Retail

Hufft helps Tuft & Needle become sleeper retail success story

Thanks to startup mattress company Tuft & Needle, architecture and design firm Hufft has found a soft spot in today’s hard-pressed retail market. 

The online industry disrupter chose Hufft last year to design its experiential prototype store serving the Kansas City market, a project so successful that 10 additional stores are planned for 2019 in addition to stores in Portland, Ore. and Raleigh, N.C.

"The idea was to create a space that felt like home, making the mattress buying experience a little less intimidating," Hufft Design Principal Dan Brown said. "It can be uncomfortable to lay on the bed with your significant other or yourself."

Hufft's concept store in Leawood replaced the sea of flat mattresses and harsh lighting typically found in mattress stores with soft lighting and four semi-private rooms where customers can test mattresses and meet with a "no pressure" sales rep if needed. Orders are placed via iPad and shipped directly to the home.

“It’s exactly what people are talking about when they talk about the future of retail being experiential,” Brown said. “It’s lean, customer centric and experience-based. The concept is more about conveying the experience of the brand, rather than picking from 1,000 products. It’s not about having the most things but about having the most quality.”

Hufft’s on-site fabricating shop creates project efficiencies by producing everything from fixtures to furniture to in-wall rolling casework and cabinetry. The unique combination of retail design expertise and custom fabrication is helping the firm carve out a niche in the crossroads of e-commerce and experiential retail.

“We can quickly roll out these stores. They hand us a location and a box size and then we work with them to develop the concept using the KC store as a template,” Brown said. “While we are in the design process, we can also be building cabinets and fixtures, for the space so it’s a really seamless process.”

Launch Development prepares for liftoff of new mixed-use at former Loehmann's site

Construction is wrapping up on the first phase of The Promontory, a $98 million, 291-unit residential-over-retail redevelopment at 91st and Metcalf in Overland ParkLaunch Development Inc., in partnership with Jim Harpool and Evergreen Real Estate Services, plans a grand opening this spring.

“One of the big differences between this and any other project we have is that all the residential parking is separate from the retail parking,” Harpool said. “The units are wrapped around three sides of the parking garage, and you can park on the level that you live. So you just walk in and you’re home.”

All the Promontory’s one- and two-bedroom units include high-end finishes, 12-foot ceilings, balconies, and walk-in showers. Common spaces include a clubhouse with demonstration kitchen/bar, multiple flat-screen TVs, ample gathering space, and workstations.

Outdoor living spaces include a swimming pool/deck area and courtyard/green gathering area connected by a breezeway, or “cave,” that can be closed off depending on the weather. The breezeway features a big-screen TV, bar and fireplace. The indoor mezzanine area is home to a yoga studio and fitness center with treadmills overlooking the pool deck.

Harpool, a longtime proponent of Metcalf Avenue redevelopment efforts to the north and south of 95th Street, said the Loehmann’s project was not without challenges. Overland Park stormwater retention requirements added $1.3 million to site prep costs.

“We had to create a 12- to 14-foot high detention basin beneath the parking lot. You can park 17 semis under there,” he added.

The Promontory is part of multifamily redevelopment boomlet taking place between 95th and 80th streets along Metcalf Avenue. The residential projects aim to piggyback off about 1 million square feet of new or redeveloped office space taking shape in the corridor.

“You’re going to have between 800 and 900 units close to Downtown Overland Park opening in 2019,” Harpool said. “Between Tim Barton’s office building, Avenue 82 anchored by BRR Architecture, and Shamrock Industries across the street planning to hire 1,000 people, we have a little hub here.”

KC Wine & Liquors opened a new store at The Promontory in December, and additional leased space is available for retail stores and restaurants. At full buildout, The Promontory will include a total of 490 retail units and more than 150,00 square feet of retail space.

For retail leasing at The Promontory, email Ryan Robertshaw at Ryan@KCEvergreen.com

View a promotional video of The Promontory.

Check out a gallery of The Promontory clubhouse and residences below.

Panera set to open metro’s first Generation IV restaurant

New Belton location includes larger footprint, drive-thru, technology upgrades and modern farmhouse décor

Panera Bread will open the Kansas City region’s first Generation IV restaurant in Belton on June 8, 2018. The 6,000-square foot restaurant located at 1211 E. North Ave. in Belton Marketplace is about 10 percent larger than previous Panera Bread locations and includes an outdoor patio and dining area, as well as drive-thru.  

