Shopping in Lee's Summit? (Independence, Blue Springs: sales, apartment, mattress)

[marya76]

We are looking at moving to the K.C. area. My husband telecommutes so we can live anywhere and I'm looking at Lee's Summit/Blue Springs. I know nothing about the area, but I want to be a little ways out from the city. Having said that, where is the nearest mall/Target/Kohls, etc. Do I have to go into K.C. to get any of this? Thanks!

[joybce]

I'm not from the area, but I have been studying the internet for places to live around Lee's Summit and southern Independence. I have learned there are 2 big shopping areas around the Hwy 50/I-470 interchange in Lee's Summit. One is called Summit Woods Crossing. It has a Super Target, Kohl's, BedBathBeyond, and many other shops and restaurants. The other is called Summit Fair. It has a Penney's and Macy's and many others. Looks like that shopping center is very new.

[joybce]

These are the shops listed for Summit Fair: .I.O. Metro, b:2 A Burger Boutique, Jos. A. Bank, Coldwater Creek, McAlister's Deli, DSW, Beauty Brands, Complete Nutrition, Sakura Sushi & Asian Bistro, JCPenney, Macy's, Gennaio Boutique and Jake's Summit!

Here are the ones for Summit Woods Crossing: Bath & Body Works, Beauty Express, Bed Bath & Beyond, Best Buy, Blue Ridge Bank & Trust,
Bob Evans, Borders , Buffalo Wild Wings,Chili's ,Chipotle Chipotle ,Claire's , Diamond Nails Dick's Sporting Goods, Eddie Bauer , Famous Footwear ,GNC, Great Clips,Hallmark
Helzberg Diamonds ,Jason's Deli , Kohl's , Lane Bryant, LongHorn Steakhouse, Lowe's
Mattress Firm , Maurices , Men's Wearhouse , Michael's , Motherhood Maternity
Office Depot , Old Navy Old Navy , On the Border, Panda Express, Payless ShoeSource, Pet Co. PETCO,Pier 1, Planet Sub, Portrait Innovations, Scottrade, Spin Pizza, Sportclips
Starbucks Coffee,Subway ,Target, TJ Maxx, Verizon Wireless

Looks like almost anything you could ever need!

[kcmo]

oops, double post

[kcmo]

Lee's Summit has Summit Woods and Summit Fair as joybce mentioned. Both are nice shopping areas with almost all your typical big and medium box chains. Lee's Summit also has the retail strip along 291 which remains pretty much 100% occupied with various chains and Lee's Summit also has a pretty vibrant downtown area with more mom and pop types places.

Independence has several million square feet of retail around the Independence Center Mall area. This area has every store and chain restaurant you can imagine and the Mall is one of the nicest in the Midwest in my opinion (and one of ony two nice indoor malls left in metro kc). This area includes the east metro’s only location of several stores like Costco and Bass Pro Shops.

Blue Springs has Adams Dairy Landing, a brand new shopping district that will eventually include most of your typical suburban box stores, but already has super target, kohls, walmart, home depot etc.

So this area of KC has just every everything with multiple locations. The only thing lacking is some of the one location upscale retail like Crate and Barrel and Nordstroms, which is out in the Overland Park and Leawood area.

[joybce]

I was wondering what traffic is like around the Independence Center Mall. I'm trying to help son find an apartment and we've narrowed it down to a handful, 3 which are very near this mall. (Dunes, Cornerstone, Pepperwood). And 2 in the Lee's Summit area (Summit Ridge, and AMLI New Longview).
He will be commuting to north of river occasionally, but mostly working in the 71/435/470 triangle area.
What I'm fearing most about the Independence traffic is Christmas shoppers, and also the KC Mavericks games by the Dunes.

[kcmo]

Traffic around Indep Center is not bad really. It can get bad at Christmas, but it's usually just the mall itself. Everybody tries to leave the mall at once and it can take forever to get out of the mall parking lots. Little Blue Parkway can get real busy on weekends but it's not that bad.

Not sure how the hockey games affect the area around Eastland Center, but I would imagine it's pretty limited to the arena parking lots after the game and some increased traffic leading up to games. Even if 6000 people head to the arena over a period of about an hour, that is actually less than how many people come and go from the mall or a large theater complex like the independence commons, so really I doubt it has much impact.

Now a game on a saturday night during the holidays could create problems.

[joybce]

Thanks for the info, kcmo. Your posts all over this forum have been very helpful to me. I've learned alot.

[lifelongMOgal]

Originally Posted by kcmo

Lee's Summit has Summit Woods and Summit Fair as joybce mentioned. Both are nice shopping areas with almost all your typical big and medium box chains. Lee's Summit also has the retail strip along 291 which remains pretty much 100% occupied with various chains and Lee's Summit also has a pretty vibrant downtown area with more mom and pop types places.

Independence has several million square feet of retail around the Independence Center Mall area. This area has every store and chain restaurant you can imagine and the Mall is one of the nicest in the Midwest in my opinion (and one of ony two nice indoor malls left in metro kc). This area includes the east metro’s only location of several stores like Costco and Bass Pro Shops.

Blue Springs has Adams Dairy Landing, a brand new shopping district that will eventually include most of your typical suburban box stores, but already has super target, kohls, walmart, home depot etc.

So this area of KC has just every everything with multiple locations. The only thing lacking is some of the one location upscale retail like Crate and Barrel and Nordstroms, which is out in the Overland Park and Leawood area.

IMO, Crate & Barrel is hardly upscale. It is challenging to find anything there not made in China; though, it can be done. Nordstroms is expensive and lacking. They don't even have a bridal registry. A closer location for upscale than driving over to O.P. and the soon to be much higher sales taxes shopping is the Plaza whether one is coming from B.S. or L.S. .

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by lifelongMOgal

IMO, Crate & Barrel is hardly upscale. It is challenging to find anything there not made in China; though, it can be done. Nordstroms is expensive and lacking. They don't even have a bridal registry. A closer location for upscale than driving over to O.P. and the soon to be much higher sales taxes shopping is the Plaza whether one is coming from B.S. or L.S. .

Agreed, I thought about that after posting it. Most things sold at C&B and be purchased for less in discount box stores. I was just saying that if that's your thing it's out in Leawood, OP because as of right, now, that's the only location in the metro from of those types of retail.

Halls in Crown Center and the Plaza are nice upscale department stores, but for the most part, KC doesn't have a lot of real upscale retail anywhere compared to most major metropolitan areas.

KC still needs an IKEA though and the area around 470/70 would be a perfect place for it.