New rendering of KC’s Plaza shows hundreds of apartments, 10-story buildings
The owners of the Country Club Plaza have made no secret of their desire to add hundreds of apartments and multiple 150- to 200-foot buildings to the historic Spanish-styled shopping district, adding density, and what they hope to be new vitality.
On Monday, the Gillon Property Group, released its latest rendering of how the Dallas group envisions the Plaza’s future to be, with an image created as if viewed from the top of the 275-foot-tall building already approved for the three-acre lot on the Plaza’s western edge, where a Nordstrom department store was once planned.
From the renderings, the look of the 102-year-old Plaza would be dramatically different from what has existed for decades: A multi-story building with a new domed tower, encompasses the block where the Cinemark movie theater and Brio Italian Grille once were. What appears to be a seven-story apartment complex stands, overlooking Brush Creek on the Plaza’s south side, where the former Seasons 52 and other shops along Ward Parkway are located.
In the distance to the east, a 10-story complex sits atop the former Hall’s department store. Another complex of at least 12 stories rises from above where Rye Plaza and other shops exist along Mill Creek Parkway, as well as the space Chuy’s, the Mexican restaurant, once occupied.
Opposition mounts to plan for taller buildings
The rendering has been released on the same day that the Gillon Property Group was set to go before the Port of Authority of Kansas City Board of Commissioners, in a first step, to consider incentives for the Plaza’s redevelopment. According to the agenda, the company was seeking $1.4 billion in bonds and tax breaks for redeveloping 1.7 million square feet of commercial space, 750 residential units and 278 hotel rooms over the next 15 years.
The hearing on the item was postponed Monday and was being held for a subsequent date.
The new highrise buildings on the south side of the Plaza, which show no balconies, appear similar in general style to the historic apartment complexes such as the Casa Loma Apartments, the St. Regis Plaza Apartments and the Majestic Plaza Apartments across Brush Creek.
The rendering also comes one day after the Kansas City chapter of the American Institute of Architects sent a letter, and their own renderings, to members of the Kansas City Council, objecting to the size and scale of buildings being planned.
The AIA’s executive committee renderings were created before the release of the Gillon Property Group’s.
“These diagrams demonstrate how increasing the allowable buildings heights forever changes the overall character of the historic neighborhood,” the AIA leaders wrote, “and negatively impacts the pedestrian experience by casting long shadows and overwhelming the human scale the Plaza Bowl set out to protect.”
In their rendering, the 200-foot building alongside the iconic Seville Tower makes the structure look, in comparison, like a pencil nub.
The letter urges both the Gillon Property Group and the City Council to “reevaluate the proposed building heights and work to preserve the human scale of the Plaza for future generations.”
It ends with an appeal.
“We implore you to consider the long-term consequences of the December 3 City Planning Commission review of this project and rethink the proposed variance,” the letter reads.
Plaza owners say they have different intent
In response to the AIA’s letter, Dustin Bullard, a vice president with the Plaza ownership group, noted that “(t)he renderings provided by the AIA KC do not portray the intent or form envisioned by our team.”
The Gillon Property Group officially presented their desire for taller buildings on the Plaza in October, when the company submitted preliminary guidelines for its MPD, or master development plan, to the city.
Bullard, in response to the architecture group, said that “additional details related to the MPD will further enhance development guidelines to ensure buildings as shown by the AIA are not allowed on the Plaza.
“From day one our team has committed to a collaborative approach related to the future of Country Club Plaza and look forward to meeting with AIA KC and others who are interested.”
Big promise, big buildings
In June 2024, the Plaza was purchased for a reported $175.6 million by HP Village Partners, whose owners are descendants the late oil tycoon, H.L. Hunt, father of Lamar Hunt, founder of the Kansas City Chiefs.
At that time, the principal partner, Ray Washburne, promised Kansas Citians that this company, now called the Gillon Property Group, would restore the Plaza to its past glory as among Kansas City’s jewel attractions.
Since the purchase, security on the Plaza, with armed security guards, has amped up. The company has added new lighting, made facade and cosmetic changes and had been working to upgrade outdated office space. Major construction, anticipated to have been underway prior to the June 2026 FIFI World Cup in Kansas City, is projected to begin after the World Cup.
Gillon has long been suggesting that greater density, meaning apartment buildings, a hotel and commercial offices, would help increase the number of people on the Plaza, and thus its success.
Building big on the Plaza has been an issue for decades, with numerous developers wanting to do so, only to back down in the face of community protest and vocal opposition.
In 2019, a “Plaza bowl overlay” ordinance was passed to protect the overall look of the shopping district, requiring buildings at the center of the Plaza to be no more than 45-feet tall, rising to no greater than 130 feet along its perimeter.
In September, the Kansas City Council overrode the bowl overlay, approving a building as tall as 275 feet on the three-acre site of the once-planned Nordstrom department store at the Plaza’s west edge.
‘It’s just the high-rises that we’re mad about’
The latest plans, revealed in initial master development plans to the city, have spurred fresh opposition. Besides the KC American Institute of Architects letter, Plaza neighbors are now circulating an online petition on change.org, as well as gathering signatures in-person on the Plaza, opposing the greater heights.
“It would ruin the beautiful and unique architecture of the Plaza that has been there for 102 year,” said Tracie Dittemore, a 12-year Plaza area resident, who is among those who initiated the petition. “We just don’t think it fits into the Plaza.”
“You won’t even be able to see Seville Tower as you’re driving down Broadway and Mill Creek.”
Dittemore said she was excited when the Plaza sold last year to the new owners. She has been impressed with some of the changes they have made regarding security.
“You can see how they’re painting things, and up-keeping the buildings,” she said. “It’s just the high-rises that we’re mad about.”
This story was originally published November 17, 2025 at 3:04 PM.
