Oak Park Mall facts for kids
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| Location | Overland Park, Kansas, United States |
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| Coordinates | 38°57′13″N 94°43′10″W / 38.953485°N 94.719476°W |
| Address | 11149 West 95th Street |
| Opening date | 1974 |
| Management | CBL & Associates |
| Owner | CBL & Associates (50%) TIAA-CREF (50%) |
| No. of stores and services | 180+ |
| No. of anchor tenants | 5 |
| Total retail floor area | 1,607,803 sq ft (149,369.8 m2) |
| No. of floors | 2 (3 in Dillard's South and Nordstrom) |
| Parking | Parking lot |
Oak Park Mall is a really big shopping mall located in Overland Park, Kansas. It has more than 180 stores and covers a huge area of over 1.6 million square feet! This makes it the largest mall in the Kansas City metropolitan area and also the biggest in the entire state of Kansas. The mall has two main levels and is home to five large department stores. It was built by Copaken, White & Blitt, along with Frank Morgan and Sherman Dreiseszun. Some of the main stores you'll find there include two Dillard's locations, Macy's, Nordstrom, JCPenney, and H&M.
Contents
Who Owns the Mall?
In 2011, a company called TIAA-CREF became a co-owner of Oak Park Mall. They now own half of the mall, sharing it with CBL & Associates. This partnership helped CBL & Associates manage their finances better.
A Look Back: The Mall's History
Oak Park Mall first opened its doors in 1974. When it first started, it had big stores like JCPenney, Macy's, Montgomery Ward, and Stix, Baer & Fuller.
The Mall on TV
In 1982, a special TV show called "The Mall" was filmed entirely inside Oak Park Mall. This show talked about how shopping malls were becoming very popular across the United States.
Changes in Stores
In 1984, the Stix, Baer & Fuller store changed its name to Dillard's. Then, in 1985, another Dillard's store opened, taking the place of Macy's.
Mall Upgrades and Expansions
The mall got a big makeover in 1993. It was made even bigger in 1997 when a new two-level section was added. This new part included a large, three-level Nordstrom store, which opened on March 6, 1998.
Montgomery Ward closed its doors in March 2001. After some renovations, a store called The Jones Store opened in that spot in August 2002. Later, in 2006, The Jones Store became a Macy's. This meant Macy's returned to Oak Park Mall after being away for 20 years!
In 2005, a Target store opened just south of the mall.
More Recent Renovations
Oak Park Mall had another big renovation in 2011. This included updating the food court where people eat and adding new entrances. In June 2012, the first Microsoft Store in the area opened at the mall.
Fun Features and Attractions
In the middle of the mall, near Dillard's North, you can find a cool double-decker carousel. This carousel used to be in a different part of the mall. In the early 2000s, it was removed for a while, and that area was changed to look like a forest, with a regular carousel and a small ride-on train. But in 2009, the double-decker carousel came back and was moved to its current spot.
The mall also used to have the only Rainforest Cafe in the Kansas City area, which opened in 1999. This restaurant was so big that the mall had to expand a little to fit it. Rainforest Cafe stayed for ten years but then closed. Its large space was later divided into three smaller areas, and the American Girl store took up a big part of it.
Recent Store Changes
On February 2, 2018, Nordstrom announced that it planned to move to a different location called the Country Club Plaza in 2021.
In July 2020, the American Girl store at the mall closed for good.
