Mission Gateway survives a crucial vote before the Mission Planning Commission, but still has a long road to travel

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Can New York developer Tom Valenti deliver a Walmart to Mission? Or maybe the question should be: Does Mission even want one?

It’s difficult to detect much support for the big-box retailer as it’s envisioned on Mission’s most valuable piece of undeveloped land. Valenti, the Cameron Group principal who has been unable to get construction started at Shawnee Mission Parkway and Johnson Drive for a decade, seemed to acknowledge as much on Monday night.

“There seems to be some problem in this community with Walmart,” Valenti told the Mission Planning Commission on Monday, according to a story in the Prairie Village Post.

For Valenti, the customer isn’t always right. Despite realizing that there’s tepid, at best, demand to relocate Walmart from a mile up the road in Roeland Park to a highly visible plot of ground where the old Mission Mall once stood, he is forging ahead with his Walmart-anchored plan for Mission Gateway.

It’s hard to blame those Mission residents who are unhappy with the plan. Typically, a project that’s described as a city’s gateway contemplates something more destination-worthy than a retailer that can be found in 42 locations within 50 miles of Mission.

Valenti has insisted this his Walmart will be something different, at least in terms of appearances. He even threw in the idea of putting a walking trail on the roof of the building.

But a Walmart is a Walmart. And the biggest risk with a Walmart is the possibility that the store moves after a handful of years once its parent company realizes there’s an opportunity to make more money somewhere else a few miles away.

Just ask the elected leaders of Roeland Park, some of whom have been in attendance at Mission City Council meetings when Mission Gateway is discussed. Mission’s neighbor will have to grapple with economic impacts of Walmart leaving its main retail center if Valenti’s plans ever come to fruition. When Walmart leaves, it will be difficult for Roeland Park to repurpose that building into something else. Not impossible by any means, but difficult, as other cities have experienced. 

In any case, the Mission Planning Commission approved Valenti’s site plan for a second time. The Mission City Council sent it back to the planning commission last month, instructing the appointed body to take a closer look an at arcane wrinkle in Mission’s development code about how big a big-box store can be. Even that night, Valenti’s project looked to be in serious trouble. About half of the council’s members made their displeasure with Valenti’s plan known.

If Valenti has trouble convincing Mission’s elected officials of the virtues of something so basic as a site plan, how will things go down if (and when) he goes back and asks for millions in public subsidies?