After nearly seven years without a grocery store, there’s a plan to bring a new one back to Merriam on a prominent corner on Shawnee Mission Parkway.
Overland Park-based Drake Development, the same entity behind the Merriam Grand Station project, wants to bring a grocery store to a new development across Shawnee Mission Parkway on the former site of the now-shuttered Antioch Library.
Drake officials submitted a redevelopment plan to the city on Wednesday that proposes a 12,500-square-foot grocery store on the former library site at 8800 Shawnee Mission Parkway, which the city now owns.
Merriam has not had a grocery store since the Hen House at Merriam Town Center closed in July 2018.
Drake’s plan also calls for 4,000 square feet of new restaurant space and a four-story apartment building to replace other nearby businesses in a two-block area adjacent to the library site.
The plan is in the initial stages
On Wednesday, the Merriam Planning Commission got a first look at the redevelopment plan during a work session — the same day the developer submitted the plan.
City staff has yet to review the submitted plan, but the planning commission is expected to see a staff-reviewed version at its May 7 meeting.
Drake’s redevelopment plan was submitted just a few days after the Merriam City Council unanimously approved an expansion of the Interstate 35 redevelopment district — something the city also did for Merriam Grand Station — to include the former library site.
That move opens up potential public incentives for any development on the site.
Project dubbed “Grand Station Marketplace” for now
The redevelopment plan envisions a near complete reworking of two blocks on the northwest corner of Antioch Road and SM Parkway, between 62nd Terrace and SM Parkway to the north and south and Antioch and Ikea Way to the east and west.
This two-block area is currently home to a Shell gas station, a Caribou Coffee and a children’s therapy clinic.
The city recently bought the old Antioch Library site and associated properties that also fall within that two-block area.
Only a recently built Chipotle on the site of an old Taco Bell just to the west is planned to remain untouched as part of this proposed redevelopment project.
The redevelopment plan, dubbed “Grand Station Marketplace” in city documents, calls for:
- a 12,500-square-foot grocery store at the northwest corner of Antioch Road and SM Parkway, replacing the old library site,
- one to two restaurants — without drive-thrus — on 4,000 square feet of space at the northwest corner of Slater Street and Shawnee Mission Parkway, replacing Caribou Coffee,
- and a 210-unit, four-story apartment building on top of a two-story parking structure on the northeast corner of Ikea Way and Shawnee Mission Parkway, where the Shell station currently stands,
Below is a look at part of the redevelopment plan, which the Post obtained through a public records request.
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Open in new tab How likely is this plan to move forward?
- Merriam’s Community Development Director Bryan Dyer said he anticipates the current plan to change during the staff review process, but he told the Post that the core pieces of the plan — like the grocery store — are unlikely to be removed from the plan.
- Dyer also told the planning commission that the developer probably would not have brought a grocery store idea to the city unless there was a “fairly high level of certainty” that a grocer would occupy that space.
- Dyer said the square footage figure proposed for the potential grocery store was likely decided as a result of discussions with a potential tenant.
- It is not clear what grocery store tenant Drake is considering for the site.
Old library could be demolished by Thanksgiving
- Dyer told the planning commission that the developer is working on acquiring all of the properties in the two-block area under the proposed redevelopment plan.
- Still, Drake’s plan is to level the old library and Caribou Coffee by Thanksgiving in preparation to build a new grocery and restaurant buildings later.
- Dyer said it is unclear when Caribou Coffee will officially close, but he knows that the children’s therapy clinic Poss-abilities is working to relocate within city limits.
Next steps:
- Dyer said the planning commission will formally review a redevelopment plan at its May 7 meeting.
- The plan is anticipated to go before the Merriam City Council during a special called meeting on June 16.
- Both the planning commission and the city council meetings start at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 9001 W. 62nd St.
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