From the Press

It has enticed some of the hottest names in the city's hippest areas to expand to suburbia: Blue Koi Noodles & Dumplings and Room 39 from 39th Street's restaurant row, Aixois in the Crestwood shops, and Mildred's Coffeehouse in the Crossroads Arts District.

Instead of suburbia's beige strip malls, Mission Farms will be spread out in several buildings with "Westport" red-brick and taupe-stucco facades and green-gray slate roofs.

Office and residential units will be above the retail and restaurants, just like the metropolitan area's oldest commercial neighborhoods.

"We want to be a Brookside to this neighborhood and focus on the type of retailers that come out of Westport, Crestwood, midtown and the Crossroads," said Doug Weltner, a partner in Grubb & Ellis/The Winbury Group in Kansas City who is developing the project with Mark Sutherland and the Sutherland family. "The neighborhood surrounding it is 40, 50 years old and is under-restauranted, under-retailed. So we hope to do business with Mission Hills, Fairway to the north and, to the south, Hallbrook and south Leawood."

The $75 million project -- now under construction at the northeast corner of Mission Road and Interstate 435 -- will have 115,000 square feet of restaurants and retail on the first floors, including the locally owned restaurants, a locally owned jewelry store, a bar and grill overlooking a lake, and a combination art gallery and art school for adults. The upper levels will house 115,000 square feet of office space and 60 condominiums.

Robben Development Co. of Leawood will oversee the condominiums, scheduled to open in October and range from the low $300,000s to about $700,000. They will have high-quality finishes and two underground parking spaces per unit to attract nearby residents who might want to downsize. Mission Farms also will include 22 villas.

Twenty high-end homes have been built on the north part of the property, former site of the Saddle and Sirloin Club.

The restaurateurs were attracted to the built-in clientele from the new condos, villas and existing neighborhoods, and hope the office workers also will beef up the lunch business and stop for gourmet takeout on the way home.

"People are always approaching us about going out south and I keep saying, not out south," said Megan Langlade, owner of Aixois with her husband, Emmanuel.

"But my grandmother lived in old Leawood and it seems a little more urban, a little more interesting than other areas out south. I don't want to be next to a Cheesecake Factory or Outback Steakhouse. I don't even want to look at them."

Debbie Luce Ashby also was looking to open her fourth area Mildred's Coffeehouse in Mission Farms when she lost her lease after 12 years in downtown Overland Park. She also has two locations in Kansas City.

"Business in downtown Overland Park can be seasonal, so I m hoping this will be more consistent," Ashby said. "It's enough south from my other locations and the land is owned locally and developed by people who have been around a long time, so I think it will be done tastefully."

The developers also hope to have land on the west side of Mission Road rezoned for additional retail, residential and office, along with a new bridge over Indian Creek that would connect Mission Farms to Interstate 435 off Roe Avenue.

The Sutherland family owns the land, which is zoned for agriculture. Members of the Sutherland family live just north of the site.

"We think the neighborhood is really going to embrace the project and it will be a part of the community at that location," Weltner said.

"This will be their local coffee shop, where they will go to have dinner, and a destination for the trail system for the bikers and walkers."

Possibilities

Northeast corner of Interstate 435 and Mission Road, Leawood

231,000-square-foot mixed-use project with retail, residential and office

Median household income in a two-mile radius as of 2002: $71,666

Population in a two-mile radius as of 2002: 25,723

Daytime workers in a two-mile radius as of 2002: 39,168

Traffic counts: 131,000 vehicles on Interstate 435

To reach Joyce Smith, call (816) 234-4692 or send e-mail to jsmith@kcstar.com.