How a height-limit amendment could reshape the Plaza skyline

The Country Club Plaza is on the cusp of a groundbreaking transformation—literally.

Kansas City council members recently approved a zoning amendment that allows for a 275-foot-tall, 18- to 20-story building to fill the large vacant lot (4720 Jefferson St., KCMO) on the west side of the Plaza. The unanimous vote more than doubled the existing 130-foot height limit for the site, which Plaza owners say is necessary to attract developers and businesses to the area.

The eyesore of a hole was originally dug out to accommodate a Nordstrom store that never materialized. In April 2022, Nordstrom and the Plaza’s previous owners mutually agreed to halt the luxury department store’s planned relocation from Oak Park Mall, leaving the Plaza site empty.

Current Plaza building heights are limited to 45 to 190 feet to retain a “bowl” effect, as outlined by the Plaza Bowl Overlay District and the city’s zoning ordinance. With the new zoning amendment, the vacant 3.3-acre parcel of land is outside the Plaza Bowl Overlay District, making it ripe for a luxury tower. Although renderings have been made and ideas for a mixed-use building floated, no concrete plans have been presented, and a construction timetable has yet to be established.

The new developers planning the west end building, Village Collections (formerly named HP Village Partners), bought the Plaza for a reported $760 million in 2024. They led the zoning amendment campaign, working with the city to get it approved.

“A height exemption [at the former Nordstrom lot] allows us to set a maximum and say we will never go past that and never have to go back to council to ask for more,” says Dustin Bullard, an architect and urban strategist with Charter Holdings, a company owned by Ray Washburne of Village Collections. “We’d rather just say this is ultimately the highest that we would ever want to go there, and then that helps us in the development and potential for what that could be.”

Neighbors’ comments about a tall building on the edge of the Plaza have been a “mixed bag,” Bullard says. “A lot of people, I think, understand that additional density and uses are definitely needed on the Plaza. We have heard concerns that maybe that’s a little taller than some folks wanted. I also get calls and letters of support from others in the area that they would love to see a tall tower there and that additional density.”

During a public project presentation, Chris Harren, the vice president of development for Village Collections, said the company has spent time studying the property over the last year to better understand it and its needs. He said that they have already spent upwards of $3 million on roofs, with another $3 million planned for next year. 

Harren said that they are hoping to create an active, pedestrian-friendly first floor and outdoor area that has a “retail food and beverage type environment,” complementing the already existing shopping and dining experiences on the other side of Jefferson. “It could be a public plaza of sorts,” Harren says.

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