Money woes, empty stores, 2 shootings in 2 weeks: Can the Country Club Plaza be fixed?

The Country Club Plaza, the oft-described crown jewel of Kansas City which this year hoped to celebrate its 100th birthday in joy, instead is in pain.

Some wounds are fresh, others older:

Two shootings in two weeks: A 14-year-old was struck by a bullet a week ago Saturday at 47th and Wyandotte streets. And on the same block a week earlier, a store employee trying to stop a theft was shot in the arm.

At least a dozen empty storefronts in the wake of COVID-19.

The shopping district’s entire west edge marred by what Kansas City’s mayor calls “a pit,” a 3-acre lot left vacant after Nordstrom canceled its plan to build a department store there.

The latest injury to make headlines is financial.

As U.S. Security and Exchange Commission filings show, the Plaza’s co-owners, Taubman Centers Inc. and the Macerich Co., defaulted in May on a loan payment to their lender, Chicago-based Nuveen, whom they owe $295.2 million. In 2016, the owners bought the Spanish-styled shopping district from Highwoods Properties for $660 million, hundreds of millions more than it was assessed to be worth then and now. Defaulting on a loan is tantamount to not paying one’s mortgage.

“I think you would have to be blind to think that the Plaza is thriving,” said Tony Shapiro, 53, a nearly lifelong Plaza-area resident whose home overlooks the district. “It’s sad.”

His sentiment echos several city leaders, developers, business owners, residents and shoppers interviewed by The Star this past week.

How the financial setback will affect the Plaza is not yet known, with possibilities ranging from a reorganization of debt to nothing short of new ownership. In a statement to The Star, the Plaza said it was working with its lender toward “a mutually acceptable outcome.” In a similar statement, Nuveen said they were in discussions to reach a solution “which represents the best path forward.”

Both the Plaza Art Fair later this month and the annual lighting ceremony on Thanksgiving will go on, unaffected.

But whatever the fallout, there is now broad agreement that although the district still attracts millions of visitors each year, it is not what it was and needs to change.

Among them: Dealing with crime and safety; finding tenants that go beyond chain stores and luxury brands to those that not only serve neighbors (like a grocer), but are local, unique or fun enough to pull in more visitors from the suburbs and beyond.

Some suggest closing streets, making them pedestrian walkways. Others insist that without new outside development, backed by city tax breaks, the Plaza may never fully recover.

Mayor Quinton Lucas told The Star that when he looks on the periphery of the Plaza, he sees growth. New homes, new apartment complexes, hotels and entertainment venues.

“I think I would say this about the Plaza,” he said. “It is obvious to any Kansas Citian that the Plaza is not in the condition that we want it to be. The area surrounding it is vibrant.

“We find ourselves in the odd position right now where the core actually seems most challenged. That includes the hole, the pit, on the site of the Nordstrom’s store. And, of course, a higher number of vacancies that I think no one would find acceptable.”

Lucas compared the Plaza now to when he was young and getting his dental braces put on at the Plaza Medical Building.

“I have this memory, like many Kansas Citians do, of this hustle and bustle,” Lucas said. “I felt like, wow. I was having this medical procedure, but I was in the center of it all. And I think it is fair to say, right now, that the Plaza does not feel like the center of it all, or at least the center of the retail universe in Kansas City right now.”

Daniel Brocato, vice president of Kansas City-based Block & Co. Realtors, which has offices on the Plaza and specializes in retail, is more direct:

“The Plaza,” he said, “has lost its allure.”

For some the prospect of new ownership may be the brightest light in the Plaza’s future.

“I’m hopeful that a new owner will bring new energy, resources and creativity to the table,” said Kate Marshall, president of the South Plaza Neighborhood Association and president of the Plaza District Council, a nonprofit made up of residents and other stakeholders. “I’m quite optimistic that we’re on the cusp of a new era.”

Eatertainment

The Plaza has a number of problems, Brocato said, with high rents and the need to beef up security among them. But a prime problem, he said, has been its retail philosophy.

