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First, you are right, Bannister Mall was one of the largest and most successful regional malls in the entire nation in the 80's, but it didn't open in the 70's. It opened in late 1980. The reason I bring that up is because of how short of a life span the mall had. It was an incredibly rapid rise and fall that I'm not sure has occurred too many other times in the country. Older malls have died, but Bannister was a new, very large mall surrounded by some of the country's first "power center" big box shopping plus Hypermart.
Personally a few things led to its demise, the biggest thing being as you mentioned, KCMO's saturation of section 8 housing into South KC.
Southeast KCMO was a rapidly growing middle class suburban area. Districts like Raytown and Hickman Mills were highly sought after and the area was in high demand.
1.) KCMO began taking down its high density "projects" and dispersing the residents into single family homes in areas like Loma Vista, Ruskin and Hickman Mills. The city purchased many homes, way too many homes in too small of a area and rented them out to section 8 tenants without properly maintaining the homes are requiring tenants to maintain the them. The cancer spread. Homes became less and less valuable and crime began to increase. White flight took off like a wild fire and new growth came to a grinding halt. This is why you have a lot of infrastructure out there, but also a lot of empty land. The city thought it was going to continue to boom, but growth abruptly stopped. Very little has been built in all of SE KCMO since the early 80's. It's okay to have section 8 housing mixed with market rate, but you can't overdo and and you can't just rent property out and not enforce the rules and maintain the properties. KCMO's HUD had always had problems and they were recently taken over by the federal government for recent problems.
This is also why areas like Raytown and Grandview are still not bad areas. They were never a part of the massive migration of section 8 housing. But the image of South KC eventually took its toll on Raytown and Grandview and have hurt their property values as well, although not near as much as parts of South KCMo.
2.) Another thing that killed the Bannister Mall was not the mall itself but the Walmart Hypermart that opened. That Hypermart was almost twice the size of a modern Super Walmart and it was too big and the concept failed. One of the main reasons was theft. The place was so large that they couldn't keep merchandise from walking out of the store, they couldn't keep the place clean, merchandise looking nice on shelve etc. It just looked "ghetto". So you take gigantic walmart that gains a reputation for easy pickings that brings in some of the worst demographics in the region and place next to a regional mall that draws a more affluent shopper from the entire metro. Then you run every busy city bus line you can straight to the Hypermart (where bored Hypermart shoppers would eventually loiter in the mall, theaters etc in the area). Hypermart became one of the biggest destinations for inner city residents because it was accessible by transit and most people from the inner city were normal shoppers. But it also brought out the thug element to SKC where they preyed on shoppers. This showed how undeserved the central city is by retail, but this is not how you deal with it. The inner city needs normal sized neighborhood retail, not a giant single place where they all have to take a bus to. Between the Hypermart and creating a situation where the only place for inner city people to shop was at that one Hypermart combined with all the section 8 housing in the area what happened?
3.) Things were not great due to the things I mentioned above, but the press and residents blew it way out of proportion. The TV channels would not leave Bannister Mall alone even though crime there never really got any worse than most major regional malls. The Mall then also knee jerked and justified the image the press was giving the mall by creating a police state there with dozens of tall security towers etc. The press scared away the regional customers and the area around the mall while solid middle class was a modest working middle class that would not sustain such a mall alone. Bannister mall needed to pull from close to a million people, not just the south KC area. The crime (other than shoplifting and occasional spikes in auto thefts) never got all that bad, but it looked bad to most people. Shopping carts strung all over the place because people would take them to the bus stops and the shopping centers wouldn't bring them back (a silly aesthetic thing that would have helped the image of the area a lot).
4.) Final nail in the coffin. New suburban malls began opening in suburban Kansas and eastern Jackson County. Independence Mall after a slow start gained in popularity. Kansas shoppers pretty much stopped going east of state line for any reason (shopping wise) by the early 90's. The mall had no chance. Game over.
