Is KC’s Plaza safer under new owners? Here’s what shop owners and visitors say
When Kari Lindner, in 2023, began work as general manager of the Made in KC Plaza Marketplace on the Country Club Plaza, two people that summer were shot on the street, one hit by a stray bullet, fired in the historic, Spanish-styled shopping district.
Night after night, parades of motorcycles and ATV’s roared down West 47th Street, shattering the summer calm. Throngs of teenagers gathering near Shake Shack created an air of menace. Car thefts and break-ins seemed almost endemic.
“My first year here, that first summer,” Lindner said, “that’s when we had the huge car thefts and car break-ins going on. I shouldn’t say huge, but it was a regular occurrence. Either it was happening to us, or we were hearing about it from other people.”
The summer of 2024 was more of the same. Another person was shot. Teens continued to gather, so much so that Shake Shack that June shut down its dining room and bathrooms from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., “(d)ue to substantial safety risk and business disturbance caused by violent, habitual trespassers.”
The situation has changed.
One year ago this month, new ownership, the HP Village Partners out of Dallas (since rebranded as The Village Collection) bought and took over what is now the 102-year-old district, promising not only to return it to its previous glory, but also — as principal partner Ray Washburne said in announcing the purchase — to make security the Plaza’s first, second and third priorities in order to bring visitors back.
That promise, Plaza merchants and area residents say, so far is being kept.
Security on the Plaza
As part of their security measures, the new owners have repainted facades, planted flowers and made other changes that may seem strictly cosmetic, but also increase security by making the Plaza more inviting, thus attracting visitors which helps reduce crime. Some $1 million in security lighting has also been added to parking garages along with 50 new security cameras on the streets bringing the number to some 250. The cameras are monitored 24/7.
“The nicer it (the Plaza) is, the more people that come,” Lindner said. “The more people that are around, there’s less opportunity for those you don’t want to be here to be here. People do bad things in hiding. They don’t normally do bad things in busy places with a lot of lighting.”
A new emergency text alert system for Plaza tenants has also been put in place.
“We never had an alert system before,” Lindner said.
Of special significance: In May, the new owners hired a new security company, Metro Public Safety, adding a beefed up presence of private security officers as well as off-duty Kansas City Police Department officers who not only are authorized to be armed, but also are authorized to detain suspects rather than simply observe and report incidents.
Between eight and 20 officers are on duty at any one time depending on the day and hour.
“The new security team is absolutely amazing,” Deserae Minor, owner of KC Style Haus, 4704 Wyandotte St, said. “They are quick to help and they check on us periodically. When there’s an issue, they come over almost immediately. . . .If a store calls something suspicious in and they can’t get there in time, they can look at the cameras to see where the person went and then follow up at that location.
“Since the new security team has started, theft in my store has dramatically decreased, and I’ve definitely seen a positive change on the Plaza.”
Alyssa Cartwright, manager of eb and company, an accessory shop at 327 W. 47th St., said she no longer feels nervous walking to the parking garage at night.
“Now that there’s security around, I feel like I can go to my car without issue,” she said. “There’s definitely an uptick in security. I see them walking around all the time.”
Jon Van Maren manages the bar and restaurant Rye KC, at 4646 Mill Creek Parkway.
“It’s definitely gotten better,” he said of security. “Just the presence. The cops that are here now, the security people, they are actually armed. And they actually will engage, whereas before they would kind of just watch from afar.”
Van Maren recalled his frustration at calling the Plaza’s previous security officers regarding an individual exhibiting concerning behavior outside the business.
“I had to call a few things in,” he said. “There’d be a guy. They’d say, ‘Yeah, we have eyes on him,’” to which Van Maren said he responded, “ ’Yeah, OK, well, I’m pretty sure he’s smoking crack in the corner.’ Now, they will come out immediately.”
Summer is only six weeks old. Teenagers still gather on the Plaza. So far no significant incidents have been reported.
Observe and report to armed security
Scott Keller, who in December took on the role of the Plaza’s general manager, said the new ownership group began working to improve security soon after the Plaza was purchased.
“I think a lot of things stem from security,” he said. “Everything from leasing to customer foot traffic. Security has got to be good for people to want to come down here.
“So immediately after acquisition, the team launched into all the things we could do quickly” — meaning $500,000 on painting, adding $1 million in new garage lighting and cameras — “just getting stuff brighter and cleaner, because perception a lot of times is security.”
“Then we launched into a review of existing security protocols, really in-depth,” Keller said. “When I got here in December, I spent the first three months really analyzing our security — the number of officers, how they were equipped, what their support was, the technology behind it. Which is what led us to making kind of a wholesale change in early May from Class B observe-and-report style security to Class A armed security, meaning they have the power of detainment.
“So if there is a suspect shoplifting, or doing whatever, they can detain them, hold them, call KCPD. They can pursue them. They are generally more qualified. Better trained. Better equipped.”
