OFFICIAL: Summit Fair (LS shopping center)

[dangerboy]

Lee's Summit has zero good jobs to speak of.  Everyone has to commute to Johnson County, the Plaza or downtown.  With L.S. rapid growth and everybody using a car to commute they will have outgrown the Grandview Triangle project by the time it's done.  There's no good way to get to downtown without relying on I-70 and it's also not a quick shot to the airport like Johnson County has with I-635.  They can add as many shopping centers as they want but they really need to be focusing on adding good jobs.

Actually there are quite a few new industries coming to Lee's Summit.  The Tech Center especially is attracting white collar jobs.  Cerner has a huge data center, St. Luke's just moved their IT shop, and American Century is establishing a backup data center.  The employment base definitely isn't as big as KC or Joco, but it is growing rapidly.  Plus, the explosion of high end housing like Lakewood and others will eventually lead to more offices locating in Lee's Summit (CEOs like to put their offices close to their homes).

[ShowME]

Actually there are quite a few new industries coming to Lee's Summit.  The Tech Center especially is attracting white collar jobs.  Cerner has a huge data center, St. Luke's just moved their IT shop, and American Century is establishing a backup data center.[quote][/quote]

Can I get some numbers.  I would guess all of those employers don't even account for a thousand jobs.  Trust me a good job inside of Lee's Summit is working for Applebee's.  And what employer besides service industries would locate there.  The location is horrible.  May as well be in Warrensburg.

[Denver Josh]

A couple notes-

-An interchange at 470 and Pryor road sounds like a big pain in the ass to me because that interchange would be too close to the 470/ 50 clover.

-Summit Woods has one of the worst parking lot designs in the history of man.  On its opening weekend, and every other major shopping period, police cruizers block two of the entrances because traffic from each one of them backs up traffic from the MAIN entrance from Chipman.  The parking lot design has no main drag and instead forces lines of cars to parade around the perimeter of the entire lot just so everyone can stop and wait at the pedestrian cross-walks.  Someone should have been fired over the implementation of that design

-I'm also not sure how significant the numbers of good (and by good, I'm assuming we're talking white-collar jobs) jobs pouring into Lee's Summit are.  The only good places to work would be the hospital, the schools, and I guess clip-on-tie-managment at the local Arbys/ Kohls/ Goodyear/ Kmart/ Hy-vee/ Home Depot I guess. 

Downtown LS is fairly cool:  I used to bus tables 98'-99' at Strothers off 3rd St. and it could be quite the happenin' place...In suburban terms that is.

[chrizow]

i went to the Reggae Fest in downtown Lee's Summit a couple years ago, which was really fun.  downtown Lee's Summit is small, but has some cool buildings.  i went to a little coffeeshop that was pretty nifty.  there is more character on that one block of downtown LS than in the rest of that godforsaken sprawling hellhole.  people seem to love it too.  i dont know why we dont make everything "charming." 

[Denver Josh]

Yeah Regge' Fest and Jazz fest are pretty cool events.  I actually ended up bartending one night when I was 16 at Strothers because the place was so packed.  People started throwing money over the bar counter while I was stocking the beer coolers, and the bartenders just looked at me like, "Go for it dude, you got it."

Jack and Coke?  Sure!  Never poured a drink in my life before, but this seems to be about right! 

N.E. Way- Just thought I'd wax nastalgic about ole' DTLS- I'm done now.

[GRID]

-An interchange at 470 and Pryor road sounds like a big pain in the ass to me because that interchange would be too close to the 470/ 50 clover.

-Summit Woods has one of the worst parking lot designs in the history of man.  On its opening weekend, and every other major shopping period, police cruizers block two of the entrances because traffic from each one of them backs up traffic from the MAIN entrance from Chipman.  The parking lot design has no main drag and instead forces lines of cars to parade around the perimeter of the entire lot just so everyone can stop and wait at the pedestrian cross-walks.  Someone should have been fired over the implementation of that design

-I'm also not sure how significant the numbers of good (and by good, I'm assuming we're talking white-collar jobs) jobs pouring into Lee's Summit are.  The only good places to work would be the hospital, the schools, and I guess clip-on-tie-managment at the local Arbys/ Kohls/ Goodyear/ Kmart/ Hy-vee/ Home Depot I guess. 

Downtown LS is fairly cool:  I used to bus tables 98'-99' at Strothers off 3rd St. and it could be quite the happenin' place...In suburban terms that is.

The interchange at Prior will help A LOT.  It will be a half diamond as with the interchange with Blue Parkway on the other side of 50 both connected by massive flyover connecter roads.  They will pull traffic off 50 on onto those four lane arterials to get to and from 470.  The Chipman ramps will ultimately be removed.

Downtown LS is cool.  I think the city should really look into putting that little ballpark near it's downtown and really creating something interesting.  There is plenty of underused land SE of Downtown that could accomodate a ballpark like that.  I'm not supporting the suburban ballpark mania, but if they are going to do it...

LS is building a lot office space right now, so it's workforce demos are starting to change, plus I think you are looking past the Summit Tech Campus, one of the largest office complexes in the metro and it's pretty full.  Look for a lot more commercial and office development to come to LS when new interchanges open at Prior, Blue Parkway and Strother, plus the widening of Woods Chapel will free up even more land, also the areas around the new hospitals at Douglas and Todd George will spur medical buildings.

