Some movement is headed to the old Macy’s site at the Shops of Prairie Village.
City officials on Monday announced First Washington Realty, the Maryland-based company that owns the retail complex, is tentatively scheduled to host a groundbreaking ceremony for the redevelopment project at the vacant department store on Nov. 16.
First Washington representatives did not respond to the Post’s request for comment for this story.
A grocery store is part of the redevelopment
- City Administrator Wes Jordan told the Prairie Village City Council Monday that there is an agreement for a grocery store on the main floor of the vacant department store.
- While an office of some kind has been proposed in the past, Jordan said, the tenants for the top and bottom floors are still “a little bit up in the air.”
- “I think that is what they’re waiting for for the 16th and they feel they’ll be able to have everything in place to announce that,” Jordan said.
- Signage on the doors of the vacant department store and in the parking lot near it advertise “Class A Office Space” for lease.
A look back at previous proposals, tenants for the site
- First Washington promoted retail and office space plans for the former Macy’s store in a promotional package in October 2020. That package envisioned retail options on levels 1 and 2, the bottom and main floors, and office spaces on Level 3, the top floor.
- Back in 2021, city officials told the Post that a plan submitted for the site by a subsidiary of First Washington Realty called for the Hen House grocery store to move from its current location at the Shops to the old Macy’s building.
- Genesis Health Clubs announced plans to take over the 120,000-square-foot bottom floor in January 2022, but a couple of months later, the health club company halted those plans as the city restarted its conversation to potentially build a public community center on the site of the aging Paul Henson YMCA.
The Prairie Village Macy’s closed in 2020
- Mayor Eric Mikkelson announced to the city council in January 2020 that the longtime department store would close.
- Originally, the building at 4000 W. 71st St., was The Jones Store, and it turned into Macy’s in the 2000s after a consolidation of the department store companies.
- The store, in one form or another, was open for some six decades.
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