KCRag Forum

Dillard's Oulet left a few years ago and was replaced by a bra superstore.

Then went Oshman's, then Linens 'n Things, then Old Navy.

And now Off 5th (Saks) is gone and Dickinson Theaters has blatantly said the only reason they haven't shut down is so a competitor won't operate there.

Olathe, for all their KC separatist attitude, sure got burned when they tried their own mall. But they were too proud to build any mall-- they built the Great Mall. I could have told them it wasn't going to work once trucks showed up with the purple carpeting.

This place is completely over...no hope for it now. If Olathe knows what is good for them they would red-tag the damn thing and bulldoze it. If they're lucky Kay O'Connor might be inside at the bra superstore at the time. Then they could call General Growth, Macerich, or Simon and build an upscale version--Olathe Gardens on the same site .

A bra superstore? I thought it was a VF outlet. I liked the Dillard's outlet better. It was disorganized as hell, but if you had patience, it was a good place to shop for office clothes.

I don't think that mall has a chance until Gardner adds another >20K rooftops.

The (not so) Great Mall of the Great Plaines was off to a bad start from the start.
It was new when I first moved here, not many of the the stores were ever that great. I think that developers would have done better to redevelop the mall in KCK before building something so far out. It is 11 miles from my home in Lenexa, not too different from Downtown, and there are no people on the other side.
A regional shopping complex would have fared better.
I thought the Dillards and Stein Mart outlets in Indian Springs were a lot better than GMOTGPs.
I agree it is on its way down with thier Bras Are Us and portable hot tub store.
Turn it into a swap meet, it woud garner more sales tax than it is now.

I was shocked the first time I walked in the mall. I thought: "holy crap, this is the ugliest thing ever built!" It never looked nice. The floor coverings were awful, the "artwork" was bad. Whoever the interior designer was should never work again! The theatre was not bad, but I really was the only thing that was nice. I don't think the location was bad, it was the cheap design and general tackiness that doomed it. Plus, the "outlet" prices were not even close to being a good enough discount to make it worth the drive from anywhere in the metro area.

I will admit though, that the Brooks Brothers store does have great prices on its stuff, but that's about it.

Yeah, to be fair, they did get that Brooks Brothers Factory Store which has to be nice to get stuff of that quality at an outlet store.

It you look on a map, there are enough rooftops out there already. The manager or whatever toad they have down there, said the reason they had trouble initially was because there weren't enough rooftops, but that has changed and now they will be stronger. I think he is deluted and should give up. What little thunder they had in the retailtainment sector will probably be stolen by Legends.

Outlet malls in general are having problems weathering the recession. The outlets in Odessa and Lawrence aren't doing well either. Plus, country has been saturated with outlet malls, so they don't draw from large enough areas anymore.

I don't think outlet malls are totally on the decline. Grapevine Mills in DFW and Sawgrass Mills in Ft.Lauderdale seem to be doing great.
Packed fully and no vacancies.
I hope The Legends does not follow suite with the GMOTGP .... God even as an acronym it is too long!

I thought that a major difference between the Great Mall and the Odessa Outlets is that Odessa is -- or at least was supposed to be -- a true outlet mall. I remember reading years ago about an argreement between retailers and suppliers that outlet malls had to be a certain distance outside of a metro in order to sell deeply discounted merchandise. I think that it had to do with appeasing department stores, who resisted the competition unless it was so far away that it would be inconvenient for their customer base to shop there on a regular basis. So for example, Brooks Brothers couldn't go into an outlet mall inside an MSA if it still wanted to sell through Dillard's, Macy's, etc., there.

Maybe that's changed. Great Mall has Brooks Brothers, Van Heusen, etc., which you can also buy at any department store. Anybody on this board work in retail and know how this stuff works?

The Great Mall is over 30 miles from my house, and i live on 24th and State Ave. in KCK, not exactly like Im out in the middle of nowhere. They should have known better to build so far from the core. As it stands I'm closer to every other mall in the metro, even Independence.