Having said all of this. That area should be redeveloped and retail would be a very viable option as part of the project. A super regional mall with four department stores and several million sq feet of retail will never happen again, but SKC could EASILY support half million to 1 million sq ft retail district of basic modest big box stores including a normal sized target or walmart. This is why I hate the Cerner project so much. I think you could do a lot of good for all of South KC by building a major mixed use project (incorporating Cerner). Cerner alone without fresh retail and residential will do nothing for SKC except make look a little better from 435.
So there you go if anybody actually reads that .
Do you think the area could have survived if let's just say one of your points happened and not all. For ex, let's say only the section 8 aspect happened or only the Walmart hypermart happened? Or did the section 8 bring in the Walmart?
Do you think the area could have survived if let's just say one of your points happened and not all. For ex, let's say only the section 8 aspect happened or only the Walmart hypermart happened? Or did the section 8 bring in the Walmart?
First off, I don't think section 8 brought the walmart. Retailers just see a thriving mall, decent population and demographics within 10-15 miles and they just want to be near that activity. Walmart, Best Buy, the giant Montgomery Wards and all the other big boxes that were built all came because of the mall which was fully leased so new retail had to be built off site, no other reason.
Retailers saw a thriving mall and built near it. They don't necessarily care what the immediate area around the mall is like because it's a super regional mall. So the Hypermart wasn't put there for the new section 8 housing or they would such stores in inner cities.
Would the mall have survived if only one of the things I mentioned were to happen?
Probably not, although it may have survived a little longer (like Metro North Mall). Even if South KC had remained a more stable middle class area, I think there are too many things to overcome with Bannister Mall for it to continue to be a super regional mall today, mainly competition from malls/lifestyle centers etc that have sprung up intercepting most potential affluent shoppers that would have gone to bannister. So lets say that Hickman Mills was still a decent, yet modest area. Chances are today that people living there would be driving to Lee's Summit to shop at Macy's and the one at Bannister would be closed or a Class C type tenant like burlington coat factory or something. It's all part of the sprawl and how retailers chase the sprawl down creating more sprawl. Plus in KC, new suburban shopping centers are taxpayer subsidized making it nearly impossible for existing ones to remain competitive.
Oak Park Mall is thriving for its somewhat inner suburban location. But Oak Park has somewhat lucked out so far. For one it's one of the only major indoor malls left and there is still demand for indoor malls (near metro wide monopoly). Two it's taking a while for new malls to open in JoCo. The Great Mall was a failure, surprisingly nothing has opened in western JoCo yet (which would kill Oak Park), and the new malls in South JoCo are taking forever to get off the ground, although they are now picking up steam (again thanks to subsidies) and for that reason, I would give Oak Park only about five more years and you will see that mall start to lose tenants and or see a downgrade in tenant quality. Oak Park will not be a nice mall in ten years and will probably be in the same boat as Metcalf South looking for redevelopment options. Too much is going up in Southern JoCo and eventually western JoCo for Oak Park to remain a viable 2 million sq ft regional mall which is crazy because of the population density within ten miles of Oak Park, (same reason Ward Parkway somewhat struggles despite being in a dense, affluent area).
Annie's Santa Fe was a big attraction there in the early 80s and good enough that I went out of my way to take customers there back then.
And they had good margaritas too! We went to the Annie's at Bannister Mall in the 80s. We used to go to the one at Oak Park for Sunday brunch, but it's gone now too. But my favorite Mexican restaurant in KC was Chi-Chi's, and they are gone now too.
First off, I don't think section 8 brought the walmart. Retailers just see a thriving mall, decent population and demographics within 10-15 miles and they just want to be near that activity. Walmart, Best Buy, the giant Montgomery Wards and all the other big boxes that were built all came because of the mall which was fully leased so new retail had to be built off site, no other reason.
Retailers saw a thriving mall and built near it. They don't necessarily care what the immediate area around the mall is like because it's a super regional mall. So the Hypermart wasn't put there for the new section 8 housing or they would such stores in inner cities.
Would the mall have survived if only one of the things I mentioned were to happen?
