Four upscale but yet-to-be-named restaurants may be coming to replace the former Houlihan’s at Town Center Plaza. And when they do, diners will be charged an extra 1% sales tax to help with development costs.

By a 6-2 vote, the Leawood City Council decided Monday that they were comfortable creating a Community Improvement District for new buildings at the site of the former eatery at 4900 W. 119th St.

The existing Houlihan’s building, which has been an anchor on the southern side of the shopping center facing 119th Street for three decades, will be demolished and replaced with two one-story buildings.

The $18 million project by Drake Development promises to bring four new restaurants into the buildings. The additional sales tax would only be charged within the two new buildings that comprise the special taxing district.

The added sales tax revenue would be capped at $4.3 million over the 22-year life of the CID and would pay for about 23% of the total project costs, the city says.

Ian Mussman, of Drake Development, told the city council Monday that the project would provide an estimated $9.1 million benefit to city revenue, mostly in sales tax collections but also in the increased property value of the site.

“Invisible tax”

Some councilmembers questioned whether the special sales tax was necessary, given the success and high occupancy of the shops at Town Center Plaza.

“We think of this intersection as our golden intersection, and people want to be here,” said Councilmember Lisa Harrison. “I have a concern about these invisible taxes put on our residents that make every purchase a little bit more expensive.”

Councilmember Rachel Rubin echoed that, also calling it an “invisible tax” because a lot of people won’t realize they’re paying it.

She also said other developments have happened without special tax revenue and the incentive would be more appropriate in a blighted area.

“I just want to protect the taxpayers,” Rubin said. “It’s great if you want to tear down a building and put something new in, but I don’t necessarily think taxpayers should be subsidizing that.”

Rubin and Harrison were the two “no” votes.

Supporters say Town Center Plaza is aging

However, other councilmembers pointed out that CIDs have been used before, sparingly, in Leawood for successful projects like Ranchmart and Camelot Court.

“It’s not like we’re willy-nilly handing them out like our surrounding cities,” said Councilmember Julie Cain.

She noted Town Center Plaza is in its 30s.

“Things are starting to age out all over our town,” she said.

Cain and Councilmember Matt Peppes also pointed out that customers paying the tax would not be limited to just Leawood residents.

Mussman said he could not name restaurant tenants yet, but Drake has agreements on three of the four spaces that would be created. He said they may announce who will be filling the new space in the next 30 to 90 days.

The development will create one 10,000-square-foot building on its western side and a 6,400-square-foot building to the east. Both buildings would be located closer to 119th Street than the now-shuttered Houlihan’s has been, and each would have two tenants.

Hints at what’s coming there

Mussman described the tenant of the largest space — about 6,500 square feet in the western building — as an upscale, sit-down “American bistro,” restaurant with other locations in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Del Mar and Orange County, California.

Next door to that will be a 3,600-square-foot space housing an upscale health-focused eatery specializing in salads, bowls and wraps.

Both are part of a restaurant family prominent in the American Southwest and both will be unique in the Kansas City area, he said.

The potential tenant for the eastern building is a sit-down coffee shop of about 2,400 square feet with no drive-through, he said, adding that the owner is based in Los Angeles and other locations are in upscale areas of California.

What happens next

In a separate vote, councilmembers unanimously approved the preliminary and final plans for the site. Some noted a lack of signage on the 119th Street side, but sign issues will be part of later discussions.

Barring any snags, Drake officials expect the tenants to be announced in the next couple of months.

Construction tentatively would begin in May, with the first grand openings in the spring of 2027.