For 20 years, the site at the southwest corner of Roe Avenue and Johnson Drive in Mission has sat as an empty lot.

Now, after years of failed starts for proposals submitted by the same owner, the potential for a new site owner is becoming more of a possibility because, earlier this month, a Johnson County judge cleared the way for a public auction of the long-troubled site.

The same judge sided with New York-based Metropolitan Commercial Bank in December 2025 to sell the site as part of a years-long foreclosure case.

R.H. Johnson Company, the owner of local retail areas like Merriam Town Center and Meadowbrook Shopping Center, wants to buy the site once foreclosure proceedings are finished, but there are no firm plans of what could come of the site.

The current owner, Aryeh Realty LLC, a subsidiary of longtime owner and New York-based Cameron Group LLC, has been on the hook for years to maintain the property.

Still, the site is overgrown with weeds-turned-trees surrounding the empty white box of a would-be entertainment center and the makings of a parking structure — the remnants of a failed project.

The city — which has never owned the site — monitors the site, issues code violations and, in certain cases, steps in to address safety concerns related to the state of the site, according to the city’s website.

“The City will continue to explore more aggressive ways to address the site condition, but we want to be careful not to spend hundreds of thousands of tax-payer dollars — which could take years to be repaid — to make the site more presentable,” the city’s frequently asked questions reads.

As the city — and the community — awaits the end of foreclosure proceedings, here’s a timeline of how the long-vacant site got here.

The timeline: 20 years of vacancy, failed starts

In 2005, the Mission Center Mall closed over the course of that year. The mall featured stores like Dillard’s and Victoria’s Secret as well as eateries like Pretzel Time.

By 2006, the Mission Mall was completely demolished. That same year, the Mission Planning Commission approved a redevelopment plan with Cameron Group for a mixed-use project at the site.

Cameron Group’s ownership started a 20-year saga of vacancy, failed starts and unpaid taxes for the Mission Gateway site.

Between 2007 and 2015 alone, developers submitted several revised plans to the city’s planning commission and the Mission City Council that failed to materialize beyond public incentives. The city often heard from developer Tom Valenti, co-founder of Cameron Group.

Here is a timeline based on the Post’s coverage of the site, dating back several years.

• 2013: A site plan, with approved public incentives, featured a proposed Walmart with ever-changing specifics. A groundbreaking was held that August with the intention of marking the end of the hurdles brought on by the 2008 recession.
• 2014: The site sat vacant following the groundbreaking, and in June 2014, Valenti explained the construction delay was related to a lack of a junior anchor tenant for the site.
• 2016: Walmart pulled out of the plan after years of back-and-forth. Valenti vowed, at that time, to find an anchor tenant to replace the mega retailer, calling their departure a mutual decision. Aryeh Realty, Cameron Group’s subsidiary, took ownership of the site.
• 2017: The city council approves a new final site plan featuring a restaurant, hotel, retail space and an apartment building.
• 2018: The city took the first steps to issue more than $200 million in industrial revenue bonds as part of the public financing approved for the 2017 project. Preliminary construction began in July 2018, a week after the developer paid $2 million in unpaid taxes.
• 2019: Developers paid back millions owed to contractors following three liens filed in January and February. Cinergy Cinemas and Entertainment announced plans to anchor the development. Construction was paused in 2019 due to weather and design work, and restarted that June.
• 2020: Construction started in January on the 90,000-square-foot Cinergy space, but was halted two months later due to COVID-19 shutdowns. Hopes of restarting construction dwindled as the year progressed, with Valenti telling the city council that October that the economic impacts of the pandemic caused the delay.
• 2021: Developers failed to pay $356,000 worth of real estate taxes that May. The 2017-plan expired on Dec. 31, 2021, though the developer signaled plans to submit a new agreement the next year.
• 2022: The city worked with developers all year to finalize a $268 million plan for the 16-acre lot in November 2022 that featured a food hall, Cinergy and apartments. The city council punted public financing decisions to 2023.
• 2023: The city council approved millions of dollars worth of public incentives for the site in January, only for the New York-based bank to file to foreclose on the site’s mortgage that April. Developers defaulted on the redevelopment agreement for failure to pay $447,700 in property taxes in May. By July, the city council terminated its months-earlier approved Mission Gateway deal.
• 2024: The city cut its final ties to the 2023 plan when it terminated the public financing portions of the proposal.
• 2025: After more than a year of inactivity, the city council discussed what it might want to see become of the Mission Gateway site. By the end of the year, a Johnson County judge ruled the bank is able to sell the site as part of the foreclosure lawsuit.
• 2026: The same Johnson County judge issued a final ruling that cleared the way for a public auction to take place. Now, a local developer is eyeing the site following the foreclosure proceedings, though nothing is set in stone.

The structures, weeds and outstanding taxes

Commuters who pass by Mission Gateway know the site for its overgrown weeds, a large, white box of a would-be entertainment center and the makings of a parking garage.

While Aryeh is responsible for maintenance of the site, the city of Mission has stepped in as needed, largely for safety purposes.

City Administrator Laura Smith told the Post that the city has spent between roughly $20,000 and $30,000 on items like fencing to keep people from going up into the parking structure and graffiti removal.

Efforts to contract out mowing of the site have fallen short due to the accessibility issues into the site, Smith said.

The money the city has spent on abating safety issues at the site gets certified onto the tax bill, Smith said, to be paid with the site’s property taxes. For 2025 alone, Aryeh is delinquent on upwards of $950,000 worth of property taxes for the site.

Smith said any unpaid taxes, including abatements, will be sorted out through the foreclosure process as property sales typically need to be handed over free and clear.

As for the structures and the overgrown weeds on the site, if the foreclosure sale moves forward, then the demolition and cleanup will ultimately fall to the new owners, Smith said.

If the sale moves forward, then Aryeh’s responsibility for anything related to the site is subject to the foreclosure proceedings, Smith said.

Smith said it’s hard to quantify how much it has cost the city for the site to sit vacant as it has been a “lost opportunity” for 20 years.

While the city has approved incentives over the years for different proposals for the site, Smith said, the city has not paid out any incentives to the developer for Mission Gateway.

Where things stand

The judgement, issued on Oct. 2, means Aryeh now owes the New York bank more than $46 million on a $24 million loan. The additional more than $20 million is for interest, on top of the unpaid principal.

If Aryeh failed to pay the bank the judgment within two weeks of Oct. 2 — roughly Oct. 16 — then the bank would have become able to ask the court to issue a sheriff’s sale of the property.

There is currently no update available in court records regarding whether the judgment has been paid.

The judge must approve the sale of the site to a new owner before a change of hands can be finalized.

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