Of its 125 or so businesses, about one-third are locally owned, such as The Better Cheddar, Messenger Coffee and the Made in KC Marketplace. Most are chains that can be found in the suburbs, such as Apple, North Face, Lululemon and Cheesecake Factory.

“Talk to pretty much anybody who used to shop here,” Brocato said, “and the allure of the Plaza was obviously high-end. But it was also local. There was a huge local component of the Plaza that I think has gone away.

“And, you know, for people who live in south Johnson County, or Lee’s Summit or anywhere else, why would you want to make the drive all the way down to the Plaza to get the same shopping experience you might experience in Town Center? I mean you have the same tenant mix.

“There’s nothing really setting the Plaza aside from any of the major shopping centers, and especially if you don’t feel safe walking around the Plaza at night. That’s even more reason not to shop there.”

Lucas noted that retail is changing, with online shopping being only part of it.

Kansas Citians, he said, are eager to embrace ideas that might help the Plaza thrive. He noted that on Aug. 28, some 125 people turned out at a meeting to hear Urban Lab KC present an idea to cut down on car traffic, close streets and transform some of the district into pedestrian-only areas.

“I think we’re just seeing, fundamentally, a different model of how retail may be done,” he said. “It needs to be a place that is heavy on experience and food.”

Some of that is already occurring, although not on the Plaza proper.

Last year, part of the Jack Henry Building, which sits just north of the Plaza’s boundaries at 612 W. 47th St., was redeveloped into a Kansas City Chiefs-themed fitness center, Chiefs Fit, with exercise equipment and rooftop turf with bleachers, like a mini football field. The club is busy with exercisers as early as 5 a.m.

An “eatertainment” venue, Puttery, combining food and indoor mini-golf, is set to open soon in a different part of the building.

In a controversial move, the Kansas City City Council in May also gave the building’s owner, Drake Development, approval to demolish the historic Seventh Church of Christ, Scientist next door at 604 W. 47th St. to erect Cocina47, a three-story tiered restaurant building. Historic Kansas City, the Block Real Estate Services and the Plaza’s ownership all fought the project. The developer had proposed tripling the height to nine stories, but later agreed to return it to three.

The project is expected to open in the summer of 2026.

“I think that any kind of activity is good activity for the Plaza,” Brocato said. “Because, you know, whatever kind of tenant that we can put in here to attract more people to the Plaza, it helps overall. Having different ownership groups doing different things on the Plaza is always good.. You don’t want a monopoly of thinking. …

“Taubman and Macerich have their way of thinking. They’ve gone a certain direction with the Plaza and, I think, everyone can agree: It could be better.”

Matt Pennington, president of Drake Development, goes further, saying the Plaza needs to reinvent its spaces, “just like we did.”

Not only should the retail space be repurposed, he believes, but some of the historic architecture should be torn down.

“There’s too much,” he said. “It either needs to be replaced with green space, or residential. … I’m talking about razing a whole block in the middle and turning it into green space and making it more mixed-use to where people are going to gather.”

Such an effort would require both public and private buy-in and “massive incentives,” he said.

“Retail and restaurant needs have changed,” Pennington said. “If we’re going to continue to have the mindset, ‘I want the Plaza to be what it’s going to be,’ that’s one of the problems.”

More local flair

The Plaza has its enthusiasts, and they have plenty of ideas for the 15-block shopping district.

Patrick DeSimone, 26, of Leavenworth and his wife, Kiana, 24, were walking past four empty storefronts recently. Despite whatever setbacks the Plaza has had, DeSimone said it remains as impressive now as it did when he was a child.

“This has always been like the Beverly Hills of Kansas City,” he said. “Yes, it still feels that way. The fact that the art museum (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) is, like, right next door. That’s another thing that drives me down here.

“It still has that charm. It still has that sparkle.”

Amy Curnow, 48, is the general manager of Club Pilates, which opened on the Plaza a year ago in August.