30 reported crimes in the past year
Because the Plaza’s upgraded security began only in May, there is not yet enough data to determine whether the Plaza has seen an actual statistical drop in crime. No retail center in the Kansas City area is immune to thefts, burglaries, robberies or other felonies or misdemeanors.
The Plaza’s 15 city blocks are no different.
In the year since the Dallas ownership group took possession in July 2024, CityProtect, an online blotter system used by the Kansas City Police Department, shows 30 crimes reported on the Plaza. The great majority, 21, are listed as non-aggravated assaults, meaning no weapon was used and victims likely suffered minor or even no injuries. Several were cases listed as “domestic violence.”
The site also shows seven robberies. It also includes reports of two serious felonies, a sodomy reported in September 2024 and a rape that occurred around 1:30 a.m. on Oct. 24, 2024. Both cases remain open and under investigation by Kansas City police.
Sideshows no longer as common
Residents who live on the outskirts of the Plaza insist they also sense a major change in the district on summer nights: It’s significantly quieter. Street racing and tire-burning “sideshows” in the area have faded.
Residents credit both the new Plaza security and efforts by Kansas City Police, which in November began a special effort to crack down on street racing and sideshows.
Kathie Conwell, a 10-year Plaza resident, said that in recent years, the sound and sight of cars and motorcycles screeching or thundering through the Plaza had practically become a summer routine.
“I face Brush Creek. It used to drive me crazy, especially Sunday nights,” Conwell said. From her home, she could see cars gathering atop the parking garage near the former Halls department store.
“They would wait until they got a good bunch of them up there. Then someone would signal. Then they’d all get in their cars and peel down the ramp, one after the other. It would just echo across the creek. It sounded like I was at the speedway. . . .
“I would call Plaza security, and it would be like, ‘Yeah, and you want us to do what?’”
No longer.
“None of that since the new ownership. None of that,” she said. “It’s been eerily quiet. Pleasantly. I could sit up on the roof. I could sit out on the front patio. And there is a certain peace and calm to it that there was not a year ago.”
Conwell said she and a friend often walk the Plaza in the early morning.
“We’ve watched it deteriorate over the last couple of years,” she said. “I’ve seen amazing improvements as far as feeling much more secure. I feel very safe on the Plaza walking by myself. They (security officers) really make their presence known.”
Keller said that the Plaza security’s response time to complaints under the old system was often 20 and 30 minutes.
“We’re now down to three minutes or less,” he said.
Major goal: Changing perceptions
Improving safety at the Plaza, however, may be easier than changing people’s perceptions.
Talks with random shoppers at the district were unified in one way. All said they felt perfectly safe on the Plaza during the day. But at night, impressions were mixed.
England Williams spoke of her own harrowing moment. “I actually experienced me, at the Cheesecake Factory, hearing a gunshot about three years ago,” she said.
During the day, she said she feels fine on the Plaza. At night: “I try to watch my curfew. If I come out, I come out between seven and 10,” she said.
Overland Park residents Josie Benskin, 19, and Blake Sebastian, 18, stopped outside of lululemon. Days for them are also fine, they said.
“I feel like the environment changes a little bit at night,” Benskin said.
“I don’t ever feel unsafe,” Sebastian said, “but I definitely feel a little bit safer during the day.”
Nights during Christmas and Thanksgiving, the two said, is never an issue as the Plaza is often filled with people and families.
Back from college, Anna Massman , 19, from Kansas City, said that although she generally feels safe on the Plaza at night, “it’s not my go-to option.”
“I’m sure my parents, especially when I was younger, they didn’t want me getting a job where I would be working here at late hours. You hear — not always, but sometimes — about shootings. And I think it just makes you nervous. . . .I have friends who had jobs like that. I had a friend that worked at The Melting Pot. She would leave really late sometimes, and she would be like, ‘This feels a little sketchy.’”
The Plaza’s new owners are well aware of the mixed impressions.
“You know,” Keller said, “obviously we want to see a reduction in statistical crime. That’s one big thing.
“But there’s also a big challenge with the perception of crime. That’s where I think it’s really important for us. How our tenants feel about being on the Plaza, how our customers feel about being on the Plaza, how the nearby residents and business owners feel about being on the Plaza is really what drives us. . .
“We changed security in May, and we’ve seen some dramatic impact already, but the real long-term impact, particularly in perception of customers, is going to take time.”
Although about 30% of the Plaza’s storefronts are currently empty, Keller said the company expects to hand its future development plan to the city by the end of the year. He said he also expects, at that time, to likely make announcements on some future tenants.
Renovating and building anew on the Plaza is going to take years. Once construction begins, new tenants sign on and the Plaza undergoes change, Keller said, the expectation is that perceptions will change, too.
“I think one of the things that gets overlooked,” he said, “is that as we fix the leasing challenges at the Plaza, people will also feel more safe. It just feels less safe if you see vacant storefronts, right?
“Obviously that’s way up on the priority list for us. As we fill spaces, people will feel more safe.”
This story was originally published July 13, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
