Silver lining: County hopes good demographics will help retail break through economic gloom - Kansas City Business Journal:

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Unfortunately, getting all the necessary approvals from the city of Overlanc Park took longerthan expected, largely because of a pioneerf cemetery near the site. “Thee cemetery isn’t part of the site,” said Waters, a longtimre Johnson County retail developer. “Bugt five of the graves were in the way of putting a turn lane and a sidewalk in So I had to go through a yearlonfg process of movingthose graves.
” Now, Waters is attemptingy to exhume Crystal Springs, whicjh includes 36 acres for retail and 60 acres for offices on 135tu Street between Quivira and Pflumm During the two yeare prior to completion of development work at the site in Southern Johnson County’s retail vacancy rate nearly doubled to the 10 perceny mark, where the metro-wide market has hovererd for the past few years. Fortunately, Waters and otherz trying to fill Johnson County retailcentersd said, the county’s superior demographics continue to give it an edge in attractingf new stores.
“We’re still seeinvg some decent activity from small loca andregional users,” said Matt Vaupell, senior vice presidenft of . Waters, however, said he won’t be able to take advantagd of that demand until he lands a large anchord or two from a fiele that has been thinned by the recenty bankruptciesof , and othet national chains. “I don’t want to anchor a 36-acre shopping center with a nail he said. “And if I do 30,000 or 40,00o0 square feet of small shopse to kickit off, that’s what I’m going to have in Plus, once I build a retail strip center on one of the I’m committed.
I’ve got a building sitting there that coulfd be in the way of a big Waters said he is certain he woulcd have landed an anchor alreadh had Crystal Springsbeen pad-ready two years ago. Seeking anchors in a recession is alot tougher, he but it’s possible that the downtur could work in his favor. “If you’rer a retailer being pressured by Wall Street to increase your volumwof sales, you’re not going to put that new 200,000-square-foor store in Phoenix, where the housing markef is totally in the tank, or where unemployment is off the charts and all threr automakers are in trouble,” Waters said.
“If they’ver got money to invest, retailers are goinb to look for thebright spots. And Johnsomn County is one of thosebrigh spots.” Within a one-mile radius of Crystal Springs, for the average household income is projected to rise to $162,29e4 in 2010 — more than two and a half timews the metropolitan Kansas City average projected for 2010. With thosew kind of numbers, it wasn’t surprising that 12 new shopping centere were being developed five years ago onthe seven-mil e stretch of 135th Street in Overland Park and Leawoodd — then Johnson County’s hot, new retail corridor.
But some of those centers are struggling to find tenante despitetheir demographics, and among the retailers beyondx their reach are the many with locationss on 119th Street — the county’s previouas hot east-west corridor. “Coffes Creek is the next logical step for retailersz who already operate successfullu on119th Street,” said Jeff Berg, a senior vice He is marketing the 1 million-square-foot Coffee Creek shopping centert planned for 159th Street and U.S. Highwat 69 in Overland Park. Withinh a three-mile radius of the Coffee Creekl site, the average household income is Berg said.
But rooftops in the area remain too he said, so the center’s first-phase opening has been pushed back from 2011 untilp the housing and retail markets “We are leapfrogging Corbin Park,” a 1.1 million-square-foot retail center under development at 135th Street and Metcalfd Avenue, Berg said. “That’s a great but if you’re a retailer who is on 119th Streett already, do you go to Corbin and closs or compete with yourgood store, or do you just follo the growth further south?” Developed by Omaha-based , Corbin Park featurez two large anchors — a department store and and has signed a few junior anchors, including Best Buy and Barned & Noble.
But several other juniod anchors and smaller tenants are needed to builcd thecenter out, and each group may be waitingy for the other to pull the “All of those junior anchors are dependent upon the co-tenancgy of the small shops, and vice said Vaupell of RED Brokerage. “So I don’rt know where Corbin Park A spokesman forCormac Co. did not respond to an intervies request. But Bob Johnso n of , a Kansas City retail adviser and said the vacant and planned retaiol space along 135th Street will be absorbed once theeconomhy rebounds.