TJMAXX and More?
Ross Dress for Less?
IKEA?
Furniture Row?
Grander Mountain?
MCSPORTS outdoor Center?
Bealls?
Menard's?
American Home?
Albertsons?
Schnucks?
Sutherland's Home Design?

This place is a black hole that is sucking out the vitality of the area.  Look to the east at Barry and Oak and the center were Ivy's was is almost empty.  To the west, the big box center where Target is has 2 huge empty boxes.  I would like to see a mixed used project that would be less retail and more dense village type residential. 

Really?  A rival unwilling to sell a small portion at any price in order to stifle competition in the marketplace seems like one of the most justifiable and consumer/citizen-friendly uses of ED for private development that could possibly be conceived. 

Sports Arena?
Theme Park?
Outlet Mall?
Convention Center?

An IKEA at that spot would be a huge shot in the arm to that area, in my opinion.

Metro North stifled itself. Zona Rosa owning one of their anchor tenants for last couple years was not preventing Metro North from being successful for the last 15 years. Again, something needs to happen, but Metro North is not the victim in this scenario.

And it's not like they couldn't have tried to buy the Dillard's before they sold it to ZR.

Metro North Mall did not own the Dillards. Dillards own their own store. When they moved to Zona Rosa, they sold their store to this ZR Metro.
Macy's owns their own store as well. I assume they will be partners in the future development deal.

The mall has not been great over the last 15-20 years, but in the 80s and early 90s it was the place to be. They were stable with 3 big department stores up until about 5-6 years ago.
Then when ZR opened in 2004, everyone slowly but surely jumped ship.  But the out parcels survived and are thriving. Olive Garden and Red Lobster are always packed. And thankfully the Best Buy across the street is still open even with there being 3 stores up north.

Whatever they build there probably won't be two Gaps, or AE, or Express, or XXI, etc. But this could be something different. Maybe MD management can strive to create an urban envirnoment with a new sense of place. There's so much land there. They aren't 'land-locked' like ZR. There could be row homes, apartments, libraries, grocery stores, restaurants, cafes, college branch campuses, offices, museums, theaters.

I really hope something unique and awesome succeeds. Its prime real estate, two major highways, easy access to all of the Northland's 250k population plus St. Joe and downtown KC.
Yes, there is Liberty (KC North 1-35) and Zona Rosa, but they are 10-15 miles apart. There are tons of subdivisions old and new less than a few minutes from the current Metro North Mall.

I'm kinda confused why the city is backing this project after looking at East Hills in St. Joseph that MD also redeveloped. East Hills has Dillard's, JCPenney, and Sears and about 20 stores after their redevelopment. It looks a lot better aesthetically, but it's nothing much. I'm not sure Metro North is ever going to be much better than it is with the current company at the helm.



This really isn't true. There were probably less than 5 stores that moved from Metro North to ZR (Gap, Express, Buckle ??). Metro North failed to sign a number of youth-oriented tenants that wanted a presence in the Northland. MD was notorious around town for being a bad landlord in terms of tenants. Zona Rosa capitalized on this vulnerability and opened their first phase. Metro North was a D-list mall before Zona Rosa started moving dirt up there. When Zona Rosa opened that sealed Metro North's fate as a full-blown dead mall...like MD's other dead mall Metcalf South.

I agree it wasn't a great mall and I also agree that MD management doesn't have the best track record.
I was always mad that the mall was never full. The bottom side by Montgomery Wards always had empty spots.

But ZR definately killed Metro. It was more than just a few stores...Lane Bryant, Gap, Express, Buckle, Vic's Sercet, Limited Too, Select Comfort, New York n Company, Claries, Helzberg, Kays....

And more recently: Topsy's, Things remembered, Cookie Factory.

New Stores to the Northland because Steiner/ZR have great marketing, why didn't MN pursue these tenants:
AE, XXI, Hollister, Chidrens Place, Gymborree, Cache, Coldwater Creek, Chicos, Aeropostle....and the list goes on.

What happens to these national chains that used to be at MN: Deb, Foot Locker, Lady's Footlocker, Champs, Mr. Bulky, Limited (there are still some out there). Maybe they too could reopen in the ZR phase 2.

do we think that the northland can support another shopping area like Liberty or ZR?  i don't know, i'm just wondering. 

300,000 people and growing faster than anywhere else in the metro, plus a long history of being underserved for retail, so yeah there seems to be opportunity.

I agree with Dangerboy. Although I wish there wasn't all three shopping areas along one highway (152), but I think that the Northland can support it. It would be awesome if the redeveloped Antioch Mall became a Fairway Shops, Brookside, Prarie Village type of destination.

Potentially, the Northland could have 3 very large, successful retail zones at I-29/Barry, Metro North, and Liberty/Shoal Creek given its growing population and demographics.

When you look at the growth and lay of the land, the Northland could eventually be an area similar in size/scope as the South Metro (Olathe, OP, SKC, Belton Lee's Summit-- only with better freeway connections and access to downtown).

Lawsuit could delay Metro North redevelopment

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/stories/2010/09/20/daily20.html?ana=e_du_pub

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/b ... a=e_du_pub has the Northland in here
http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/n ... a=e_du_pub

why are there approximately 1,000 ford escapes parked at the metro north parking lot?  i assume they are from claycomo, but wtf? 

that whole area around metro north along barry road is like something from "the walking dead."  hideous.

my grandfather mentioned this to me last night - and thought it was a whole lot more than 1,000 - but his theory is that whatever model claycomo is making now is switching to a facility in kentucky, so they've overproduced a lot to cover that gap in manufacturing while they switch over, and are using metro north as the storage facility.  shrug.

I've also seen cars stored in the parking lot of the HoJo off I-29 between Tiffany Springs and Barry Road a few times. Usually don't stay there for more than a few days. Figured they had to do with one or more of the dealerships down the road.

But I too noticed all the Fords at Metro North and figured it had to do with the Claycomo plant.  That parking lot is the fullest its been in probably 20 years.

Ford also parks vehicles just north of Ameristar and out at old RG.