6.15.2006
The Gateway’s mission: mixed-use project to replace outmoded mall.
MISSION, Kansas | The Mission Center Mall demolition will not be glamorous—rather than a showy implosion to bring down the 350,000 square foot former mall, the structure will slowly crumble over four months as earthmovers gnaw at it.

Nonetheless, the demo is the first phase of the Cameron Group LLC’s $380 million redevelopment of the site. Mission is a suburb of Kansas City, Kansas—population 10,000.

In Mission Center’s place is to rise a 1.3 million square foot mixed-use development called The Gateway, says Tom Valenti, acquisitions principal with the Syracuse, New York-based Cameron Group, who says the company acquires malls for redevelopment or infill opportunities.

The Mission Center Mall, which opened in 1956 as an open-air shopping center anchored by Macy’s, was converted into an enclosed shopping center in 1989. Nine years later, the nearby Rock Creek flooded the first level. After tenant erosion and evidence the existing structure would not remain, the mall was shuttered after its sale closed in February this year with just two tenants remaining.

Originally Wal-Mart approached Copaken White & Blitt, the mall’s previous owners, to redevelop the 17-acre site, but a hastily-passed City Council measure levied against big box retailers (read: Wal-Mart) nixed that.

The way was cleared for Cameron Group’s acquisition, which began in August 2005 and didn’t close until February 2006. Cameron Group is part of The Gateway Developers LLC, a partnership that includes GFI Capital Resources Group. Valenti says the mall sold for approximately $7 million.

The Gateway will feature 500,000 square feet of retail space, 180,000 square feet of office space, a 150-room hotel, 350 condominiums and row houses, space for an extension of the Johnson County Community College and more than three acres of public green space.

To those involved, the future success of The Gateway seems secured.

“Take a look at an aerial map of Mission,” says John Anderson, a broker and manager with Prudential Kansas City Realty. “Within a five mile circle there’s nothing but rooftops. Mission has just been ripe for redevelopment.”

Anderson says Kansas City has seen the same downtown condo redevelopment that other Midwestern cities have enjoyed in recent years—and now that development is marching out into the suburbs.

“For those on the Kansas side [who] want the condo lifestyle, this is going to be ideal for them,” says Anderson.

In research for the acquisition, Valenti says, the Cameron Group stumbled across an interesting tendency.

“The dynamic is that most Kansans are loyal to Kansas,” he says. “They don’t stray over the border that much.”

Thus it stands to reason that developments like The Gateway are of particular interest to Kansas-based Kansas City residents because of its ideal location on the “right” side of the city.

“The appeal is the location and the market,” Valenti says.

The Gateway’s office space is a particularly welcome addition to Mission’s market. The strength of the office market in nearby Overland Park makes Mission and other inner suburbs appealing to office users, says David Zimmer, president of Zimmer Real Estate.

“Mission is a stone’s throw away from the older, preferred residential area,” says Zimmer.

The office space has seen interest, say Zimmer, but his firm hasn’t pulled out all the stops just yet.

“It’s probably more curiosity seekers than anything,” he says. “We’re identifying 150 of the largest Kansas City-based companies, and we’re going to go directly to those people.”

Zimmer says the firm is hoping to attract users who’ll take advantage of the live-work-play atmosphere offered by The Gateway.