KCRag Forum

Oak Park just continues to dominate when it comes to KC malls. I noticed that women's apparel retailers Arden B. and White House/ Black Market are both coming soon. This is KC's first location for Arden B. and they seem pretty selective. White House/Black Market is even more selective as they only have one store in the twin cities and one store in St. Louis. This will be KC's 3rd location(Plaza, Town Center) for the store. Highwoods could learn a few things from the people at Oak Park-- They bring in the "exclusives" and still have room for the other guys (Foot Locker, Pacific Sunwear, Sam Goody, etc.)

If the other malls would take about 20 minutes each day to glide a broom down the aisles they might pick up some extra traffic. God help us if we can walk through Metro North, Ward Parkway or Bannister Mall without contracting VD or Foot and Mouth Disease!

2 Basic Ingredients to Success:
Soap and Water!

Add the metro's second bebe location and the first metro location for teen furniture retailer Dry Ice to Oak Park's already impressive list of tenants.

Nobody else but Independence Center seem to get it. In order for a mall to prosper...it MUST stay current and ahead of the trends.

trailerkid wrote:Add the metro's second bebe location and the first metro location for teen furniture retailer Dry Ice to Oak Park's already impressive list of tenants.

Nobody else but Independence Center seem to get it. In order for a mall to prosper...it MUST stay current and ahead of the trends.

Metro North has given up! I hear they are goin' to put a 24 Hour Fitness and TJ Maxx inside the mall. This is a tactic Ward Parkway used to increase traffic. I know this was about Oak Park, but are the owners of Metro North stuck on stupid? While the population (and per household income) is on the decline near places like Blue Ridge, Bannister and Ward Parkway...the Northland is booming with new housing and many higher income residents. Why can't they remodel the damn mall and then go after some good tenants?

Metro North is where Indep. Center was 5-10 years ago. I remeber when Indep. Center was rumored to be closing down and turning into a prison, and now it's the swankiest and probably busiest mall in the city. With all of the retail going in around Metro North it seems like it must be the management, not the location, that is the problem. Indep. Center was almost completely rebuilt in the amount of time it has taken Metro North to build a new food court, that still isn't finished.

I went to Metcalf South over the weekend to go to Sears. Wow - even more of a ghost town than it used to be. On the main floor between Sears and Jones Store, there are maybe 2 or 3 shops still open - I'm betting they'll be gone when their lease is up. Metcalf is starting to look like Indian Springs.

...went there Saturday afternoon on a "mission."

Everytime I go there, I'm reminded why I'm so glad I live in the sleepy peaceful Northland.

Toooooooo many people, toooooooo much traffic, toooooo many cars.

I'm a big Oak Park booster. It may have the drabbest interior/exterior for any "city mall" this side of of the Mississippi, but really does have one of the best tenant mixes of any shopping center in America (sans Plaza, Galleria, South Coast Plaza type centers). Also, I have never gone there and had an unpleasant experience because of parking, crowds, teens, physical surroundings etc.

oak park is, to me, the one and only indoor mall in the KC area worth going to. the parking can be bad (saturdays especially), but to me that just says that the place has what people want. honestly, i am glad any time i am somewhere in the kc area and it's really crowded. it makes me feel like people are out doing something.

pros of oak park: nordstrom. nordstrom cafe. scenery (wink wink). stores no other enclosed mall has: banana republic, j. crew, and i am sure many for the ladies. it also presents a welcome escape from raytowna beach. our retail options are pretty much limited to Buffalo Wild Wings and Shanghai Express. i also like that it is reasonably close to 435 and 69.

cons of oak park: crowds (only on weekends and holidays). 13 year old christina aguilera wannabes on hot pink cell phones. no A/X.

Oak park was built for the suburbanite, not me, and I feel so out of place, dirty, and poor when there. Then again I feel the same way when Im at the plaza.

Oak Park's newest signees...

Steve Madden (shoes)

Sergent Major (French children's apparel?!!?)

Metro...A Modern Day Diner (old Johnny Rocket's...I assume)

Whoaa we're getting some new stores!?!?! That's cool, I knew there was always room for more...but where are my stores? Rampage, Body Central, Charlotte Russe, Forever 21??? Some of what I'd rather see along with those. That kids french apparel store will be interesting.

UMKCgal wrote:Whoaa we're getting some new stores!?!?! That's cool, I knew there was always room for more...but where are my stores? Rampage, Body Central, Charlotte Russe, Forever 21??? Some of what I'd rather see along with those. That kids french apparel store will be interesting.

Charlotte Russe and Forever 21 already have stores in KC, Oak Park doesn't have any spots right now for stores of that size.

Steve Madden is a good pickup as the closest stores are in Mall of America, Denver and Chicago.

I can find no information on Sergent Major, but it seems this may be their first store in America.

My French is not that good, but here is their site.
It seems that there is not a current location in the USA or Canada. That is really cool that they picked Oak Park Mall for a location. With so many kids on JOCO it should do well. I bet that they will open several at once in N. America.


http://www.sergent-major.com

GuyInLenexa wrote:My French is not that good, but here is their site.
It seems that there is not a current location in the USA or Canada. That is really cool that they picked Oak Park Mall for a location. With so many kids on JOCO it should do well. I bet that they will open several at once in N. America.

It's about time! Finally JOCO is gettin' some cultural attractions! j/k

This actually might be kind of interesting...

Milkshakes and martinis at Oak Park Mall?

From Cityscape...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PB&J Restaurants Inc. will open a new restaurant concept in Oak Park Mall.

For now, the concept will be called Metro and will open, probably in November, in the former Johnny Rockets space in the lower level of the mall near Nordstrom.

Metro will feature a full-service bar, fresh food and drinks — served quickly — from martinis to malts to wine.

PB&J owns such local concepts as Grand Street Cafe near the Country Club Plaza and Yahooz in Leawood.

© 2004 Kansas City Star and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.kansascity.com

Oak Park also getting a kitchen goods store...

Le Gourmet Chef, a specialty kitchenware, gourmet foods and home decorative accessories store, will open in late August.

Food sampling stations are featured throughout the stores, as well as demo areas for customers to test the latest culinary gadgets.
http://www.legourmetchef.com/index.jsp

Sergent Major, a children's clothing store chain based in France, is scheduled to open a store in October. The company has 200 locations, but this will be the first in the United States. Its prices are said to compare to those of Baby Gap.

i hope JoCo residents protest this infiltration of dirty pinko french establishments!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

heheh.

seriously, this sounds great. it's cool when an indoor mall can score tenants no one else has. oak park is a good mall.

Oak Park Mall always amazes me at how successful it is for being kind of hard to get to from the metro as a whole. It may seem a perfectly logical location for JoCo residents but for me I just never go there except maybe twice a year because it seems like a pain to get to. I guess somebody from JoCo could say the same about the Plaza but at least it looks nice.

I also have to admit that other than going into Nordstrom's or Rainforest Cafe I have never been inside the mall. I guess since it just looks like a big, brown anywhere mall that I never thought it was worth going into. Next time I'll have to actually go in and see what's so great about it. Come to think of it I've never even darkened a door at Metro North and the last time I was inside Bannister was years ago. Is there anything in Bannister anymore other than Sears or Jones?

Oak Park has some nice stores, but it has to be one of the most boring malls that I have ever been too.

Good thing it's always full of hotties cause the mall isn't anything to look at.