East Jack development update:

[GRID]

Posted on Wed, Sep. 24, 2003

New developments proving to be popular
By KARALEE MILLER
The Kansas City Star

It's risky to recognize anyone or anything during that first year in the limelight.

The Grammy Awards alone have proven that over the years.

Two words come to mind: Milli Vanilli.

Who knew that the music group would later be unmasked as masters of the lip sync?

There is nothing fake, however, about the excitement over a slew of "new releases" in Kansas City's eastern and southern suburbs.

From shopping centers to justice centers, the area has seen tremendous growth in recent months.

So here are a few Harry noteworthies to consider, loaded with plenty of promise and potential:

I-70 corridor

Drivers exiting Interstate 70 at Little Blue Parkway in Independence have two choices if they are thinking about restaurants or retail stores.

North and south.

Those driving north can go to the Hartman Heritage development, where a long list of restaurants and retail stores continue to grow.

Ultimate Electronics is scheduled to open in October, with Thomasville Home Furnishings expected to open Nov. 1. Yet another restaurant, Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar, is under construction.

To the west, adjacent to Independence Center, the Cornerstone Apartments development is going up.

Still pending is the completion of Jackson Drive, the principal street through Hartman Heritage.

"That is all ready to go," Bruce Hahl, Independence community development director, said of the Jackson Drive construction project.

When completed, the street will provide access to the Cornerstone apartments before connecting with 39th Street.

Just south across Interstate 70, meanwhile, is Eastland Center.

Several restaurants now are operating, including Hooters, the subject of much controversy last winter. Anchor stores such as Lowe's and Costco operate alongside other small restaurants like Panera Bread.

More development is on the way.

James Everett, a Kansas City representative of Eastland Center developer Steve Ehrhart, told the Independence City Council last week that discussions are under way for an office condominium project, a medical office building and a second hotel.

A Holiday Inn Express already operates in Eastland Center.

The news regarding office buildings should be glad tidings to the Independence City Council. Last year, council members approved new terms for the Eastland Center's tax increment financing agreement, partly because Ehrhart had reported that the poor economy was hampering his efforts to market first-class office space.

Douglas Station

Yes, it's early to bestow the prestigious Harry on Douglas Station, a new retail and office development going up in Lee's Summit.

Remember Tatum O'Neal.

She won an Oscar for "Paper Moon" when she was in grade school and never made much of anything else except, apparently, John McEnroe real angry.

But Douglas Station, situated on 30 acres on Northeast Douglas Street near the Lee's Summit police station, seems more firmly planted.

The $27 million project was financed in part by the shopping center becoming a transportation development district, where an additional one-penny sales tax would be charged on purchases. The development also will pay for about $1.5 million in road improvements in the area.

Douglas Station will include offices, restaurants, shops and a car wash.

Home Depot

Fran Owens, Blue Springs director of economic development, says the new Home Depot is a welcome addition to the city's retail base.

The store opened in June at 905 Adams Dairy Parkway.

"We're excited about the project as far as the store and what it represents," he said. "Blue Springs is a growing community, and we're on the fringe...Everybody's got a Wal-Mart, but not everybody's got a Home Depot. So we're hoping this is one of many major national retailers that will elect to come here."

Tracy Marvel-Wrisinger, board chairman of the Blue Springs Chamber of Commerce, agrees.

"They promote jobs and city tax revenue." Wrisinger said. "If it was not for the Home Depot, the road from Mock to Adams Dairy wouldn't be completed when it was."

Nor, she said, would the chamber's mid-September Fall Festival have gone as smoothly.

A stage was too small to allow one of the bands to move its equipment above the rain-soaked ground. Wrisinger called the Home Depot and requested a makeshift stage.

"Within half an hour, all the materials we needed to build that makeshift stage were delivered to us at the venue where we needed them," she said. "The manager was very effective and coordinated everything. He made sure that we were able to get our bands performing."

Old is new again

Grain Valley decided to go old school with its new development.

The Old Town Market Place, at Main Street and Route AA, opened in the summer and continues to welcome businesses into its 23 storefronts.

The arrival many are anticipating is the town's first supermarket, an Apple Market, which is to open in October.

Residents now must travel to Oak Grove or Blue Springs for items that the Apple Market soon will provide, Mayor Matt Farlin said.

"We've been working on a grocery store for a long time," he said. "It's one of the things citizens have been telling us they've wanted."

A Dollar General Store opened in August at the shopping center, which also features a hardware store, a hair and nail salon, an interior design store and a pharmacy.

Wrought-iron street lights and different-colored awnings for each store help achieve the throw-back look, which Farlin says has been well received.

"We do have that small-town feeling, and we want to maintain that," he said.

And justice for all

In Cass County, Presiding Commissioner Gary Mallory believes the $37.5 million Cass Justice Center, which opened Aug. 16, will benefit the county several years from now.

The 205,000-square-foot facility sits on 30 acres just west of U.S. 71 in Harrisonville.

When voters approved a quarter-cent sales tax for the center in 1999, officials envisioned a two-story, $25 million project. That later changed. Citing impending growth, they added two more levels.

Mallory says it was money well spent.

"I think it will be more obvious 15 to 20 years from now," Mallory said. "People will realize that it was the right thing to do -- to build extra rooms, even though we don't need it now. Further down the road, we will need it."

The justice center holds the offices of the prosecuting attorney, public administrator, circuit clerk, sheriff, jail, juvenile detention center and judges.

Among its amenities are four courtrooms, a secured elevator for prisoners, two regular holding cells and two emergency holding cells in the basement.

