After 20 years of false starts, unpaid taxes and a foreclosure suit, a Johnson County District Court judge has finally given the go-ahead for a New York bank to begin selling the long-troubled Mission Gateway property, an early step in the continuing foreclosure process.
District Court Judge Robert Wonnell heard closing arguments on the long-running case on December 9, then granted Metropolitan Commercial Bank’s request to foreclose on the property.
The bank is now allowed to begin selling the much-watched property near Johnson Drive and Shawnee Mission Parkway in Mission, while remaining legal issues are sorted out.
In the meantime, sale proceeds will be held in a trust until the court’s final disbursement order, according to court records.
“A step in the right direction”
The judge’s decision means action could start up again on Mission’s most visible and troubled intersection, but it could still be a while as the foreclosure process plays out.
Drivers passing through today see concrete pillars and walls that are a testament to officials’ and residents’ years-long frustration with the New York-based developers of the site of the former Mission Mall.
The city of Mission has never owned the land, which has limited officials’ ability to take action as various redevelopment efforts by the Cameron Group stalled over the years.
The city was not a party to the foreclosure suit and, as of Friday, had not received anything from the court about the decision.
“The ability to proceed with the foreclosure and sale process is a step in the right direction, but until the property is sold and any new owner or developer might come forward with a new development proposal, there really isn’t anything more that the City can comment on,” City Administrator Laura Smith wrote in an email to the Post.
A 20-year history of failed development efforts
The Mission City Council has seen hopes for development rise and fall for the better part of 20 years on the 17-acre tract at the confluence of Johnson Drive, Roe Avenue and Shawnee Mission Parkway.
The land has been in play since 2005, when the old Mission Mall, built in 1956, closed for good.
The mall was razed the following year, and the land was then purchased by the Cameron Group LLC, a New York-based development outfit. From there, numerous plans were proposed and amended but none quite got off the ground.
The listed owner of the site is now Aryeh Realty, a subsidiary of the Cameron Group.
A controversial plan that included a Walmart and public incentives was offered in 2013, but the big box retailer pulled out of that plan in 2016.
Two years ago, the city council gave developers another shot by approving a new $286 million redevelopment plan centered around a Cinergy entertainment center, with apartments, a food hall and retail shops.
The walls for that project began to go up in early 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic went into full swing. Work stopped amid broader shutdown orders that year, and the rest of the building was never completed.
The construction has sat largely untouched and increasingly decrepit over the past five years.
Foreclosure efforts began when the Metropolitan Commercial Bank sued Aryeh Realty in 2023 for repayment of $24 million owed on a $26 million loan, saying Aryeh had defaulted on payments of the loan agreement, which dated back to 2019.
Also named as defendants were Allen Gross, the CEO of a New York City investment firm and guarantor of the loan, and Gross’s company, GFI Gateway.
Several other entities, many of them contractors, also joined the suit, seeking to get paid for their work on the site.
