This decades-old KC area bakery must close and move to make way for a car dealership
Merriam’s Strawberry Hill Baking Co., a decades-old bakery that sells cheesecake and Eastern European pastries — most notably povitica — must close its current location.
The building at 7226 W. Frontage Road in Merriam will soon become a Genesis of Kansas City car dealership. Strawberry Hill’s owner, Marc O’Leary, said his bakery will have to move out after Christmas.
Now, O’Leary is searching for another location, hopefully with time to spare.
“We’re looking right now for just whatever we can find. We can move into an industrial building fairly quickly, but we want to preserve this,” O’Leary said, gesturing to the memorabilia hanging on the walls.
The 21,000-square-foot building is divided into two sections: an industrial kitchen and a walk-in market with a front counter. While it has a retail space, a vast majority of O’Leary’s business is online and wholesale through vendors and stores.
Black and white photographs of his family members holding pots and pans hang in picture frames. An original “Strawberry Hill” sign is lit up inside. O’Leary points to a photo of Lamar Hunt holding up his povitica.
“We have a rich Kansas City history,” O’Leary said.
He hopes the business won’t have to move far from its current spot, so his in-person clients won’t have a long drive.
O’Leary’s family recipe for povitica, a swirled Croatian sweet bread pronounced (po-va-TEET-sa), dates back to 1903. About 40 years ago, his father, Harley O’Leary, began selling it out of the back of his truck.
Strawberry Hill’s first brick and mortar was at Fifth and Barnett streets in the Strawberry Hill neighborhood of Kansas City, Kansas. It later moved to a bigger, 7,800-square-foot space in Lenexa.
The Merriam spot has been Strawberry Hill’s home for the last 14 years.
In November, real estate company Mather Co. notified Strawberry Hill that the building had gone under contract with Minnesota-based Walser Automotive Group.
Walser aims to build the Genesis dealership, according to Mather property manager Colette Rowe.
Despite the necessary switch-up, O’Leary said he doesn’t see Walser as “the bad guys.”
“Progress is always in motion,” he said.
In a statement to The Star, Walser promised that the dealership would be a “world class location.”
Genesis of Kansas City recently opened a location at 7722 Metcalf Ave.
The Merriam location will be one of many dealerships along that strip of Interstate 35. Toyota, Porsche, Hyundai and several others would neighbor the new Genesis.
Strawberry Hill’s cinnamon walnut coffee cakes, strawberry cream cheese povitica, triple chocolate cheesecakes and more are still available in store and online at strawberryhill.com.
This story was originally published June 6, 2024 at 3:14 PM.