Kansas City’s Country Club Plaza expected to be sold to Dallas luxury group on Friday

A powerful bright light may soon break through the dark clouds that as of late have enveloped Kansas City’s Country Club Plaza.

Multiple sources are confirming the planned sale on Friday of the Spanish-styled shopping district, long considered one of Kansas City’s jewel attractions, to HP Village Partners.

Based in Dallas, HP Village Partners is a luxury retail company whose principal owners are descendants of oil tycoon H.L. Hunt, father of Kansas City Chiefs founder Lamar Hunt.

The price of the Plaza sale has not been revealed. Details on the purchase, together with plans and changes, are scheduled to be announced Monday at a press conference to include Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas

In a newsletter this week, the Plaza District Council, eagerly anticipated “the exciting news of a new owner.”

“I think the community has justifiable reason to express enormous enthusiasm over this development,” David Westbrook, communications director of the council, told The Star. “No doubt that the Plaza is on the upswing. The buyers are pledging to make the kind of investment of heart and capital that is going to give all of us great reason to restore our pride in that part of our town.”

The company’s partners include Ray Washburne and his wife Heather Hill Washburne, brother-in-law Stephen Summers and wife, Elisa Summers. Elisa Summers and Heather Washburne are sisters and descendants of H.L. Hunt.

Ray Washburne previously told The Star that their intent is to make major improvements on the Plaza and return it to its past glory. H.P Village Partners currently owns Dallas’ Highland Park Village, a luxury retail shopping district built in 1931 and which, like the Plaza, is constructed in a Spanish architectural style.

Located a mile from Southern Methodist University, its retail landscape includes exclusive vendors such as Hermes, Fendi, Alexander McQueen, Brioni, Dior, Chanel, Tom Ford, Ralph Lauren, Valentino, Cartier, Chanel and Van Cleef & Arpels.

In 2022, HP Village also purchased a stake in Phillips Place, a luxury shopping district in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Opened in 1923, the Plaza, built by developer J.C. Nichols, recently celebrated its 100th anniversary. Still a major visitor and tourist destination, the district in recent years has seen its fortunes suffer, particularly since 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic devastated brick-and-mortar retail worldwide.

Highwood Properties of North Carolina sold the Plaza in 2016 for $660 million in a joint venture to two companies, Macerich and The Taubman Co., which operate shopping centers across the country. In May 2023, however, the companies defaulted on payment of their $295 million loan to their lender, Nuveen, which prompted them to announce that they were looking for “a mutually acceptable outcome.”

Multiple vacant storefronts, including the empty marquee of the old Cinemark Palace movie theater, continue to lend sad stillness to sections of the Plaza, particularly on its west side. In 2022, the retailer Nordstrom dealt the Plaza a major blow when it announced it had canceled its plan to build a new department store there.

The Plaza was left with what Kansas City’s mayor complained was a 3-acre “pit.”

In 2023, the owners of the Plaza challenged its county valuation, set at $292 million in 2019 by the Jackson County Board of Equalization. The Missouri tax commission agreed to reduce its value to $179.6 million.

After HP Village Partners surfaced as a potential buyer last fall, Lucas visited the company in Dallas. At a press conference upon his return, he said: “It was, frankly, one of the best meetings I’ve had with potential economic development entities during my time as mayor or councilman.”