The owner of Oak Park Mall wants to turn big chunks of its parking lots into apartments, a hotel, restaurants and a permanent home for a local arts nonprofit. The proposal, filed with the city of Overland Park, would reshape the 90-acre shopping center at Quivira Road and West 95th Street into a walkable mixed-use district anchored by its existing retail core.
Mall owner CBL Properties has requested a preliminary development plan along with rezoning of the site, according to the Kansas City Star, which first reported details of the filing. CBL, based in Tennessee, manages mall and retail centers across the country. TIAA-CREF received a 50% ownership interest in 2011, according to the Wikipedia entry on the mall. The application, designated PDP2026-00016, remains subject to further city review.
Apartments, a Hotel and New Restaurant Pads
The centerpiece of the plan is a four-story, 260-unit multifamily housing complex proposed for the southeast corner of the mall property, per the Star's reporting. A separate four-story hotel with 120 rooms would rise near West 97th Street, and the plan also calls for three standalone restaurant buildings on land currently used for parking. Traffic changes are part of the package too: a new roundabout is proposed for an entrance drive off 95th Street, and the existing Chick-fil-A at 9707 Quivira Road would relocate to a new spot along 95th Street.
New park spaces are planned for both the west and east ends of the site, adding green space to a property that has been almost entirely devoted to buildings and asphalt since it opened in August 1975. At more than 1.6 million square feet, Oak Park Mall remains the largest enclosed regional shopping mall in Kansas and the Kansas City metro, according to background compiled by Flatland KC, which noted the center has five department store anchor footprints and more than 180 storefronts.
A Permanent Stage for The Culture House
Perhaps the most distinctive piece of the plan is a new home for The Culture House, an Olathe-based arts education nonprofit that currently runs a “Stage & Studio” space inside the mall. The redevelopment includes a three-level theater and academy building at the west end of the mall, adjacent to JCPenney, according to the Star's report. The proposed space would provide a new setting for those programs.
A Mall That Didn't Need Saving
Oak Park Mall has remained a viable and important sales-tax producer. In April 2025, the Overland Park City Council voted unanimously to end a 0.5% Transportation Development District sales tax at the mall seven years early after the bonds' structure and accelerated repayment flexibility put CBL Properties on track to repay $20 million in outstanding bonds ahead of schedule, according to the Johnson County Post. That tax had funded road and infrastructure upgrades around 95th Street and Quivira Road since 2007.
The mall also fended off a high-profile departure threat in 2022, when Nordstrom scrapped a planned move to Kansas City's Country Club Plaza and chose to stay at Oak Park Mall instead, four years after first announcing it would leave, the Johnson County Post reported at the time. Oak Park Mall marked its 50th anniversary in late 2025 alongside city officials and original co-developer Copaken Brooks, and it remains one of just two enclosed regional malls still operating in the Kansas City area, according to the Overland Park Chamber of Commerce.
Part of a Bigger Overland Park Trend
The Oak Park Mall proposal includes multi-family housing, hospitality and performance space, alongside other Overland Park developments, including the $2 billion Meridian development planned for the former Brookridge Golf Course site at I-435 and Antioch Road, which Hoodline covered earlier this month. The retail expansion underway at Bluhawk in southern Overland Park is another local development.
The Scarritt Building and Arcade at 818 Grand is mentioned as another Kansas City example of mixed-use redevelopment. The Country Club Plaza is also mentioned as a local example of reinvestment in a major commercial district.
The article also discusses the city's preparations for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Overland Park Mayor Curt Skoog said during his March State of the City address that Johnson County United transit plans for the tournament include a dedicated transit link line connecting regional hubs directly to Oak Park Mall, the Johnson County Post reported. The article also discusses the adjacent Oak Park Plaza development.
What Comes Next
The preliminary development plan still has to clear the Planning Commission hearing before advancing toward the City Council. Open questions heading into that review include how the added apartments, hotel and restaurant traffic will affect the intersection of 95th Street and Quivira Road, how the public review process will unfold across upcoming hearings, and what construction timeline CBL Properties has in mind for the residential and theater phases. None of those details have been settled yet, and city officials have not indicated when construction might begin if the plan is approved.
