When will Johnson County’s new Trader Joe’s open? What city leaders expect
More Trader Joe’s fans in the KC metro will soon be able to fill their tote bags with dark chocolate peanut butter cups, soft and juicy mango, steamed soup dumplings and all of their favorites with a new location projected to open this fall.
Last summer, Merriam announced that the beloved grocery chain would be coming to town as part of the city’s approval of Grand Station Marketplace — a $102 million mixed use development on IKEA Way, W. 62nd Terrace and Shawnee Mission Parkway spearheaded by commercial real estate group Drake Development.
The new Trader Joe’s will be at the Johnson County Library’s former Antioch Branch, located at 6120 Slater St., and will be the popular grocery store’s third location in the metro. The other two stores are on Ward Parkway near Waldo on the Missouri side and off 119th Street in Leawood.
The store’s anticipated opening will fulfill the city’s years-long effort to meet residents’ pleas for a grocery store to replace the Hen House Market that closed in 2018.
City spokesperson Ciera White told The Star in an email that this fall is the general timeframe of the store’s opening, and city officials didn’t have a confirmed opening date as of June 22.
A Trader Joe’s spokesperson said the company didn’t have an opening date they could share.
A Star reporter who visited the site on Monday saw the 12,500-square-foot building fully intact, with the exception of a few windows boarded up. Construction crews worked inside the building, with people going in and out of the site during the day. While there’s no signage on the building yet, fencing along Shawnee Mission Parkway advertises the new Trader Joe’s site with its signature red font.
Representatives of Drake Development couldn’t be reached for comment before publication to speak about the site’s progress and remaining tasks left to get the building operational.
Other pieces to the project
Alongside the Trader Joe’s, Merriam’s Grand Station Marketplace is set to have more than 200 apartment units — with at least 18 affordable units — and over 12,000 square feet of retail space. According to Merriam’s website, the site will feature one to two sit-down restaurants, green space and walking paths.
The city worked with Drake for more than a year to buy several properties in order to develop the northwest corner of Shawnee Mission Parkway and Antioch Road.
The project will be funded by an existing Tax Increment Financing District, a 1% Community Improvement District sales tax and Industrial Revenue Bonds for both sales tax and property tax — tools that use public dollars in order to support the economic development of areas within Kansas cities.
A community improvement district is a designated area where an additional sales tax is applied to retail and restaurant sales. The 1% sales tax — or fifty cents on a $50 receipt — began collecting revenue last October and will continue for a 22-year period in order to pay off the general obligation bonds issued by the city.
The new Trader Joe’s will not be included within the Community Improvement District to avoid a cost increase on groceries for residents.
