A grocery store, hundreds more apartments could come to Johnson County near IKEA
More than 200 apartment units, 12,500 square feet of retail space, and a proposed grocery store will be going before the Merriam Planning Commission for approval as the next phase of a sprawling redevelopment near IKEA.
Dubbed Grand Station Marketplace, Slater Investors LLC — represented by Overland Park- based commercial real estate group Drake Development — is requesting a rezoning and preliminary development plan approval from Merriam city officials for a $102 million mixed use development project on IKEA Way, W. 62nd Terrace and Shawnee Mission Parkway.
The grocery store, apartments and added retail will follow the developer’s recent overhaul of Merriam’s former Kmart site nearby, which now is home to the Grand Station Lofts luxury apartment complex and several new restaurants.
If the Planning Commission approves Drake’s proposal on Wednesday, the development group can remove all of the existing buildings and parking lots to rebuild the area just north of Shawnee Mission Parkway.
The area currently holds the former Johnson County Library Antioch branch, which closed last year, library maintenance buildings, parking lots, two office buildings, a restaurant and a car service station, according to the Planning Commission Staff report.
Drake owns the buildings that are home to a Shell Gas Station (8820 Shawnee Mission Parkway) and a Chipotle on the site. The developer has a contract to purchase the gas station building and Shell’s lease, and the Chipotle at 8800 Shawnee Mission Parkway will remain through the redevelopment.
The library buildings and one of the office buildings are currently vacant. Drake plans to relocate the other office building’s tenants — Poss-abilities Children’s Therapy Group and Quality Inventory Services — to another location in Merriam, according to the staff report.
Site history and proposals
Most of the buildings slated for demolition were first developed in the 1950s. In 1975, the city built the library’s maintenance building at 6235 Slater Street, according to the staff report.
The current Caribou Coffee building (8722 Shawnee Mission Parkway) was built in 1994.
This isn’t the first time Drake Development has worked with Merriam.
In 2022, Drake proposed Merriam Grand Station, a $137 million mixed-use development with retail and residential space for hundreds of apartments on the city’s old Kmart site, which closed in 2013. After city approval, developers broke ground in June 2023.
With its newest potential addition, Drake is putting a grocery store back on the table after the city first rejected that idea in 2022.
But things have changed in the area in the three years since.
“Since the closing of Hen House, Merriam residents have expressed a desire to bring a grocery store to their community,” the staff report stated. “In last year’s Merriam Community Satisfaction survey, 58% of the residents agreed that Merriam should try to bring a grocery to the city even if it required a multi-million dollar incentive package.”
Along with the proposed 12,500 square foot retail grocery store, Drake is proposing 212 more apartment units, underground parking and 4,000 square feet of restaurant space. Tenants have not been announced yet.
Part of the proposal includes a request for tax increment financing, industrial revenue bonds, property tax abatement, and establishing a community improvement district, but those items are outside of the Planning Commission’s purview. The City Council will consider these at a later date.
The Merriam Planning Commission hearing begins at 7 p.m. in the City Council Chambers at City Hall, 9001 W. 62nd St.
This story was originally published May 6, 2025 at 12:29 PM.
