnson Drive)

Although it is a big box development, I think Merriam did the right thing and has not only changed its image but helped clean up the entire I-35 corridor going into KCK and KCMO.

I say this because I would rather see this type of development replace the Blue Ridge Mall than continue to watch it decay every day. Before long, the decaying Blue Ridge Mall will start to spread into the neighborhoods around it and people will start to give up.

I know they took a lot of homes and businesses in the area, but as with Blue Ridge Mall, they have a high profile location and a ton of commuter traffic to tap into.

I believe the Merriam Town Center is still fully leased as well.

Any thoughts?

The only reason the cinemark movie theater here is successful is because there is no indoor movie theater in KCK. By the way, I am well aware that they reopened the indian Springs theaters, but that theater sits almost all alone, in a dead mall that is located in not the best part of town. A theater near I635 and shawnee drive, or I70 and 78th street in KCK, or better yet, both. Since when could a city of 147,000 not support two movie theaters. The reason that they dont build one in KCK is that they are afraid of hurting the Johnson county businesses. The problem with this is that Johnson county gets the development, taxes, and jobs caused by this mentality, and Wyandote county becomes a bedroom community.

TheDude · Post by **TheDude** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 3:01 pm

doing really well, pulling down around $250 psf in sales which is respectable in the retail arena. the alternative was a bunch of slummed out apartments and rental housing.

QueSi2Opie · Post by **QueSi2Opie** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 6:34 pm

I think they should build some new apartments in the area. These places need lots of peeps in close proximity to be successful for very long.

KCK · Post by **KCK** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 11:18 pm

QueSi2Opie wrote:I think they should build some new apartments in the area. These places need lots of peeps in close proximity to be successful for very long.

They don't need a lot of people living in that area to support those stores, they have all the KCK customers who are starved for retail flooding into Merriam. Believe me, go to the cinemark or Home Depot, half the cars there have Wyandotte County tags.

I expand on this in saying that KCK Unified Government should loosen their iron grip on developers out by village west, and allow them to add as much housing as possible in close proximity. This will help establish a regular customer base that lives in the area, although it wouldn't help the mayor's "Tourist" theme.

Good2Great · Post by **Good2Great** » Tue Jan 06, 2004 12:18 am

Don't forget the amount of customers they get who work or live downtown! Petco, GNC and Dick's are specialty stores that are not present downtown. They also get a ton of customers who drive I-35 each day form the MO side or south JoCo folks who work downtown and can swing by on the way home.

GRID · Post by **GRID** » Tue Jan 06, 2004 12:31 am

GRID wrote:I know they took a lot of homes and businesses in the area, but as with Blue Ridge Mall, they have a high profile location and a ton of commuter traffic to tap into.

Your not listening to me, go to your room.

QueSi2Opie · Post by **QueSi2Opie** » Tue Jan 06, 2004 12:12 pm

DeadManWalking wrote:They don't need a lot of people living in that area to support those stores, they have all the KCK customers who are starved for retail flooding into Merriam. Believe me, go to the cinemark or Home Depot, half the cars there have Wyandotte County tags.

Give it 3 years, the Turner district in KCK will have their own big box stores off Shawnee Drive or Metropolitan.

TheDude · Post by **TheDude** » Sat Jan 10, 2004 1:58 pm

stay tuned, there is something big in the works for that area which includes retail and apartments. will be announced within next 3 months.

drinking a Mojito in SoBe MIA--dude out.

Missionite · Post by **Missionite** » Wed Feb 18, 2004 9:25 pm

I don't agree with this one bit. I feel Merriam Town Center was a good project as much of the housing in that area was run down and something needed to happen. The retail area as a whole has also been a large success in Northern Johnson County. However, there is still a little room to expand on the current Merriam Town Center site.

Do these plans mean that houses and properties between Johnson Drive and SM Parkway would be razed for new development? If so, I think that is ridiculous. Those houses are not run down and we do not need more big box stores in northern JoCo. We already have Home Depot, Dick's, Office Max, Marshall's, Wal-Mart and Target. I don't want Northern JoCo to become Southern JoCo.

As for the site at 67th and I-35...that's fine for redevelopment. The old AT&T/Lucent building just sits there empty.

Does anyone else feel the same way?

Matt

eliphar17 · Post by **eliphar17** » Wed Feb 18, 2004 9:47 pm

I want to see a map of Kansas City with all the TIF districts shaded, so we can see how much property tax money our communities are forfeiting to developers to do what they should be doing on their own.

KCRag Forum