A new 24-hour emergency veterinary hospital is coming to a long-vacant storefront in the Fountains Shopping Center in Overland Park near 119th Street and Glenwood Street.
Veterinary Emergency Group plans to take over the nearly 6,000-square-foot space at 6347 W. 119th St. between the former Sears Home & Life store and a MyHealth at Home store from the University of Kansas Health System.
The space intended for the new veterinary hospital has been empty for years, but it was previously used by a Flexsteel Furniture shop, according to city planning documents.
Planning commission signed off on pet hospital
- During the January Overland Park Planning Commission meeting, the body recommended approval of a five-year special use permit for the veterinary hospital, voting 9-0.
- Commissioner Holly Streeter-Schaefer said she thinks this will be “a good use for this shopping district,” noting that there aren’t other emergency veterinary hospitals “within a number of miles.”
- City planning documents say that the veterinary care facility will have between 16 and 20 staff members, with five to eight employees on the premises at all times.
- The busiest hours are expected to be during the evening, likely between 6 and 10 p.m.
The Fountains Shopping Center is under new management
Matt Drozd, of Michigan-based Lormax Stern Development, said at the planning commission meeting last week that his firm acquired the shopping center in 2020.
At the time, he said there was a 22% vacancy rate in the shopping center, describing it as “plagued historically with vacancy.” Now, the Fountains Shopping Center is 100% leased out.
There’s also been some changeover with the tenants recently, with Sears closing its last local Home & Life store last year and Whole Foods moving down the road to a new building in the Overland Crossing shopping center. Those slots will be filled with a Westlake Ace Hardware and a PGA Superstore, respectively.
Drozd said the Fountains Shopping Center has also gotten some recent TLC, with projects to repave more than half of the parking lot, upgrade the lighting system to LEDs and repaint all of the buildings.
“We appreciate your upkeep of the center and the improvements and everything that’s gone on there,” Commissioner Radd Way said. “We do know how challenging that is, so [we] appreciate those efforts.”
Next steps:
- The special use permit for Veterinary Emergency Group goes to the Overland Park City Council next.
- They will vote on the permit at an upcoming meeting.
Keep reading: Westlake Ace Hardware moving into former Sears in Overland Park
