Lawrence soda shop coming to Legends Outlets in KCK

Lawrence’s Mass Street Soda Co. is coming to the Kansas City area.

Founders Matt Baysinger and Lucas Thompson opened the soda shop in April 2014, offering more than 1,300 varieties of premium craft sodas, including bottles of Dang Butterscotch Root Beer from Wisconsin, Filbert’s Lime Green Old Time Chicago Soda, and Olde Brooklyn Birch Beer — and drawing soda fans from up to 200 miles away.

They also ship their sodas to online customers across the country.

Now they’ve signed a lease for a 1,600-square-foot space at the Legends Outlets Kansas City, 1843 Village West Parkway, Kansas City, Kan., under Dave & Buster’s. They plan to open KC Soda Co. there by June with a similar menu as Mass Street Soda Co., including ice cream and floats.

“We have to buy in such bulk quantities that this essentially doubles our buying power,” Baysinger said. “I would expect our number of available sodas to climb significantly as soon as we open.”

Then the partners will introduce their own soda under the KC Soda Co. brand later this summer. The first three flavors will be a cream soda, a root beer with a special kick (perhaps cinnamon), and a peach soda using peaches from Kansas and Missouri. Then they will ask fans to suggest the next flavors. The two retail shops also will offer KC Soda Co. flavors on tap, including seasonal flavors.

Baysinger, Thompson and another partner, Ryan Henrich, also are opening Breakout KC in the River Market, a live action escape room game based on the popular online games. It is scheduled to open later this month.

Corbin Park updates

Block & Company Inc. Realtors has sold a 2.61-acre pad site in Corbin Park.

The land, on the Lamar Avenue side of the Overland Park center, sold for about $2 million and a new 16,500-square-foot multi-tenant building will be constructed on the site.

810 Zone previously said it would put a two-story restaurant and bar, with patio and second level deck, on the site. It will have a sports gallery with Kansas City sports memorabilia from high school to college to professional sports, five super-sized digital projector screens, and a revamped menu of made-from-scratch items, including new smoked meat offerings, along with longtime customer favorites.

A national mattress retailer also is a proposed tenant. About 6,000 square feet is still for lease. Construction is expected to start in May.

Backwoods closes

Backwoods, an outdoor apparel and gear retailer, has been building a loyal fan base in Kansas City for more than 40 years, including more than seven years at 6825 W. 135th St. in Corbin Park.

But two years ago, two national competitors announced plans to open nearby: Mega sports retailer Scheels , opening this summer in Corbin Park, and REI (Recreational Equipment Inc.), which opened in PrairieFire, a center to the east, in September 2013.

At the time, officials with all three companies said the three stores would create a sports retailer synergy at 135th Street and Metcalf Avenue. But some retail experts predicted that the market was not big enough to support all three.

Now Backwoods has closed its doors.

In a statement, Rob Morales, chief operating officer for Backwoods, said: “In evaluating our business across all our locations as well as considering new opportunities we are choosing to pursue, we decided to close this location. The KC metro area has been a location we’ve had in our portfolio for many years and we have enjoyed our time in the area, but at this time in our evolution, we have decided to open ourselves up to other options.”

This story was originally published April 7, 2015 at 1:48 PM with the headline "Lawrence soda shop coming to Legends Outlets in KCK."