The new farmhouse-themed restaurant will offer a “five-fecta” of services, providing an enhanced customer experience with amenities such as delivery service and catering, ordering kiosks, drive-thru and rapid pickup of items.  

The Belton Panera location is operated by Pan American Group, which is hiring more than 50 local workers for positions such as retail associates, managers, shift supervisors, delivery drivers, and bakers.

Pan American Group is a wholly-owned subsidiary of California-based Flynn Restaurant Group and owns and operates almost 130 Panera Bread Bakery-Cafes throughout the U.S., including Kansas and Missouri.

A ribbon cutting for the Belton Marketplace Panera will take place later in June. 

 

Hufft 'small box' concept pops onto big-market retail scene

Hufft is playing big with its ‘small box’ pop-up design, a concept that has allowed homegrown retailer Baldwin Denim to try major markets on for size without signing long-term leases. Over the past 12 months, the Kansas City-based architecture firm and fabricator’s store-in-a-box has helped Baldwin Denim expand to New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, and San Jose, California.

Hufft founder Matthew Hufft and Baldwin Denim founder Matthew Baldwin are longtime friends, so Hufft was game when Baldwin asked him in 2017 to fast-track design for a pop-up store in New York City.

“It started with (Baldwin) saying, ‘hey, we need a popup store in a few months. How can we get that done on a budget?’” Matthew Hufft said. “We worked with them to develop a scalable model, basically a store that can ship to almost any location and be set up in days. Landlords are loving this model and offering better lease terms because of it.”

Packed inside one plywood box, the “pasture in the city” pop-up landed rave reviews from Interior Design magazine, with editors calling the mashup “one of the most innovative pop-ups” they’ve ever seen. Fabricated at Hufft’s Kansas City headquarters, the concept features design nods to Midwestern barns and landscapes.  

The entire store is shipped in three birch-plywood shipping crates comprised of two nesting “prairie tables.” When separated, the rustic tables feature edges that resemble Kansas hillsides. The theme continues with a dressing room shaped like a grain silo flat-packed for easy assembly without fasteners.  

“We are helping create (Baldwin’s) brand experience, and looking at the retail industry overall we understand we have to do it differently,” Hufft said.

Additional Baldwin Denim stores in Denver and Austin are expected by the end of the year. Check out the slideshow provided by Hufft below. Click on the photo to advance the gallery. 

B&B Theatres celebrates opening of 'Old Hollywood'-inspired New Longview 7

B&B Theatres debuted its new seven-screen boutique theater in New Longview in March, the chain’s first metro-area ground-up project in six years.

Check out a time-lapse of B&B’s New Longview 7 Theatre nine-month construction project

New Longview 7’s Grand Screen is the first theater in the world to feature a dive lighting system with individual lights corresponding with each speaker, offering moviegoers an immersive, “rock-the-seats experience,” according to Brock Bagby, B&B Theatres executive vice president.

“Those lights can be changed and can do whatever we want them to. We can have every single one a different color, so let’s say we are watching Finding Dory, then we can change the entire room to look like an ocean. This is the very first theater in the world to have this, right here in Lee’s Summit, Missouri,” Bagby said.

The Grand Screen is six stories wide and four stories tall, making it one of the largest screens in the nation coupled with DTS immersive surround sound.

“You’ve got the biggest industry subs behind the screen, so it’s gonna shake your chairs. It’s an amazing experience,” Bagby told attendees at the theater's Opening Gala on March 21. 

Guests are greeted by an Art Deco-themed lounge and bar area complete with a 35-foot long bar, clusters of comfy chairs, outdoor seating area, and fireplace nook with sofas. Developer Russell Pearson with Box Real Estate Development said designers drew inspiration from Art Deco projects around the country, a theme that plays out with starburst designs incorporated into the flooring and custom lighting fixtures.

“The B&B design motif is very much ‘Old Hollywood,’ and the Art Deco period we focused on is very specific between 1930 and 1935,” Pearson said. “It just so happened that the architect that designed Longview Farms, Henry Hoit, went on to design a number of Art Deco projects in Kansas City from which we drew inspiration.”

The opening of the 28,000-square foot complex comes just two months after B&B completed a multi-million dollar upgrade of Lee’s Summit 16 on Northeast Douglas Street. The project included extensive remodeling, the addition of a new MX4D concept and screenPLAY, an auditorium dedicated to families and young children that includes a playground.

Check out a slideshow from B&B Theatres' Opening Gala below; click on the photo to advance.