The hot corner

Residents near State Line Road and Missouri 150 used to complain about a shortage of retail in their neighborhood.

Now they can hardly turn around without bumping a shopping cart.

There's a Super Wal-Mart on the northeast corner of the intersection. Next door is a huge Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse. Eckerd Drugs is going up next to Lowe's.

South of Missouri 150 is a Super Target that should open soon.

Together, the stores account for more than a half-million square feet of retail space.

When the projects were announced, some residents complained they would now have too many stores. But a look at the stores' crowded parking lots says most people seem to be shopping, not complaining.

City Planner Virginia Walsh said smaller businesses such as fast-food restaurants, retail shops and auto services also are planned for the area.

And who will do all the shopping at these new places? Well, new homes are going up, too.

New subdivisions are going up on Wornall Road. Newcastle Homes, along Blue Ridge Boulevard west of State Line Road, will soon add new phases to that patio-home community.

"South Kansas City was kind of slow for a while -- but not anymore," Walsh said.

Golfing in Grandview

In Grandview, the Grand Summit development is bringing a lot of new people to the city. It's not a coincidence that many own golf clubs.

Phase one of the $35 million, 225-acre upscale golf and residential community opened in March 2002 at 15101 Grand Summit Blvd., on the corner of U.S. 71 and Missouri 150.

It has an 18-hole championship golf course, three swimming pools, hard-surface tennis courts and a fitness center with cardiovascular and weight-training equipment.

It also has two 10,200-square-foot clubhouses. The golf course clubhouse has a grill for sandwiches and drinks, large patio areas and a gazebo. The apartment clubhouse has a sauna, hot tub, two tanning beds, fitness center, computer center and a game room for pool and table tennis.

The golf club, which is limited to 550 members, is almost full and the 444-unit complex is 83 percent occupied, said Roy Stanley, president of Arkansas-based Lindsey Management Co., which owns Grand Summit.

"We are pretty impressed with the golf course membership sales," Stanley said. "It went fast. The apartment leasing takes awhile, but we're not disappointed."

When fully built, Grand Summit will have about 900 apartments. Stanley said the construction of the second phase should start next spring, but could be delayed if at least 90 percent of existing units are not occupied.

Staff writers Donald Bradley, Brian Burnes and Eyobong Ita contributed to this report.

[bahua]

Fran Owens, Blue Springs director of economic development, says the new Home Depot is a welcome addition to the city's retail base.

"We're excited about the project as far as the store and what it represents," he said. "Blue Springs is a growing community, and we're on the fringe...Everybody's got a Wal-Mart, but not everybody's got a Home Depot. So we're hoping this is one of many major national retailers that will elect to come here."

Tracy Marvel-Wrisinger, board chairman of the Blue Springs Chamber of Commerce, agrees.

"They promote jobs and city tax revenue." Wrisinger said. "If it was not for the Home Depot, the road from Mock to Adams Dairy wouldn't be completed when it was."

I can't believe how many things there are that are wrong with that clipping.

How people can say "we're on the fringe," and act surprised that construction and economy are booming, with a straight face is beyond me. Of course they are booming. It's not because of any wise decisions that the Blue Springs city fathers made. It's simply because they are in the path of the sprawl, and their number is up. It'll be run down in twenty years, and they'll be amazed about that, too.

Welcoming Home Depot to town is like taking pride in slitting your wrists. They will provide neither value to the city(of Blue Springs), nor any real employment opportunity. All they will do is offer the chance for poor people to get a job there, and stay poor. Meanwhile, their massive parking lot will promote car culture, and the salex tax revenues that Blue Springs is jumping up and down about will only slightly eclipse the loss in civic value of the places it puts out of business, never to return.

None of this surprises me, but it's still amazing that nobody seems to notice the economic despairity that follows stores like Walmart and Home Depot.

[GRID]

Fran Owens, Blue Springs director of economic development, says the new Home Depot is a welcome addition to the city's retail base.

"We're excited about the project as far as the store and what it represents," he said. "Blue Springs is a growing community, and we're on the fringe...Everybody's got a Wal-Mart, but not everybody's got a Home Depot. So we're hoping this is one of many major national retailers that will elect to come here."

Tracy Marvel-Wrisinger, board chairman of the Blue Springs Chamber of Commerce, agrees.

"They promote jobs and city tax revenue." Wrisinger said. "If it was not for the Home Depot, the road from Mock to Adams Dairy wouldn't be completed when it was."

I can't believe how many things there are that are wrong with that clipping.

How people can say "we're on the fringe," and act surprised that construction and economy are booming, with a straight face is beyond me. Of course they are booming. It's not because of any wise decisions that the Blue Springs city fathers made. It's simply because they are in the path of the sprawl, and their number is up. It'll be run down in twenty years, and they'll be amazed about that, too.

Welcoming Home Depot to town is like taking pride in slitting your wrists. They will provide neither value to the city(of Blue Springs), nor any real employment opportunity. All they will do is offer the chance for poor people to get a job there, and stay poor. Meanwhile, their massive parking lot will promote car culture, and the salex tax revenues that Blue Springs is jumping up and down about will only slightly eclipse the loss in civic value of the places it puts out of business, never to return.

None of this surprises me, but it's still amazing that nobody seems to notice the economic despairity that follows stores like Walmart and Home Depot.

So how do you really feel? I agree though, Hell Belton has a Home Depot, Blue Springs has high goals don't they.

[mean]

NS, bahua. I can't believe some of the people in charge. You'd think they'd do things like study economic trends and plan for the future -- as in, 20-50 years instead of 2-5.

Throw on some zeros, people. Christ.