What’s up at Bob Evans?

So, what’s going in the old Bob Evans building?

Sorry, it won’t be another new restaurant to tempt your sweet tooth or taste buds. However, it is tooth related.

Mark Dunning, assistant city manager of development for Lee’s Summit, said that question about Bob Evans is one of the more frequent queries he’s been getting recently.

The answer is an Aspen Dental office.

“People aren’t nearly as excited when they hear what it’s going to be,” Dunning said.

Aspen Dental is network of independent dental practices, which have business and administrative support from a management company. It has more than 600 offices across the United States, according to its website.

Dunning said there’s also been a lot of interest in a new building going into Ritter Plaza, off Missouri 291 and north of Swann Road. That’s a PetSmart, according to a banner hanging there.

The Bob Evans restaurant was closed by the chain in April 2016, along with other “under-performing stores.”

810 Zone, a sports bar, at 1672 Chipman Road, opened in 2012 and closed January 2016, at that time with plans to reopen. Those plans fell through and that building is still on the market.

It earlier had been the Peachtree and before that Fritz’s Grill, Dunning said.

The two sites are on the very southeast edge of SummitWoods Crossing next to the U.S. 50 exit to Chipman Road, though some said access to the businesses was difficult.

Dunning said that the location of the sites and access come into play with regard to potential uses and may have had an impact on previous uses.

“It would be hard to pinpoint exactly why these restaurants have closed though,” he said.

On the opposite side of the highway, the city is considering a plan to raze a multi-story building and levy an extra 1-cent sales tax on that property to pay for it. Drake Development Company is asking to form a Community Improvement District for that site, which also without direct access, behind Summit Fair shopping center.

Drake Development plans to build two restaurants at 740 N.W. Blue Parkway and wants the tax district to pay about $1.1 million of the $1.9 million cost of buying that building and its demolition. The deal excludes the estimated value of the land without a building.

This story was originally published August 15, 2017 at 11:28 AM with the headline "What’s up at Bob Evans?."