After years of silence, the Shawnee City Council Committee got answers on Monday for what’s happening with the project to renovate the derelict Westbrooke Village shopping center.
Located on the northeast corner of 75th Street and Quivira Road, the long-shuttered shopping center rebranded to Westbrooke Green a few years ago as developers began forming plans for a mixed-use project on the site.
With the project’s developers and attorney in attendance, they outlined to the committee that progress has been slow, but plans are moving along.
Westbrooke Village was once a bustling shopping center
After its anchor store, Dillon’s, closed in 2008, surrounding businesses around it followed suit.
The project is in the hands of its developer, MP Westbrooke North LLC, a joint venture of Mission Peak Capital, based in Kansas City, Missouri, and New York City, and Extell Development Co., based in New York City.
In November 2017, the developers received millions in TIF and CID funding, with the plan making it a combined mixed-use residential and retail space.
Since then, the project made headway in one promised aspect: Razing old buildings in the plaza and building The Chadwick Apartments at Westbrooke Green, which the developers featured during their presentation to the committee.
Regarding any other aspect of the project, the committee felt developers had fallen extremely short of their goal.
“This is becoming a greater and greater concern for me and many of us here on the council because the work is not getting done,” said Councilmember Eric Jenkins. “We entered into a good faith agreement with these folks and haven’t seen much action.”
The developers presented reasons for the delay
In the six years since the project was approved by Shawnee City Council, the retail and commercial areas of the plaza remain abandoned and plagued with problems.
Most recently, Rhea Lana’s, a semiannual flash retail sale, had to move from the former Dillon’s grocery store to its parking lot because of safety concerns.
At the meeting, it had several representatives, including Bob Johnson with the Polsinelli law firm, which represents the developer.
“The owner understands and appreciates and, frankly, shares the sentiment, the frustration, that more progress hasn’t been made to date,” he said. “I want to be clear that that’s not because of a lack of desire or hard work.”
Johnson said the developer’s plan is to fill the old Dillon’s space with a new anchor store and other stores would likely follow.
The problem, he said, is that, along with the slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses have shown interest, but never struck a deal.
“There has been a lot of activity on the leasing side and leasing attempts that have been made,” Johnson said. “There have been multiple deals that have fallen through at the finish line, unfortunately.”
Johnson said three businesses are currently in talks to lease the Dillon’s space, but it’s too early to say whether one of them will happen.
The city said developers are keeping up the property
While the plaza waits for an anchor store, Community Development Director Doug Allmon said the property owners are doing a better job of cleaning up the area and communicating.
He said that in the past few months, they have removed broken and damaged light poles, parking lot signs, exposed wiring, dilapidated awnings, dead trees, trash enclosures and debris. It also established a retention pond.
Allmon also said the city has patrolled the plaza multiple times to check on the clean-up efforts.
“They are making progress. It’s still an abandoned shopping center. I don’t want to give you some impression that it’s ready to be opened tomorrow,” he said.
Jenkins was not impressed.
“The list you read off was just kind of like somebody’s been cleaning up a little bit. (There’s) a retention pond. Not much of significance was really read off there,” he said.
Council committee grilled the developers
During the questions and comments portion of the agenda item, the committee did not mince words at their disappointment with Westbrooke Green’s developers.
Councilmembers Tammy Thomas, Jacklynn Walters, Mike Kemmling and Jenkins expressed anger at the lack of progress.
“We hear a sob story about how tough it’s been, but everyone that’s developing has these same factors that they’re dealing with,” said Kemmling, who voted against public financing for the project in 2017. “To see that we lost the tenants on the out buildings — the Planet Sub, the Starbucks, the Pizza Street, so we can have another apartment building, I don’t think we’re too much farther along.”
Walters added on to Kemmling’s comments.
“I love that we have more occupants here in Shawnee. But we’re not getting what we were promised from the developer,” she said. “It’s a complete eyesore. I was in the parking lot shopping for my children this past weekend because of the scenario that played out there. It’s bad.”
The developers said they’re making good faith efforts
While admitting its communication during the past couple of years has been sparse, Johnson said the developers are making strides at better communication with the city and its staff.
“I think the developer did need to provide better communication,” Johnson said. “I hope staff would agree that they have.”
City Manager Doug Gerber agreed and said the city is keeping an eye on the project.
“No one is satisfied where we’re at,” he said. “We will continue to have those conversations with them and if we don’t see movement over the next couple of months then I think we come back to you and re-evaluate and present [the committee] with some options.”
