Another contractor sues Mission Gateway developer; Slaggie Architects says it was stiffed for $1.8 million owed

A decade after the old Mission Center Mall was demolished, the most action that takes place at the Kansas City metro’s most lucrative dirt pile occurs in the courts.

Slaggie Architects on May 27 filed a lawsuit in Johnson County District Court against a subsidiary of New York developer the Cameron Group, which owns the old mall site where Shawnee Mission Parkway meets Johnson Drive.

Over the years, Mission Gateway was supposed to house office space, apartments, a hotel, a pie-in-the-sky aquarium idea, various retail outlets, a Wal-Mart, condos and other such things. About 10 years after taking control of the 26 acres, the Cameron Group has done next to nothing with the land.

It’s a visual blight for the thousands of cars that pass it by daily on three major roads near it. It’s an insult to Mission taxpayers who have watched promise after promise by the Cameron Group all miss the various targets.

Slaggie Architects, a Kansas City-based firm, says in its lawsuit that it is owed nearly $1.4 million for work it has done at Mission Gateway but for which it hasn’t been paid by the Cameron Group. Tack on another $400,000-plus of interest, termination fees and other expenses, and the Cameron Group is on the hook for $1.8 million, according to the Slaggie Architects lawsuit.

Tom Valenti, the man publicly running the Mission Gateway debacle for the Cameron Group, tells The Pitch that he was planning to meet with Slaggie’s attorneys about the lawsuit on Wednesday.

Scott Slaggie, founder of Slaggie Architects, said he was in negotiations with the Cameron Group and that it would be premature to comment about the lawsuit. 

Slaggie Architects says in its lawsuit that the Cameron Group acknowledged that it owed $1.8 million, but still hasn’t paid.

Henderson Engineers, a Lenexa-based firm, filed a lawsuit in December on similar claims. Several other companies and entities with ties to the Mission Gateway project have sued the developer for not settling outstanding balances or breaking other promises.

The last we checked on Mission Gateway, there were some rough plans to resurrect a Wal-Mart-anchored strip mall for the Mission City Council’s approval, even though it seems the suburb’s leaders long ago grew tired of Valenti’s act.

But Emily Randel, a spokeswoman at Mission City Hall, tells The Pitch in an e-mail on Wednesday that no plans have been submitted to city staffers.

The Cameron Group’s website says Mission Gateway will open in February 2017, but good luck finding anybody who believes that.