After 18 years without a grocery anchor, Shawnee’s battered Westbrooke Village site is finally nearing its long-promised reset: El Mercado Fresco is expected to open this fall as the city works through final inspections. The store is the centerpiece of a redevelopment that has spent years stuck between ambitious plans and a mostly empty shopping center.
The latest update from The Kansas City Star says Shawnee is conducting final inspections tied to the grocery store, while Mi Pueblito Meat Market had a rough-in inspection scheduled for the end of July at its new location at 11200 W. 75th Street. That inspection is an early step in the multistage process required before the market can open, and officials have described the launch as imminent even though no specific grand-opening date has been announced.
El Mercado Fresco Will Reclaim The Former Dillon’s Space
The new market is planned for 7405 Quivira Road, in the shopping center now being redeveloped as Westbrooke Green. The Johnson County Post reported that the space once housed a Dillon’s grocery store, and El Mercado Fresco is expected to bring Hispanic groceries, fresh produce, meat, seafood and baked goods back to the property.
The site’s grocery gap has been unusually long. The former Westbrooke Village center was built in 1988, but Dillon’s left in 2008, and the property later became known for vacancies, broken windows and vandalism as redevelopment plans dragged on.
A Decade-Old Redevelopment Is Finally Getting Its Anchor
Shawnee’s redevelopment proposal for the roughly 32-acre property dates back nearly a decade, envisioning apartments, retail and a revived grocery store. The apartments were ultimately built, but the commercial portion stalled until the city shifted the project to Westbrooke Partners LLC.
In 2024, the Shawnee City Council’s redevelopment resolution approved a partial assignment and amended redevelopment agreement involving Westbrooke Partners. The revised arrangement included tighter accountability around the project’s public incentives, giving the city more leverage if the retail work stalled again.
El Mercado Fresco is expected to serve as an anchor tenant for the remaining retail lineup, which is slated to include a local nail salon, a barbershop, a coffee and donut shop, a national pizza franchise and a Mexican restaurant, according to The Kansas City Star’s latest report. After years of watching the center sit dark, Shawnee residents may finally get something less glamorous than another deadline extension: a place to buy groceries.
