Kansas City food hall closes permanently: A ‘difficult decision’
After just over a year in business, Strang Chef Collectives has closed its food hall location inside Cascade Hotel on the Country Club Plaza.
The last day of operations was Monday, Dec. 23.
“We were excited about the opportunity to expand the Strang brand to the Country Club Plaza but ultimately realized that this concept was not fit to be located inside of a hotel and had to make the difficult decision to close this location,” Strang Chef Collectives CEO Shawn Craft announced in a news release Monday.
It is Strang Chef Collectives’ second closing in as many months. A location at 1100 Main St. in the Lightwell building closed in November. Craft attributed that closing to declining foot traffic in the downtown business district post-pandemic.
The Plaza location opened in November 2023 with four food concepts: Khai-noy (Asian fusion), Verde (Latin American), Parma (Italian) and Gasthaus (German). It also featured indoor-outdoor seating, two bars and a coffee shop. It opened a few days before the 10-story, 177-room Cascade Hotel debuted at 4620 Wornall Road.
“Eight months of hotel construction delays significantly affected the company’s required investment to launch operations,” Craft added. “Once open, the location did not bring the expected foot traffic the restaurant hoped for with ongoing center-wide challenges at the Country Club Plaza or the anticipated business from within the hotel development.”
The Country Club Plaza has been in decline in recent years, with vacant storefronts dotting the once-thriving district and occasional shootings scaring off shoppers and diners. The Dallas-based real estate firm HP Village Partners purchased the Plaza for $175 million in July from The Macerich Co. and The Taubman Centers, which had purchased it in 2017 for $660 million.
HP Village Partners has said it plans to spend $100 million overhauling the district, adding more pedestrian walkways, making extensive infrastructure improvements, adding security, restoring Spanish facades, and bringing in more local restaurants and shops.
Strang Hall, the first and only remaining concept from Strang Chef Collectives, is still open at 7313 W. 80th St. in downtown Overland Park.
“We will continue to evaluate new location opportunities for the future of Strang Hall and to invest in our downtown Overland Park location, which the community has embraced,” Craft said.
This story was originally published December 23, 2024 at 2:23 PM.
