Cactus Grill coming to Lenexa City Center’s Restaurant Row

Restaurant Row, a Lenexa City Center development project dedicated to sit-down dining establishments, is getting underway at the southwest corner of Renner Boulevard and 87th Street Parkway. Photo credit Kaylie McLaughlin.

Lenexa’s long-awaited restaurant district — which will feature local favorite Cactus Grill and other eateries — near the entrance of the booming City Center is officially moving ahead.

Some early construction on “Restaurant Row” near 87th Street Parkway and Renner Boulevard had already begun at the site, but local officials and city leaders formally broke ground on the site Thursday afternoon. At least four restaurants are planned.

Two eateries have signed on for “Restaurant Row”

Tupelo Honey, a southern food spot based in North Carolina, was the first restaurant to publicly announce its plans to open in Restaurant Row.
Cactus Grill, a local TexMex restaurant, is also part of the first phase of Restaurant Row. The restaurant first opened in Leawood and has an Overland Park location.
Both restaurants are expected to open in fall 2024.

Restaurant Row in the Lenexa City Center will have multiple sit-down eateries, including Cactus Grill and Tupelo Honey. Photo credit Kaylie McLaughlin.

“Restaurant Row” is part of greater City Center vision

Restaurant Row is just one major leg of development getting underway around 87th and Renner. Earlier this year, AdventHealth broke ground on a multiyear project to build a City Center health campus.

All of it and other projects to come are part of a decades-long vision to remake what was once farmland into a bustling urban space at the heart of the suburban side of the Kansas City metro area.

Mayor Mike Boehm said the city’s patience in the endeavor to build out City Center over all of these years is “paying off” as the district continues to fill up.

“We had a vision, and we knew where we were headed,” Boehm said. “And I say it all the time, what’s actually happening is probably greater than our mind’s eye could have ever projected when you were looking at a field over time.”

Though early construction on Restaurant Row has already began at the site, the building process formally kicked off Thursday when local leaders officially broke ground at the corner of Renner and 87th street Parkway. Photo credit Kaylie McLaughlin.

Lenexa’s “Restaurant Row” will be built out in phases

Phase 1 of Restaurant Row will bring with it roughly 17,700 square feet of sit-down dining space.
Those two buildings will bookend the wider Restaurant Row area.
In all, five buildings are planned, as well as a large parking structure.
One of the buildings, at the back corner of the block, has been identified as possible office space.
All of the restaurants and any potential retail will be included in a 22-year, 2% Community Improvement District. That brings the sales tax at all Restaurant Row establishments to 11.35%.

More Lenexa City Center news: Lenexa gives final OK to City Center hotel, retail project