Meeting notes on the new owners’ plan for Country Club Plaza

After months of negotiations, the legendary Country Club Plaza in Kansas City finally has new owners.

Texas-based HP Village Associates is expected to close a deal on Friday and hold a press conference on Monday to formally announce the purchase. HP Village Associates is buying the famed shopping district from a joint venture of The Macerich Co. and Taubman Centers, which defaulted on $295.2 million in debt repayments in May 2023.

An affiliated company, HP Village Partners, operates Highland Park Village in the Dallas area, an upscale outdoor shopping center featuring numerous luxury retailers such as Carolina Herrera, Chanel, Dior, Fendi, Harry Winston, Hermès, Ralph Lauren, Tory Burch and Valentino.

To hear more details about the sale, more than 60 people — store owners, office tenants, local residents and longtime fans of the Plaza — attended the Plaza District Council meeting at the Made in Kansas City Marketplace on the Plaza on Tuesday morning.

The Plaza District Council is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting growth, vitality and inclusion for the Plaza and surrounding neighborhoods.

County officials said they are “optimistic” about the new owner. The message they are getting from HP Village is that they intend to be “legacy owners” who will “preserve, protect and enhance” the Plaza and will not deviate from its famous architectural charm.

Here are some things the Plaza could expect under the new owners:

• More local retailers and restaurants.
• An early focus was developing a long-vacant lot on the western edge of the plaza. The site previously housed two restaurants, a bank and a movie theater. They were demolished in 2019 to make way for a new 122,000-square-foot Nordstrom department store. But that deal later fell through when Nordstrom decided not to move from Oak Park Mall in Overland Park.
• New landscaping, signage, beautification projects.
• Additional residential development. With more residents, the plaza could once again offer a grocery store and other services.
• New facades for some buildings.

Plaza District Council officials said critics of any proposal should first ask themselves: “What’s the benefit?”

Country Club Plaza Saga

While real estate sources said there were talks about redeveloping the block with tenants such as The Classic Cup Café and Potbelly (as well as a closed Starbucks), representatives of the Plaza District Council declined to comment.

Attendees also asked about the future of the Plaza Tennis Center, but it is owned by the Kansas City Parks and Recreation Department.

The Plaza District Council is also working to make the area more pedestrian-friendly for the new KC Streetcar stop, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and other places of interest to visitors.

Flatland contributor Joyce Smith covered local restaurants and retail for the Kansas City Star for nearly 40 years. Follow her on X and Facebook at #JoyceKC and on Instagram and Threads at #joyceinkc.