You can see it without really trying when you drive down Metcalf Avenue on a Tuesday afternoon. Between two empty storefronts is a nail salon. Where a Pier 1 once stood is now a dollar store. window paint that was faded and never completely removed from a gym that closed in 2022. In the suburbs of Kansas City, the strip mall—the least glamorous of American retail formats—is struggling. It’s also becoming more difficult to ignore.
The suburban corridors are suffering the most from the steady increase in retail vacancies throughout the Kansas City metro. It’s more like a slow exhale that you only become aware of when you finally pause and pay attention, rather than a sudden collapse. Once thought of as the foundation of suburban convenience, strip centers and local retail clusters now have unsettling vacancy rates, according to commercial brokers. Some people have been that way for a long time.
All of this has a longer backstory. Even before the term “suburban retail” was coined, Kansas City was developing suburban stores. When Country Club Plaza first opened its doors in 1923, it set the standard for the metro’s approach to shopping outside of the city center for decades. It was structured, anchored, and walkable in its own car-dependent manner. Strip malls were less sophisticated and more practical when they first appeared. They dispersed throughout Lee’s Summit and Overland Park, lining the corridors of Johnson County. They had a function. They served it well for a while.
It’s more difficult to attribute what changed to a single factor, even though it’s always tempting to blame Amazon and move on. Online shopping is undoubtedly a contributing factor. However, the problems facing the strip mall now seem to be more complex than that. Over the past ten years, the anchors that once attracted customers—Bed Bath & Beyond, Tuesday Morning, and mid-tier clothing chains—have been slowly collapsing. Foot traffic decreases after the anchor departs. The smaller tenants begin to consider whether the lease renewal makes sense when foot traffic declines.
Obviously, COVID accelerated all of this. Early in 2021, national mall vacancy rates reached all-time highs, and although the suburban Kansas City market is not the same as a regional enclosed mall, it was nevertheless under pressure. Habits changed. People found that purchasing lightbulbs didn’t really require them to travel. Some of those habits might not have fully returned.
What’s left is a landscape that no longer feels as certain as it did ten years ago. Not all strip centers are having trouble; a grocery anchor in a strategic location can keep a center afloat, and medical tenants have been occupying spaces in unexpected ways. Strip malls that have figured out what e-commerce can’t provide—a haircut, a meal, a workout, or a doctor’s appointment—seem to be in the best position to thrive. The ones with longer vacancy lists are those that were constructed primarily for retail and still have a Hallmark card store as their flagship tenant.
It’s still unclear if this is a period of painful adjustment followed by some recovery, or if this is a permanent restructuring. Some investors are placing bets on repurposing. A few older strip sites in the suburbs of Kansas City have been surreptitiously considered for mixed-use redevelopment, a type of project that frequently fails and takes years to come to fruition. Some are simply waiting for the market to stabilize while collecting lower rents.
The message these vacant storefronts convey about the suburbs themselves is difficult to ignore. Strip malls were never attractive. However, they were helpful, and that was sufficient for a considerable amount of time. The question now facing Kansas City’s suburban retail market is whether useful is still sufficient.