“Everything’s going great, Curnow said. “I feel like it’s busy here. We just celebrated a year and couldn’t be happier.”

Lead pilates instructor Emily Garnett, 39, agreed. But as a Plaza area resident who used to live in the Crossroads, she thinks the Plaza would be better if it served the interests of nearby residents. A grocery store, drugstore, a movie theater (Cinemark Palace at the Plaza closed in 2019) have been gone from the Plaza for years.

Several others noted that while the Plaza has some fast-casual restaurants like Panera Bread and Shake Shack, there is no McDonald’s or other fast-food restaurant, or a place to grab a can of soda and go. Garnett would love to see more unique business, “as opposed to corporate.”

“Especially food,” she said. “I think if there was local flair with food, it would change the whole world down here.”

Rachel Drake, having just left the Nike store, said she has been coming to the Plaza on and off for 46 years, but not often anymore.

“Actually,” she said, “I think the Plaza is going downhill. I think they need to just get some good stores down here.”

She pointed to the 3-acre Nordstrom pit.

“If they put a Trader Joe’s on the Plaza, I would come here,” she said. “Nothing else. Just a Trader Joe’s.”

Just how bad is crime on the Plaza?

This June, Shake Shack opted to close its dining room to inside service from Friday nights through Sunday for the summer, citing fights among teens as the reason.

In March, when Milan Optique closed after 14 years on the Plaza, owner Felix MoIlman told The Star that crime was among a host of reasons.

“Rent was too high, then COVID hit and they still wanted rent for those two months and marketing expenses,” he said. “It hit me good for like $14,000. Then, after COVID, there were a lot of people coming in stealing stuff and it made my employees nervous.”

The two recent shootings raised some alarm about safety at the Plaza, especially after dark and on weekends. But the Plaza has had fewer major incidents than other entertainment districts — Westport and Power & Light, according to a crime blotter run by the Kansas City Police Department.

Between Memorial Day and Labor Day, police responded to eight violent crimes in and around the Plaza. This included two armed robberies on July 7 — one on 47th Street and one on Jefferson Street — an Aug. 7 assault at the Old Navy, an Aug. 8 report of sexual misconduct at Brio Italian Grill, a June 22 domestic violence incident at the Hampton Inn and Suites on Summit Street and a man who took a swing at staff at the same hotel two days earlier.

In that same time, KCPD responded to at least 40 violent crimes — mainly assaults — around Westport, and dozens around Power & Light. The 18th and Vine Jazz District saw four such crimes.

But the Plaza’s lower crime numbers don’t mean concerns at the Plaza should be dismissed, Lucas said.

“We have areas that have exhibited much greater criminal challenges — more shootings, homicides and beyond than the Plaza. But if there was a shooting on my block, let alone two shootings on my block in my residential neighborhood in the past two weeks, I would be greatly concerned,” he said.

Lucas said the city has talked with Plaza business owners and KCPD for years about better security, such as ensuring parking garages are well-lit and adding officers in the area.

But Lucas said collaboration with the Plaza ownership has been “wanting.”

“I think they could always be more aggressive in connection with ensuring that this crown jewel of our city remains intact and safe,” Lucas said.

Marshall of the Plaza District Council said there’s already a “tremendous” showing of security on the Plaza with the district’s own security detail, plus, on weekend nights, KCPD patrols and off-duty officers are hired for those shifts. She said they’ve also talked about adding more lights and perhaps license plate readers in the garages.

David Westbrook, a board member with that council, said the solution is not as simple as more police or more security to put “the Plaza back on the upswing.” He said the Plaza has “magic equity.”

“Now, magic equity doesn’t make it safe, but magic equity makes it worth investing in consumer experiences and ever-present programming that will reduce if not eliminate opportunities for behavior that we have seen take place in recent times,” he said.

Brocato has faith that the Plaza can bounce back.

“I definitely think it can recover,” he said. “I mean, like all real estate developments, certain areas at certain times are better. It’s all cyclical. The Plaza is in a little bit of a slump at the moment. But I do think it will come back.”