I'm not surprised that awesome Great Mall is going downhill right now. I only shop over at Deb and Burlington when I go there...so whatever direction that mall goes to, I just hope Burlington sticks around somewhere, anywhere in JOCO.

trailerkid wrote:If Olathe knows what is good for them they would red-tag the damn thing and bulldoze it. If they're lucky Kay O'Connor might be inside at the bra superstore at the time. Then they could call General Growth, Macerich, or Simon and build an upscale version--Olathe Gardens on the same site .

I agree! The only thing I like at that mall is the bookstore because of the good prices. That place went downhill in a hurry...definitely a failure record for KC metro malls.

A BRIGHTER FUTURE?
Despite store closings and a drop in sales, Great Mall manager has positive outlook
By BRANDON BABCOCK
The Kansas City Star



Last year was the Great Mall's worst since opening in 1997, but the mall manager says the picture is improving.

The mall suffered a 13.5 percent drop in sales in 2003, according to city records. Now, three more stores are closing, adding to the more than two dozen already vacant storefronts.

But the mall's manager says the occupancy rate is about where it always has been, and new stores — the ones customers are asking for — are on the way.

“The Great Mall is doing extremely well,â€

Ontario Mills in San Bernardino County, dubbed the largest Outlet Mall west of the Mississippi, had a mixture of both outlet tenants and regular tenants in addition to a Dave & Buster's, Wolfgang Puck Cafe, Cheesecake Factory Bakery Cafe, and a Rainforest Cafe. The funny thing is that the layout of the mall is EXACTLY THE SAME as the Great Mall of the Great Plains.

The mall also had a visitor's center for the Los Angeles area. Maybe the Great Mall of the Great Plains could boost attendance by opening up a visitor's center for the KC metro area? Offer free coffee and draw visitors comin' up I-35? Whether we like Olathe or not, they are definitely the Gateway to civilization and the KC metro from the South.

The Kansas City Star wrote:Brooks Brothers Factory Store and men's clothiers Bass and Van Heusen recently announced they'll be leaving by year's end.

Mission Center Mall ought to make a run at these three.

I just never liked the name. It bugs me - having two "Greats" in it. Sorta like a double negative.

DanCa wrote:I just never liked the name. It bugs me - having two "Greats" in it. Sorta like a double negative.

I always thought that too. It's a linguistic blunder and it's redundant.

I believe the site of this mall could be very successful if it was bulldozed and they started over with Macerich or General Growth. However, Cormac Company is doing a center on 119th in Olathe east of the AMC 30 which will most likely lure the middle-brow chain stores like Talbot's, Chico's and Coldwater Creek which will knock out a lot of the available tenants for a redeveloped retail site at 151st and I-35.

Was anyone else suprised by the fact that Great Mall is 9 miles from Oak Park Mall? Talk about exurbia...

More retail on 119th & 35?

Like I have said before. Why it the Great Mall not more like it's relative down in StL with an entertainment component? Of course, I can't stand the decor in that place, it's horrible. (Great Mall's decor that is)

GRID wrote:More retail on 119th & 35?

It's called Olathe Pointe and looks very similar to the Shops at Boardwalk in the Northland. Olathe tried to pass it off with their arena/entertainment district STAR bonds, but the state said no.

GRID wrote:Like I have said before. Why it the Great Mall not more like it's relative down in StL with an entertainment component? Of course, I can't stand the decor in that place, it's horrible. (Great Mall's decor that is)

Great Mall just missed the mark with tenants I think. They need the kind of stuff that people in KC actually want (e.g. Dave & Buster's, X-Games Skatepark, Alcatraz Brewing Company, Wolfgang Puck Cafe, etc.).

These kind of malls are supposed to be outrageous and look "larger than life," but the Great Mall didn't really offer anything unique to KC. A Dickinson Theatre, Red Lobster, and a Marshall's? So what? The restaurants out there suck and I think most people ridicule how ugly and unpleasant the aesthetic value of the place is.

I agree with McKee of Olathe's Chamber of Commerce. The mall should try to sign more traditional tenants but it first needs major remodeling. Also, an entertainment component should be added to attract younger customers.