Country Club Plaza - History

History

The Country Club Plaza was named for the associated Country Club District, the neighborhood developed by J.C. Nichols which surrounded the Kansas City Country Club (now Loose Park). It is situated at the northern terminus of Ward Parkway, a boulevard known for its wide, manicured median lined with fountains and statuary that traverses the Country Club District. J.C. Nichols selected the location carefully to provide residents with a direct route to the Plaza along Ward Parkway.

Nichols began acquiring the land for the Plaza in 1907, in an area of Kansas City that was then known as Brush Creek Valley. When his plans were first announced, the project was dubbed 'Nichols' Folly' because of the then seemingly undesirable location; at the time, the only developed land in the valley belonged to the Country Day School (now the Pembroke Hill School), and the rest was known for pig farming. Nichols employed architect Edward Buehler Delk to design the new shopping center. The Plaza opened in 1923 to immediate success, and it has lasted with little interruption since that year. New Urbanist land developer Andres Duany noted in Community Builder: The Life & Legacy of J.C. Nichols that the Country Club Plaza has had the longest life of any planned shopping center in the history of the world. One of the oldest stores on the plaza is the Jack Henry Clothing company, which was founded in 1931.

For its first four decades, the Plaza combined some higher-end shops, such as Harzfeld's, with a mix of more mainstream retailers such as Sears and Woolworth's, as well such quotidian enterprises as a bowling alley, movie theater, and a grocery store to serve the daily needs of residents of the district. From around 1970, competition from newer suburban shopping malls led management to reposition the Plaza with luxury hotels such as the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, higher end restaurants, and upscale retailers including Gucci, FAO Schwarz, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bally and Halls. On September 12, 1977, a major flood of Brush Creek caused severe damage to the Plaza and resulted in a number of deaths. The flood prompted a vast renovation and revitalization of the area that has allowed it not only to survive but to thrive.

In 1998, the J.C. Nichols Company merged with Raleigh, North Carolina-based real-estate investment trust Highwoods Properties, who now runs the Country Club Plaza.

A 2010 proposal by the law firm Polsinelli-Shughart to construct an eight-story building was abandoned in April 2011 following strong community resistance objecting to changing the low-rise character of the Plaza and the fact that it would be a modern tower as opposed to keeping the Spanish architecture character. It would have been located at 47th and Broadway.

As of 2012, the Country Club Plaza maintains its image as being the premier upscale shopping district of the Kansas City area and is home to many exclusive retailers including Armani Exchange, Burberry, Coach, Halls, Kate Spade New York, Michael Kors, St. John and Tiffany & Co.