Mixed-use demand fuels Drake Development’s project surge

“You’ve got to be willing to adapt and listen to the market and listen to your users as well,” said Ian Mussman, director of sales & leasing, at Drake Development LLC.

Mussman spoke at the September breakfast meeting hosted by CCIM Kansas City. He highlighted three of Drake’s current projects in the metro area.

Merriam Grand Station, located at the southeast corner of Shawnee Mission Parkway and I-35 in Merriam, Kansas, is nearing completion. The site once housed a Kmart, which sat vacant for more than a decade.

Drake completed its first site plan for the site in July 2020. It took Drake over 2 ½ years to work through the assemblage and entitlement processes. Drake acquired the five-parcel site from three different property owners.

The 50-foot grade change from the northeast corner to the southwest corner of the site presented the most significant challenge to redeveloping the site.

“One of the reasons that it sat available for so long is that it was in a hole. It sat almost 20 feet below Shawnee Mission Parkway grade, and none of the high-profile tenants of the city who would want to go into a project like this would ever accept a site like that. We came up with a creative solution and ended up raising the site just under 15 feet. So almost the roof of Kmart, more or less, became the finished floor of the new project,” Mussman said.

The original site plan featured a power center lineup. Mussman said there was little lending appetite for big box, and Drake’s attempt to add a hotel was not a winner in those early months of COVID.

After many site plan revisions and the expenditure of a hefty amount of architectural engineering dollars, the nearly completed project features 361 multifamily units with underground parking, retail space and a civic activity space. Mussman said all but one retail space has been leased.

The City of Merriam wanted an environmentally and green friendly civic space which, Mussman said, was never part of the original plan. However, through a public-private partnership with the city, Drake is constructing a canopied space that will have solar panels to help power the project’s common area parking lots.

A second project, on which construction is just starting, is Cocina 47, located at 604 W. 47th Street in Kansas City, Missouri. The project on the north side of the

Country Club Plaza is adjacent to another of Drake’s redevelopment projects, the Jack Henry building.

Cocina 47 on the Country Club Plaza , where the Seventh Church of Christ, Scientist used to be, is set to open in 2026. Image Credit: TR i Architects

Mussman said when Drake acquired the Jack Henry building, it learned that the neighboring Seventh Church of Christ, Scientist building had become too large for its shrinking congregation and too expensive to operate.

“So quickly we realized there was an opportunity to modernize their space in a way that better fits their needs. This is a super complex deal that we had to come up with a way to let them ‘condo-out’ their space,” said Mussman.

The church is reducing its footprint by approximately one-half and is acquiring the condo space at no cost to them. Until construction of Cocina 47 is complete, the church is housed in the Jack Henry building.

Mussman said it took 54 months between the time it acquired the property until it began construction on Cocina 47.

“We’ve completed demolition and now we’re working on everything that goes below grade before we go vertical,” he said.

According to Mussman, the tenants, who he was unable to disclose yet, will be high end restaurant groups on the second and third floors of the three-story building, with first floor space still available.

Mussman said Drake anticipates completing the building shell by late 2025 or early 2026 and having tenants open in 2026.

The third project Mussman discussed is located at the southwest corner of Highways 50 and 291 in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, the municipality where Drake has made its most investment. The project is in its planning stages.

Oldham Village, in Lees Summit, Mo., would include 15 retail pad sites, 300+ apartments and, potentially, a field house and fitness center. Image courtesy of Drake Development

Mussman said this project started in 2020. Drake initially purchased one parcel with the intent of developing it as industrial. Then Drake considered big box, which the city did not want. Drake settled on apartments with retail pads. According to Mussman, tenant recruitment is not an issue because currently 92,000 cars a day pass in front of the site.

“As the plan evolved, we ended up growing the scope and growing the property assemblage,” he said.

The project, which Mussman called a “monumental undertaking”, now involves 15 parcels from 12 different property owners and more than 46 acres.

“This one is especially hard because these businesses you see here, these are owner-occupied businesses. They don’t care what your appraisal says. They don’t care what your pro forma says. This is their livelihood. This is where they fed their family for decades. It’s a very emotional decision, and it requires a lot of creativity,” said Mussman.

Mussman said Drake purchased nearly half of the parcels on a sale-leaseback which allowed the sellers to raise capital to relocate, find a new home and continue to operate their businesses.

Besides tackling the assemblage issues, Mussman said the biggest challenge on this project is the sanitary sewer. He said there are approximately $3.5 million of offsite sanitary sewer upgrades needed to allow new businesses to open and operate at the site. This has discouraged other developers, but Drake will make the improvements which will benefit an 835-acre area. In addition, Drake must relocate a perimeter ring road.

Mussman said Lee’s Summit has been looking for a site for a fieldhouse for several years. In place of one of the three apartment phases Drake had planned, the city will construct a 120,000 SF fieldhouse facility.

“When we bought this site, if you would have told me we were doing a 120,000 SF fieldhouse with the city, I would have laughed. And here we are. It just went to council last week, and they approved the contract,” he said.

Mussman said he anticipates construction of the project will begin before the end of the year. The city’s planning commission approved Drake’s plan last week, and it is headed to the city council shortly.

Mussman noted that all three projects are located in core areas.

“We’re not trying to shift the center of gravity and go out in a cornfield and make everyone go somewhere. These already have an insane amount of traffic. They’re highly desirable areas for tenants and residents. And then we just figure out how do we solve the puzzle and make something economically feasible that also meets the city’s and residents’ demands,” said Musssman.

Header Image: The long-vacant Kmart site at the intersection of Antioch Rd. and Shawnee Mission Pkwy. is set to come back to life. Drake Development has submitted plans for a $136 million project, named Merriam Grand Station. Rendering courtesy of Drake Development