If you have lived near 119th and Roe for more than a couple of summers, the sight of a fenced-off Houlihan's is doing something to your sense of place. Across the parking lot, the old Hereford House sits gutted. Two blocks north at Park Place, a cover band is setting up in Barkley Square and the line at Ice Cream Bae runs onto the sidewalk. Both of these things are Leawood in July 2026. They just are not the same Leawood.
The story of this summer is that the two anchor plazas most Leawood residents use every week are on opposite clocks. Town Center Plaza and Crossing are mid-teardown, actively swapping out tenants that had been there since the shopping center opened. Park Place, a decade younger, is running its fullest event calendar in years. If you live here, the practical question is which one to point out-of-town guests toward on a Saturday, and where the good weeknight patio still is while the south side of 119th is under construction.
The two plazas are not aging the same way
Town Center Plaza turned thirty this year. Councilmembers said as much when they approved the special taxing district in April, with one noting the plaza is in its 30s and that things are starting to age out all over town. That aging is not abstract. The Hereford House at 5001 Town Center Drive has been dark since August 2024. Houlihan's on the south side served its last plate on March 27 of this year and is scheduled for demolition. Between them, that is sixty combined years of Leawood dinners now on hold.
Park Place, by contrast, is spending the summer running programming almost every day of the week. The two properties are half a mile apart. They feel, right now, like they are in different phases of life.
What is closing, what is coming, and when
The redevelopment is not speculative. Both projects have city approvals and, in one case, a signed operator.
The old Hereford House at 5001 Town Center Drive is becoming a second location of Brooksider Sportsbar & Grill, the Brookside institution that has been open since 1985. Owners Chuck and Jack Naylor took possession of the building earlier this year and predict a fall opening, dependent on how long the city's permitting process takes. The plan is not a light refresh. Jack Naylor told reporters they are gutting the building, turning what was a steakhouse into a sports bar with an event space upstairs. City documents show the patio will be extended by 746 square feet with an additional 897 square feet of turfed area featuring a television screen facing outward, yard games, and more seating.
The Houlihan's site at 4900 W. 119th Street is a bigger swing. Drake Development's $18 million project, which the city has branded the French Corner, will demolish the freestanding building and replace it with two one-story structures totaling roughly 16,700 square feet, each with two restaurant tenants. The developer said in April that Drake had agreements on three of the four spaces and expected to announce tenants in the following 30 to 90 days. The one publicly described so far is an upscale, sit-down American bistro with other locations in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Del Mar and Orange County, California. Diners inside those buildings will pay an extra 1% sales tax under a Community Improvement District the council approved 6–2.
At Town Center Plaza and Crossing generally, the tenant list keeps changing. What KCTV reported this year, in rough opening order:
- Local Lime Tacos and Margaritas, a coastal-Mexican concept from Arkansas-based Yellow Rocket Concepts, is taking the former Bravo! Italian Kitchen space just off 117th and Roe, near Whole Harvest Kitchen and LOFT, with a summer opening. The company is hiring 80 employees locally and has said Leawood is the first of several planned metro locations.
- The Coach Coffee Shop, opening next to EVEREVE at Town Center Crossing. This will be only the third in the country.
- LEGO, set to open this summer next to Tecovas, the only Johnson County location.
- [solidcore], a fitness studio going between Athleta and Gorjana.
- Drybar, opening next to Trader Joe's.
- J.Crew, already open near Kendra Scott and Bluemercury.
- Lululemon, expanding its existing footprint at the Crossing.
If you have not been over in a couple of months, the map has moved.
A Park Place Saturday, in the order it actually happens
The Summer Concert Series in Barkley Square is the thing residents most often forget is free. Bring a chair. Alcohol has to be purchased on-site at Bamboo Penny's or Mission Taco Joint and stay on the square. Here is the July and August lineup still to come:
- July 25, 7 to 9 p.m. — KC Groove
- August 8 — Stolen Winnebagos
- August 15 — The Zeros
- August 22 — Perpetual Change
Movies in the Square runs the same nights on a different clock, starting around dusk on select Saturdays. The July slate is Happy Gilmore on the 12th, Tommy Boy on the 19th, and Barbie on the 26th. If you have older kids who want to be out until 10 with their friends, this is the least stressful way to make that happen.
A pattern worth knowing: the Saturday events double up. You can put dinner at Aixois or Plate on the front of the evening, catch a set of the concert, and finish on Bamboo Penny's patio without ever moving the car. For weekday planning, Wednesday Date Nights bring live music and dining specials, and Guitars & Games on Friday evenings keeps the lawn open with acoustic acts and oversized Jenga.
If you are the parent doing weekend logistics
Second Saturdays for Kids runs from May through October, 10 a.m. to noon. The July 12 edition is the Summer Foam Party, which is exactly what it sounds like. Bring a change of clothes. Every Tuesday morning through the end of July, Pinwheel Club takes over Barkley Square with crafts and games from roughly 9 to 11. The parents I know pair it with coffee from Outta the Blue Café, then walk the kids over to Ice Cream Bae before nap time.
The kid pipeline through Park Place is not incidental. It is the reason the property runs Barkley Square the way it does. You can drop by any given afternoon and the fountains, adirondack chairs, and lawn games are already staged.
September is the pivot, and it is worth planning around
Two things converge on the same block of the calendar. A Taste of Leawood, hosted by the Leawood Chamber of Commerce, is Saturday, September 12 at Park Place, 11549 Ash St.. The streets close, tents go up, and participating restaurants pour and plate all night. It is 21+, rain or shine, and it usually sells out. Early bird pricing ran through June 30, so tickets from here are at the standard rate.
Roughly around the same window, Brooksider is targeting its fall opening at the old Hereford House. If the timelines land as planned, the same weekend a resident is walking through A Taste of Leawood tents at Park Place, the sports bar half a mile south will either be in soft-open mode or a couple of weeks out. That is unusually good timing for a neighborhood that just spent eighteen months looking at a boarded-up steakhouse.
The quiet argument this summer is making
The reason to notice all of this in the same breath is that Leawood's daytime and evening rhythm is being rewritten inside a single calendar year. The Golden Intersection at 119th and State Line loses two of its longest-running anchors and replaces them with, respectively, a neighborhood sports bar and four higher-end restaurants that have never been in the metro before. Meanwhile the property that mostly programs itself around events keeps adding programming. If you have been coasting on muscle memory when someone asks where to eat in Leawood, this is the summer to update the list.
For anyone whose family already knows this quadrant of Johnson County well, the specifics matter more than the headline. Where Bravo! used to be is now Local Lime. Where Houlihan's used to be will be a new bistro from an out-of-state group. Where you used to park for Hereford House works fine for a sports bar with a bigger patio. The plazas are not becoming something unrecognizable. They are getting sanded down and repainted while you were not looking.
If this is the season your household is also thinking about a move, whether that means listing a longtime Leawood home before the fall market or finding something closer to Town Center now that the dining mix is shifting, Andrea Plowman can walk you through what the neighborhood shifts mean for pricing and timing. Schedule a Consultation when you are ready to talk it through.
