Bannister Mall
Encyclopedia
Bannister Mall was a shopping mall
on the southeast corner of Kansas City, Missouri
that closed on May 31, 2007, after being open for almost 27 years. It was originally anchored by Dillard's
(formerly Macy's
), JCPenney, The Jones Store
, and Sears.
between I-435 and Hillcrest Road. The area was once the site of the Three Trails (Santa Fe
, California
, and Oregon
). The mall was one of the largest malls in the Kansas City area in a previously vital and vibrant shopping area. In the early 1980s, Bannister Mall was the "place to go" with a draw over a large area that was mostly from South Kansas City, Jackson County, Missouri
, and Johnson County, Kansas
. In 1988-1990, an area north and east of the mall called Benjamin Plaza was added to the commercial retail area. In 1995, the mall was one of two final candidates to host the filming of Kevin Smith
's film Mallrats
, but when the management objected to the script, the Eden Prairie Center in Eden Prairie
, Minnesota
was chosen instead.
By the mid to late 1990s with newer and more desirable developments further south and in Johnson County Kansas, the area began to wane. Also, due to consistent white flight
, the area around Bannister Mall earned a bad reputation as being a high crime area. This combination led to the present blight of the area. By 2005, three of the four anchor stores in the mall were gone. Bannister Mall once hosted 180 stores, but by 2007 only 50 stores were open.
In April 2007, it was announced that due to low population and rising costs of operation that the mall would close. At the time, only half of the mall was open, with the northern part blocked off. The failure of the mall was largely due to migration to the suburbs and a sharp rise in violent crime, both in the surrounding area and at the mall itself. The only new construction in the area is the replacement of the Kansas City Fire Department
's Fire Station 41, which once was facing Bannister Road and now is facing Hillcrest Road. The nearby Wal-Mart Supercenter
closed in January 2007, which was a day before a new Wal-Mart opened on the site of the former Blue Ridge Mall now called Blue Ridge Crossing
. The Bannister Wal-Mart was one of the company's earliest Hypermart
stores, but it later changed to the Supercenter format. At the end of May 2007, Bannister Mall closed its doors.
, who had previously planned to build a new stadium on the site, finalized plans to build their stadium in Kansas instead. Lane4 Property Group, Inc. stated that they will continue development of the Bannister Mall site, but as a retail and office project
.
Shopping mall
A shopping mall, shopping centre, shopping arcade, shopping precinct or simply mall is one or more buildings forming a complex of shops representing merchandisers, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit, along with a parking area — a modern, indoor version...
on the southeast corner of Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
that closed on May 31, 2007, after being open for almost 27 years. It was originally anchored by Dillard's
Dillard's
Dillard's, Inc. is a department store chain in the United States, with 330 stores in 29 states. Headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas, Dillard's locations are concentrated in Texas and Florida; with a major presence in other states including Arizona, Iowa, Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, Missouri,...
(formerly Macy's
Macy's
Macy's is a U.S. chain of mid-to-high range department stores. In addition to its flagship Herald Square location in New York City, the company operates over 800 stores in the United States...
), JCPenney, The Jones Store
The Jones Store
The Jones Store Company was an American chain of department stores located in the Kansas City area formerly operated by Mercantile Stores Company and the St. Louis, Missouri-based May Co.-History:...
, and Sears.
History
Bannister Mall was built and opened in August 1980 at 5600 Bannister Road in Kansas City, MissouriKansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
between I-435 and Hillcrest Road. The area was once the site of the Three Trails (Santa Fe
Santa Fe Trail
The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century transportation route through central North America that connected Missouri with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1822 by William Becknell, it served as a vital commercial and military highway until the introduction of the railroad to Santa Fe in 1880...
, California
California Trail
The California Trail was an emigrant trail of about across the western half of the North American continent from Missouri River towns to what is now the state of California...
, and Oregon
Oregon Trail
The Oregon Trail is a historic east-west wagon route that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon and locations in between.After 1840 steam-powered riverboats and steamboats traversing up and down the Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri rivers sped settlement and development in the flat...
). The mall was one of the largest malls in the Kansas City area in a previously vital and vibrant shopping area. In the early 1980s, Bannister Mall was the "place to go" with a draw over a large area that was mostly from South Kansas City, Jackson County, Missouri
Jackson County, Missouri
Jackson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Missouri. With a population of 674,158 in the 2010 census, Jackson County is the second most populous of Missouri's counties, after St. Louis County. Kansas City, the state's most populous city and focus city of the Kansas City Metropolitan...
, and Johnson County, Kansas
Johnson County, Kansas
Johnson County is a county located in northeast Kansas, in the central United States. The county is largely suburban, being part of the Kansas City metropolitan area, and containing many of its affluent southwestern suburbs. As of the 2010 census, the county population was 544,179. Its county...
. In 1988-1990, an area north and east of the mall called Benjamin Plaza was added to the commercial retail area. In 1995, the mall was one of two final candidates to host the filming of Kevin Smith
Kevin Smith
Kevin Patrick Smith is an American screenwriter, actor, film producer, and director, as well as a popular comic book writer, author, comedian/raconteur, and internet radio personality best recognized by viewers as Silent Bob...
's film Mallrats
Mallrats
Mallrats is a 1995 film written and directed by Kevin Smith. It is the second to be set in Smith's View Askewniverse series of interlocking films set mostly in New Jersey, although the movie was filmed in Eden Prairie Center and Osowski's Flea Market which are located in Minnesota...
, but when the management objected to the script, the Eden Prairie Center in Eden Prairie
Eden Prairie, Minnesota
As of the census of 2000, there were 54,901 people, 20,457 households, and 14,579 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 21,026 housing units at an average density of 649.2 per square mile...
, Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
was chosen instead.
By the mid to late 1990s with newer and more desirable developments further south and in Johnson County Kansas, the area began to wane. Also, due to consistent white flight
White flight
White flight has been a term that originated in the United States, starting in the mid-20th century, and applied to the large-scale migration of whites of various European ancestries from racially mixed urban regions to more racially homogeneous suburban or exurban regions. It was first seen as...
, the area around Bannister Mall earned a bad reputation as being a high crime area. This combination led to the present blight of the area. By 2005, three of the four anchor stores in the mall were gone. Bannister Mall once hosted 180 stores, but by 2007 only 50 stores were open.
In April 2007, it was announced that due to low population and rising costs of operation that the mall would close. At the time, only half of the mall was open, with the northern part blocked off. The failure of the mall was largely due to migration to the suburbs and a sharp rise in violent crime, both in the surrounding area and at the mall itself. The only new construction in the area is the replacement of the Kansas City Fire Department
Kansas City Fire Department
The Kansas City Fire Department provides fire protection, emergency medical service, emergency rescue and hazardous materials response for residents of Kansas City, Missouri.It operates 34 fire stations that are organized into seven battalions and cover ....
's Fire Station 41, which once was facing Bannister Road and now is facing Hillcrest Road. The nearby Wal-Mart Supercenter
Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. , branded as Walmart since 2008 and Wal-Mart before then, is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world's 18th largest public corporation, according to the Forbes Global 2000...
closed in January 2007, which was a day before a new Wal-Mart opened on the site of the former Blue Ridge Mall now called Blue Ridge Crossing
Blue Ridge Crossing
Blue Ridge Crossing is a shopping center located in Kansas City, Missouri and Independence, Missouri on I-70 & Sterling Avenue at Exit 10.-Location:...
. The Bannister Wal-Mart was one of the company's earliest Hypermart
Hypermart USA
Hypermart USA was a demonstrator project operated by Wal-Mart in the 1980s, which attempted to combine groceries and general merchandise under one roof at a substantial discount. The hypermart concept was modeled after French retailer Carrefour which had been operating big box stores in France and...
stores, but it later changed to the Supercenter format. At the end of May 2007, Bannister Mall closed its doors.
Demolition and redevelopment
The mall was demolished in early 2009. In December 2009, the Kansas City WizardsKansas City Wizards
Sporting Kansas City is an American professional soccer club based in Kansas City, Kansas that competes in Major League Soccer , the top professional soccer league in the United States of America and Canada...
, who had previously planned to build a new stadium on the site, finalized plans to build their stadium in Kansas instead. Lane4 Property Group, Inc. stated that they will continue development of the Bannister Mall site, but as a retail and office project
The Trails
The Trails will be a retail and office development. It will be located north-south from 87th Street to Bannister Road and west-east from I-435 to Hillcrest Road in Kansas City, Missouri. The mall is developed by LANE4 Property Group, Inc. The Trails site is currently under construction. The first...
.
Anchor tenants
- JCPenney – (closed 2000)
- Dillard'sDillard'sDillard's, Inc. is a department store chain in the United States, with 330 stores in 29 states. Headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas, Dillard's locations are concentrated in Texas and Florida; with a major presence in other states including Arizona, Iowa, Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, Missouri,...
– (closed 2002)- formerly Macy*s
- The Jones Store Co.The Jones StoreThe Jones Store Company was an American chain of department stores located in the Kansas City area formerly operated by Mercantile Stores Company and the St. Louis, Missouri-based May Co.-History:...
– (closed 2005) - Sears – (closed 2006)
Competition
- Village WestVillage WestVillage West is a $573 million, retail, dining and entertainment development that opened in 2002 in Kansas City, Kansas. It is located at the intersection of Interstates 70 and 435...
– opened in 2002 - Oak Park MallOak Park MallOak Park Mall is a super-regional shopping mall located in Overland Park, Kansas, containing 200 stores in a covered area of . It is the largest mall in the Kansas City Metro Area as well as the entire state of Kansas, and is split into two levels and contains five department stores.It was...
– opened in 1975 - Zona RosaZona Rosa (Kansas City)Zona Rosa is an approximately , mixed-use development located in Kansas City, Platte County, Missouri. The project opened in 2004 and is expected to be expanded by an additional by early 2009...
– opened in 2004 - Blue Ridge Mall – (Demolished) – Blue Ridge CrossingBlue Ridge CrossingBlue Ridge Crossing is a shopping center located in Kansas City, Missouri and Independence, Missouri on I-70 & Sterling Avenue at Exit 10.-Location:...
is a new shopping center at the same site. - Independence CenterIndependence CenterThis article is about a commercial retail center in Independence, Missouri. For the arena also in Independence, see Independence Events Center. For the not-for-profit agency in St. Louis, Missouri, see Independence Center ....
– opened in 1974 - Ward Parkway CenterWard Parkway CenterWard Parkway Center or Ward Parkway Mall is a shopping center located in Kansas City, Missouri on the Kansas/Missouri border line. The location surrounds the area from 85th Terrace to 89th Street on the North/South and State Line Road to Ward Parkway on the West/East. Once a two floor mall with a...
– opened in 1959
External links
- Bannister Mall starts to fall
- Dead Malls.com feature on Bannister Mall
- 3 Trails Village Community Improvement District's site (the district includes the mall area)
- "Mall's sad decline provides cautionary tale," Kansas City Star column by Mary Sanchez, May 21, 2007
- "The Trails" Lane4 Property Group's site about the redevelopment