Redeveloped Great Mall in Olathe could have hockey arena, apartments, entertainment
The former Great Mall of the Great Plains property could have a new lease on life with Salt Lake City-based Woodbury Corporation’s plans to buy the 100-acre site and redevelop it for sports and entertainment.
Woodbury announced Tuesday that it is under contract to purchase the property at Interstate 35 and 151st Street, with a concept for a $300 million mixed-use project called Mentum.
The site is envisioned to have a 4,000-seat arena and community ice center for youth hockey, to be operated by an affiliate of Loretto Sports Ventures owned by Lamar Hunt Jr. It is also expected to include about 250,000 square feet of entertainment, retail and restaurant venues, plus 200,000 square feet of office and medical spaces, 300 apartment units and two hotels, according to a press release from the company.
The Olathe City Council was scheduled to get a briefing on the plans Tuesday night, including details of a request that will be made for STAR bonds from the state of Kansas. Those bonds allow the redirection of sales taxes back to the development to repay eligible development costs, but the project must promote tourism.
“This is only the first step in the process. The council will spend a great deal of time in the coming weeks understanding the project,” Olathe city spokesman Tim Danneberg said Tuesday. “Redeveloping the mall site has been a priority for years. We feel very good about having a company like Woodbury leading the charge. They have a very good reputation.”
Danneberg said the Olathe council would schedule a public hearing on the STAR bonds and would eventually need to approve a series of development and financial agreements to move the project forward.
The mall opened in 1997 and flourished for a time but closed in 2015. It was demolished in 2016. In December 2016, the Olathe City Council voted to create a 270-acre STAR bonds district for the site.
Tim McKee, CEO of the Olathe Chamber of Commerce, said he’s been working for years to see positive redevelopment occur at the site, and he’s hopeful about the latest plan.
“We’ve got a wonderful developer with a proven track record,” he said.
McKee said the community doesn’t want an industrial warehouse project there, and the public-private financing is the only way for this type of mixed-use development to occur.
According to the press release, the arena would serve as the home base for the Kansas City Youth Hockey Association. Plans are to attract major youth hockey tournaments to the arena throughout the year.
An ice hockey arena was previously contemplated in 2016 for Bluhawk, a Price Brothers mixed-use development at 159th Street and U.S. 69 in southern Overland Park. That site was mentioned as a possible home for a United States Hockey League team that could be a recruiting ground for professional hockey, including the Kansas City Mavericks, based in Independence.
But the Bluhawk ice hockey plan was withdrawn in 2017 after neighbors objected, arguing hockey fans would create a traffic hazard and block already busy arterial streets.
At the time, Lamar Hunt Jr., Loretto Sports Ventures and the Mavericks made a statement that they were committed to growing youth, amateur and professional hockey in the Kansas City region.
Other development plans remain sketchy, but entertainment anchors under consideration are an interactive golf facility and a cinema complex.
Woodbury Corporation has been in business since 1919 and is a full-service real estate development company. It owns and manages more than 14 million square feet of retail, industrial, residential and other uses across 15 states. In the Kansas City metro area, its private equity arm has partnered on projects including 760 apartment units and 215,000 square feet of commercial space. It is a partner in the Lenexa City Center development and in the Avenue 81 senior living center under construction in Overland Park.