Probably not, although it may have survived a little longer (like Metro North Mall). Even if South KC had remained a more stable middle class area, I think there are too many things to overcome with Bannister Mall for it to continue to be a super regional mall today, mainly competition from malls/lifestyle centers etc that have sprung up intercepting most potential affluent shoppers that would have gone to bannister. So lets say that Hickman Mills was still a decent, yet modest area. Chances are today that people living there would be driving to Lee's Summit to shop at Macy's and the one at Bannister would be closed or a Class C type tenant like burlington coat factory or something. It's all part of the sprawl and how retailers chase the sprawl down creating more sprawl. Plus in KC, new suburban shopping centers are taxpayer subsidized making it nearly impossible for existing ones to remain competitive.
Oak Park Mall is thriving for its somewhat inner suburban location. But Oak Park has somewhat lucked out so far. For one it's one of the only major indoor malls left and there is still demand for indoor malls (near metro wide monopoly). Two it's taking a while for new malls to open in JoCo. The Great Mall was a failure, surprisingly nothing has opened in western JoCo yet (which would kill Oak Park), and the new malls in South JoCo are taking forever to get off the ground, although they are now picking up steam (again thanks to subsidies) and for that reason, I would give Oak Park only about five more years and you will see that mall start to lose tenants and or see a downgrade in tenant quality. Oak Park will not be a nice mall in ten years and will probably be in the same boat as Metcalf South looking for redevelopment options. Too much is going up in Southern JoCo and eventually western JoCo for Oak Park to remain a viable 2 million sq ft regional mall which is crazy because of the population density within ten miles of Oak Park, (same reason Ward Parkway somewhat struggles despite being in a dense, affluent area).
So whatever happened to bannister mall would have happened anyways but would of taken a little longer than it did?
I have always believed that the closing of Richards-Gebaur AFB also helped with the demise of SE KC/Grandview. Apartment vacancies were widespread, rents got lowered and the not-so-desirables moved in.
So whatever happened to bannister mall would have happened anyways but would of taken a little longer than it did?
I think the mall would have eventually failed, but the area would still have been able to support a good million sq feet of retail in large big and small box strip malls. (petssmart, lowes, office depot, best buy etc), just not a 2 million sq ft regional mall plus another 1-2 million sq ft of adjacent retail.
I wonder what happened to the proposed plan for a large amount of retail (like 1 million sq ft?) in the Bannister area a while back, which I think was before the Cerner proposal was announced. If that was an idea and possibility then, it definitely should be now.
But this is what I don't get? Why WOULD the city bring in so much section 8 to an area that was so hot? They would never do that to the plaza, correct? They must have known by bringing in so many low income/section 8, it would ultimately destroy the area? It seems that they intentionally brought down one of the most uprising section of the city at that time. It doesn't make sense to me to intentionally destroy a good thing!?
I never heard about the city bring SECTION 8 into the area. People just needing Section 8 housing moved there most likely because it was better than the inner city. There is Section 8 in Grandview and Raytown as well.
I never heard about the city bring SECTION 8 into the area. People just needing Section 8 housing moved there most likely because it was better than the inner city. There is Section 8 in Grandview and Raytown as well.
Just because you never heard of it doesn't mean it didn't happen. Raytown and Grandview have very little section 8 housing, especially single family section 8 housing compared to South Kansas City.
I wonder what happened to the proposed plan for a large amount of retail (like 1 million sq ft?) in the Bannister area a while back, which I think was before the Cerner proposal was announced. If that was an idea and possibility then, it definitely should be now.
That plan fell through when the soccer team chose wyandotte county.
I don't think a soccer stadium would have done anything for Bannister Mall except siphon tax money via TIF from the any retail built there.
The amount of investment in a project like the current Cerner plan is a once in a generation opportunity to completely change the direction of an entire section of a metro area. The plan as it stands will do nothing for SKC other give Hickman Mills Schools a little more cash and clean of the site for drivers along 435.
If that 4 million sq ft of office was part of a well thought out and well planned mixed use development, that absolutist would change things for SKC and breath new life into the entire area, let alone the bannister mall site itself.
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And they had good margaritas too! We went to the Annie's at Bannister Mall in the 80s. We used to go to the one at Oak Park for Sunday brunch, but it's gone now too. But my favorite Mexican restaurant in KC was Chi-Chi's, and they are gone now too. 
