Houlihan's closed for good on March 27, 2026, after occupying the south side of Town Center Plaza since at least the mid-1990s. A few minutes away at Park Place, a new brunch spot just opened in a storefront that's already cycled through three different restaurant concepts in recent years. Same city, two very different paces of change. If you've lived in Leawood for a while, you've probably felt this without naming it: some corners here hold their shape for decades, and others reinvent themselves before you've settled into your order.
Thirty Years, Then All At Once
Two shuttered restaurants that have been 30-year stalwarts at Leawood's Town Center Plaza, near 119th and Roe, have been institutions about as long as the plaza has existed. The Hereford House closed in August 2024 after having been open at Town Center Plaza since 1996. Houlihan's followed, closing on March 27, 2026, after property records show it had been there since at least the mid-1990s. It's part of a broader retreat for the chain locally: two other Johnson County Houlihan's locations, in Fairway and Olathe, already closed in 2019 after the company's former owners filed for bankruptcy, leaving just one other location in the county, near Oak Park Mall in Overland Park. For nearly three decades, the Town Center Plaza corner barely changed. Then, within the same stretch of months, both buildings got new futures at once.
The Drake Development project dubbed the French Corner proposes 10,217 square feet for the west building and 6,484 square feet for the east one. The Houlihan's building, on the southern side of the center facing 119th Street between Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware, is being demolished to make room for it, with the city originally targeting a start as early as May. The developer declined to name tenants but described them as high-end restaurants new to the area, and the largest space, about 6,500 square feet in the western building, is expected to hold an upscale sit-down American bistro concept with sister locations in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Del Mar and Orange County, California. It's an $18 million project, and Leawood's city council approved a Community Improvement District for the site, meaning anything sold in the two new buildings will carry an extra 1% sales tax to help cover construction costs.
The Hereford House building is taking a gentler path. The two-story, 12,228-square-foot building's footprint will remain the same, with new colors and an extended patio, becoming the new second location of the Brooksider Sportsbar & Grill, a longstanding sports bar in Kansas City's Brookside area. The patio itself will grow by 746 square feet, plus an additional 897-square-foot turfed area with a television screen facing in, yard games, and more seating.
City officials aren't being subtle about what this means for the plaza's identity. Planning commission chair David Coleman, who signed off on both projects the same evening, put it plainly.
"It's very exciting that we're revitalizing Town Center, which is our premier shopping area. It's almost like Town Center is now the hot place for restaurants."
Approving both developments in a single evening adds five new restaurants to Town Center Plaza at once, which is a strange kind of change. Nothing moved for years, and then everything moved within the same season.
The restaurant flip isn't the only thing reshaping the plaza. Retail has been just as active in 2026:
- LEGO opened its relocated store at Town Center Crossing on Friday, July 24, marking the chain's 120th U.S. location and a move from its old spot inside Oak Park Mall in Overland Park. The new 2,368-square-foot store, at 4411 W. 119th Street, took over a space that had been mattress retailer Tuft & Needle.
- Handbag brand Coach is opening a new shop at Town Center Crossing in the space once occupied by Rockhill Grille, which closed in late 2024.
- The Coach Coffee Shop is opening next to EVEREVE at Town Center Crossing, and it will be only the third of its kind in the country.
- Drybar is opening near Trader Joe's and pet retailer Treats Unleashed at Town Center Crossing.
- A fitness studio called [solidcore] is opening between Athleta and Gorjana.
- Local Lime Tacos and Margaritas, a Cali-Mex concept, is expected on the north side of Town Center Plaza by the end of summer 2026.
Put the restaurant rebuild next to that retail list and the math is hard to miss: a property that held the same anchor tenants for roughly three decades has swapped out five restaurants and half a dozen storefronts within the first eight months of 2026 alone.
The Park Place Rhythm
Head over to Park Place and the pattern flips. Nothing here has stood for thirty years, because nothing here is built to. The clearest example sits on the south side of the shopping center, near the Aloft hotel.
That storefront was once Florida-based BurgerFi. Records don't show exactly how long that lasted, but the concept that followed it is well documented: hot chicken spot Mother Clucker occupied the space for roughly a year and a half before closing at the end of 2025. This summer, brunch spot AR's officially opened in that same space, just off 115th Street and Nall Avenue in Leawood, becoming another location for the small, growing brunch chain. Two concepts down, a third one in, all in the same storefront.
Owner Oscar Romero said the fit felt obvious.
"Park Place is beautiful, and it resembles a lot of downtown Overland Park."
AR's is open 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekends, and the chilaquiles and a loaded breakfast omelet with grilled chicken, avocado, jalapeños, and pepper jack have already become the early favorites. Whether AR's beats Mother Clucker's eighteen-month run at that address remains to be seen.
Two Clocks, Side By Side
Put the two properties next to each other and the contrast is hard to miss.
| Location | What happened | How long it lasted |
|---|---|---|
| Hereford House, Town Center Plaza | Closed, building becoming a second Brooksider Sportsbar & Grill location | 1996 to August 2024, about 28 years |
| Houlihan's, Town Center Plaza | Closed March 27, 2026, building to be demolished for a four-restaurant development | An anchor there for roughly three decades |
| South Park Place storefront | BurgerFi, then Mother Clucker, now AR's | Most recent tenant (Mother Clucker) lasted about 18 months before closing in late 2025 |
Town Center Plaza changes rarely and completely. Park Place changes constantly and incrementally. Neither pace is better. They're just different machines, and knowing which one you're standing in tells you what to expect next.
What Doesn't Move
Here's the part that's easy to miss under all that storefront churn: the community calendar underneath both properties has stayed remarkably steady.
The Park Place Farmers' Market launched in 2021 as an addition to the property's summer lineup, which makes this its sixth season. It still runs the way it always has, every Saturday from 7:30 a.m. to noon along W. 116th Place, and as of this writing it's still going, with the season typically stretching into mid-October. The property also keeps a Wednesday evening program going, framed loosely around making Wednesdays a reason for a first date, a solo date, or a date with kids, plus regular games at Barkley Square, from giant Jenga and Connect 4 to cornhole and an Adirondack chair to unwind in. Park Place's own event calendar still shows programming scheduled into August. None of it is new this year. It's just still there, running on schedule.
The city's own programming has the same steadiness. Leawood Parks and Recreation ran its Grinnin' & Groovin' Summer Entertainment Series at the Lodge at Ironwoods on Mission Road again this year, with free family-friendly shows in June that included a Coterie Theatre performance and a touring puppet show, plus a Match Day watch party at Park Place timed to this summer's World Cup. It's the kind of programming that doesn't make headlines because it isn't supposed to. It's supposed to just happen every summer, and it does.
The Resident's Read
If you live near Town Center Plaza, the lesson from this year is that stability there can be deceptive. Nothing moved for decades, and then five restaurants changed hands in one planning commission vote. Don't assume the next thirty years will look like the last thirty.
If you live near Park Place, the opposite lesson applies. Get attached to a spot if you want to, but don't be surprised when it becomes something else in a year or two. That's not a flaw in the property. It's how that particular corner of the shopping center has worked since at least the BurgerFi days.
And if you're the type who shows up every Saturday morning for the farmers market or brings the kids to the Lodge at Ironwoods in June, that part of Leawood isn't going anywhere. The storefronts are the variable. The rituals are the constant.
Blake & Associates keeps a close watch on Leawood because it's where a lot of our clients already live, and where a lot of them plan to stay for a long time. If you're curious what all this activity at Town Center and Park Place has done for your own home's value, Get Your Free Home Valuation from our team, no obligation, no guesswork.
