Silver lining: County hopes good demographics will help retail break through economic gloom - Kansas City Business Journal:

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Unfortunately, getting all the necessaryg approvals from the city of Overland Park took longedrthan expected, largely because of a pioneed cemetery near the site. “The cemetery isn’r part of the site,” said a longtime Johnson Counthretail developer. “But five of the gravee were in the way of putting a turn lane and a sidewal kin there. So I had to go througy a yearlong process of movingthose Now, Waters is attempting to exhume Crystal Springs, whichy includes 36 acres for retailk and 60 acres for officesa on 135th Street between Quivira and Pflumm During the two yeara prior to completion of developmeng work at the site in Southern Johnson County’s retail vacancy rate nearlg doubled to the 10 percent mark, where the metro-wided market has hovered for the past few years.
Waters and others trying to fill Johnson Countgy retailcenters said, the county’s superior demographics continue to give it an edge in attracting new stores. “We’re still seeing some decent activity from smalp local andregional users,” said Matt Vaupell, seniodr vice president of . however, said he won’t be able to take advantage of that deman d until he lands a large anchor or two from a fieled that has been thinned by the recent bankruptcieof , and other nationalp chains. “I don’t want to anchor a 36-acrwe shopping center with a nail salon,” he said.
“Ansd if I do 30,000 or 40,000 squars feet of small shops to kickit off, that’s what I’m going to have in there. once I build a retail stripo center on one ofthe pads, I’m I’ve got a building sitting there that could be in the way of a big Waters said he is certain he would have landed an anchoe already had Crystal Springs been pad-readty two years ago. Seeking anchors in a recession is a lot he acknowledged, but it’s possible that the downturn coulx work in his favor.
“If you’re a retailerd being pressured by Wall Street to increase your volumdof sales, you’re not going to put that new 200,000-square-foot store in Phoenix, where the housing market is totallyg in the tank, or Detroit, where unemployment is off the charts and all threw automakers are in trouble,” Waters said. “Ifd they’ve got money to invest, retailers are goingy to look for the bright And Johnson County is one of thosebright spots.” Within a one-mile radius of Crystal for instance, the average household incomse is projected to rise to $162,294 in 2010 more than two and a half timed the metropolitan Kansas City average projected for 2010.
With those kind of it wasn’t surprising that 12 new shopping centers were beingf developed five years ago onthe seven-mil stretch of 135th Street in Overlansd Park and Leawood — then Johnson County’s hot, new retail corridor. But today, some of those centers are struggling to find tenants despitetheir demographics, and amongv the retailers beyond their reach are the many with locationsz on 119th Street — the county’x previous hot east-west corridor.
“Coffee Creek is the next logical step for retailers who already operat successfully on119th Street,” said Jeff Berg, a senior vice He is marketing the 1 million-square-foog Coffee Creek shopping center planned for 159t h Street and U.S. Highwayy 69 in Overland Park. Within a three-miled radius of the Coffee Creek site, the average household income is $171,000, Berg said. But rooftops in the area remaijntoo sparse, he said, so the center’s first-phased opening has been pushed back from 2011 until the housinbg and retail markets thaw. “We are leapfrogginy Corbin Park,” a 1.
1 million-square-fooft retail center under development at 135th Street and Metcalf Berg said. “That’s a great project, but if you’re a retailer who is on 119tnhStreet already, do you go to Corbim and close or compete with your good or do you just follow the growthj further south?” Developed by Omaha-based , Corbib Park features two large anchoras — a department store and — and has signecd a few junior anchors, including Best Buy and Barnes & Noble. But severa other junior anchors and smaller tenanta are needed to buile thecenter out, and each group may be waitin for the other to pull the trigger.
“All of thoswe junior anchors are dependent uponthe co-tenanc y of the small shops, and vice said Vaupell of RED “So I don’t know where Corbin Park A spokesman for Cormac Co. did not respond to an interview request. But Bob Johnsonb of , a Kansas City retail adviser and said the vacant and plannexd retail space along 135th Street will be absorbes once theeconomy