| Location | Olathe, Kansas, USA |
|---|---|
| Opening date | 1997 |
| Owner | Great Olathe Center, LLC. |
| No. of anchor tenants | 5 |
| Total retail floor area | 783,010 sq ft (72,744 m2)[1] |
| No. of floors | 1 |
| Website | http://www.greatmallgreatplains.com |
The Great Mall of the Great Plains is a shopping mall located in Olathe, Kansas, United States. The largest outlet mall in the state of Kansas,[2] the Great Mall currently features over 80 stores and restaurants.[1] Burlington Coat Factory, Book Warehouse, Group USA Clothing Company, and Dickinson 16 Theaters are the mall's anchor stores;[1] amenities include indoor glow-in-the-dark miniature golf course, a food court, a Game Zone arcade, and a Dickinson Theatres movie theater with sixteen screens. Great Mall of the Great Plains was owned & managed by Glimcher Properties Trust until January 2009.[1] Currently, a Johnson County driver's license bureau is located in the mall.
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Great Mall of the Great Plains was co-developed by Glimcher Realty Trust and Jordan Robert Perlmutter & Co. The mall was intended to feature a "value oriented megamall" with a mix of outlet stores, traditional mall stores, big box retail, and entertainment venues, comparable to malls developed by the former Mills Corporation.[3][4] Construction began on the Great Mall of the Great Plains in 1996.[5]
Originally slated to open in March 1997, the mall did not open until August 14 of that year, due to leasing issues.[4][6][7] Upon its opening, the mall featured several anchor stores: Linens 'n Things, Burlington Coat Factory, Oshman's SuperSports USA, Marshalls, Group USA Clothing Company, Foozles Bookstore, and Dillard's clearance center.[3] Other original features of the mall included a family entertainment center called Jeepers!, a food court, and a Dickinson movie theater.[3] Great Mall of the Great Plains opened with 150 stores laid out in a half-mile "racetrack";[3] the mall was also the largest outlet mall in the state of Kansas.[2]
Despite a highly successful opening which attracted more than one-and-a-half million visitors,[3] Great Mall of the Great Plains saw its success waning with time, due in part to a retail saturation in the market.[8]
Although Off 5th opened as an additional anchor store in 1999,[9] the mall lost three anchor stores soon afterward. Dillard's closed its clearance center in 2001, and was soon replaced with VF Outlet.[10] A year later, both Oshman's and Linens 'n Things closed as well,[2] as did Off 5th. Marshalls also relocated to a nearby strip center in 2005,[11] while Steve & Barry's opened in 2005, and Famous Labels opened in 2007 but soon closed at the end of 2009. The food court now only has 5 restaurants in it. In early 2009, The Steve & Barry's closed as part of a national bankruptcy.
In an early 2008 Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Glimcher Realty Trust expressed a desire to sell the Great Mall of the Great Plains.[12] On January 6, 2009, Glimcher sold the Great Mall of the Great Plains to focus on more valuable assets to Cecil Van Tuyl of the Van Tuyl Group to be managed by Block & Company. The mall continues to struggle even with the promise of a new chance to succeed that was initially thought to be possible with the local management company Block & Company taking the helm. Since the sale by Glimcher, the mall has seen The Finish Line depart along with VF Outlet and several other tenants.
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