[Denver Josh]

Aight Grid- I'll defer to your judgement on the Pryor / 470 interchange-

[trailerkid]

Maybe Grid or someone else can answer this, but is the road infrastructure in place at this location to handle SummitWoods + a Zona Rosa size development? I know there has been grumbling about SummitWoods and it looks like the main access to this shopping center would be through roads also primarily serving SummitWoods.

[chrizow]

^

dear god.  the answer to that is a resounding NO. 

during busy periods, Summitwoods traffic backs up out of the shopping center, up Chipman, and then up the exit ramp.  i had the misfortune of going there the day after thanksgiving last year and the exit lane was back up for at least a 1/4 mile. 

i think this is due more to Summitwoods' utterly ridiculous access road/parking lot maze.  it was bad enough as is, but then the geniuses decided to COMPLETELY CLOSE OFF one of the two Chipman entrances, so it's an even bigger clusterf*ck now.  now the only time you'll catch me at SummitWoods is at like 7am getting Starbucks.  (hey, it's better than quiktrip, the only real coffee option in raytowna beach, haha).

[shinatoo]

here is the link to the road plans for the US50 corridor.

http://www.us50corridor.org/details.htm#pdf

basicaly they are rebuilding everyting from Unity to Lone Jack. Chipman and 3rd street will be overpasses, tons of fly over ramps....bla bla bla.

It will be a total bitch for about five years....and should get started about time I move out there in three years.

[shinatoo]

The other thing to consider is that the Main entrance to this site is designed to be off of Pryor Road between the Target and Lowes. That is my secret exit right now. There will be no highway access from Chipman, and there shouldn't. The 470 exit to Chipman entrance along 50 is one of the most difficult areas to navigate in the metro.

Personally I like the fact that the traffic is forced to move so slowly right now. It forces people to get out and walk unlike the similar developments around Independence center. My son and I will take the baby and park at one end, walk all the way around and do our shopping and arrive up back at the car. Makes for a nice afternoon. And it’s better than the mall because you can get real shopping done at Target plus the wasteful stuff like Best Buy, Dicks and Borders

[trailerkid]

RED wants $42 M in TIF to give Lee's Summit it's own mall...

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/s ... ily28.html

For as fast as these suburbs grow...and as well-to-do they pretend to be... you'd think they wouldn't need corporate welfare to build an Ann Taylor there.

[dangerboy]

RED wants $42 M in TIF to give Lee's Summit it's own mall...

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/s ... ily28.html

For as fast as these suburbs grow...and as well-to-do they pretend to be... you'd think they wouldn't need corporate welfare to build an Ann Taylor there.

It's not because they need it, it's because they know they can get it.  The problem is local, county, and state government that does little to regulate this welfare and direct it towards areas that actually need it.  Developers are just looking at for their bottom line and going for the best deal they can legally get.

[GRID]

"The developer also has proposed the creation of a Community Improvement District, which would allow special taxes to be levied against property owners to help cover costs such as maintenance and security. The improvement district is expected to generate $16 million through a 1 percent sales tax and special property tax assessment. "

ON TOP OF A SUPER TIFF? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

This is total fucking abuse of this tool.  I might be able to see this to help fund improvements to US-50 and I-470 which need major overhauling, but for 16 MILLION for maintenance and security of the damn shopping center?

This stuff is getting out of hand and this is a prime example of how projects like this will ruin the ability to use incentives like this in the future as new laws are written to obliterate them.  Then when a city really needs these incentives to build public attractions or lure major cooprations to town, especially to the urban core, they are no longer available.

Be happy your getting a super tif (which the state should not approve either) to build this, but doing an overlay tax too is just plain crazy.  LS will never be able to do a transportation tax themselves to fix all the traffic problems these developments will cause.

This is total greed.

[trailerkid]

This project is officially called Lee's Summit East and will be anchored by 2 department stores according to RED's website.

[GRID]

Any guesses on the department stores.  This project is going to happen, so I'm trying to figure out what will go there.  It will be entirely upscale from what I have heard, so most of the tenants may be new to east Jack or even the city.

Lee's Summit East?  I think that was the name of the new high school proposed too.

[dangerboy]

Any guesses on the department stores.  This project is going to happen, so I'm trying to figure out what will go there.  It will be entirely upscale from what I have heard, so most of the tenants may be new to east Jack or even the city.

Lee's Summit East?  I think that was the name of the new high school proposed too.

Odd. It's actually closer to the western end of the city.  SummitWoods East seems to make more sense.

Anyway, are they already talking about High School #4?  LS West just opened last year!

[trailerkid]

Am I the only one who thinks this site is small for a 600,000 square foot shopping center? The denser the better, but I'll be curious as to see how they fit two large department stores and the lifestyle center in here given the typical RED-style sprawl malls.  BTW, the department stores will probably take up 400,000 square feet alone (200,000 square feet for a "A" level Dillard's or Jones) which will leave 200,000 for the rest of the retail.

[GRID]

Yea, I think it will be in souther Blue Springs though or near Colbern and 7.

[dangerboy]

I found a mention on the Examiner archives.  They are looking at Legacy Park, which is a little west of 7 Hwy, just south of Colbern.

That's some amazing growth.  Almost reminds me of when the Rockwood district St. Louis County opened two mega high schools in the same year.