Leawood's Holiday Map Split in Two This Year Between Park Place and Town Center

In 2026, Park Place lost a chocolatier, a modern Mexican kitchen, Bamboo Penny's sister restaurant and a women's boutique. Over the same months, Town Center Plaza, a short drive west on 119th Street, added a LEGO store, the first Kansas location of Alo and the Kansas City area's first Vuori. Park Place mostly lost places to eat, and Town Center mostly gained places to shop. Only one of Town Center's new restaurants is targeting an opening this year, and its four-restaurant project is aiming for late 2027, so this holiday season Leawood's evenings out are split between two addresses.

Most of Park Place's departures were places to eat

The closures at Park Place came in a steady run over about a year. The Kansas City Star reported that French restaurant Aixois Sud closed last fall and Mother Clucker closed in December. Panache Chocolatier followed at the end of April. Owner Julie House told the Johnson County Post that the physical demands of the work and rising chocolate costs played a part, and that retirement and time with family were what decided it.

LaPez ModMex, a spinoff of Session Taco, opened in September 2025 and closed after about eight months. Co-owner Adam Tilford told the Johnson County Post the team could not bring in enough business to sustain it. In The Star's account, Tilford blamed inflation, higher gas prices and the pressure those put on diners, and said his group would leave the space rather than try another concept there. Aqua Penny's, the sister concept to Bamboo Penny's, also closed.

Lalli's Boutique at 5210 W. 116th Place opened in September 2023 and set Sept. 26 as its tentative last day. Owner Susan Hatten told The Kansas City Star that her sales were up 30% last year and that 2026 had been "a dramatically different story":

"Really it's just the economy. We've had so many restaurant closings in Park Place and the traffic is down."

In other words, a clothing shop pointed to its neighbors' empty dining rooms as a reason for its own slower year. At a center laid out around a green and an ice rink, restaurants bring in much of the evening foot traffic the shops depend on.

Town Center's arrivals were stores and studios

Along 119th Street, the 2026 additions came almost entirely from national apparel, fitness and specialty retail brands, as KCTV's September roundup laid out.

Vuori was serving customers by late September. The Kansas City Star reported Coach's Oct. 16 date ahead of time, which makes the coffee counter the only food or drink on the list. That counter serves coffee and sweets, not dinner.

The restaurants at Town Center are still on the way

Town Center lost dining rooms of its own before it gained any. The Hereford House closed in 2024, and Houlihan's, which had sat between Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware on the south side of the plaza, closed March 27. The Johnson County Post called the two restaurants "30-year stalwarts."

Three replacements are in progress, on very different timelines.

1. Local Lime Tacos and Margaritas, 5005 W. 117th St. KCTV listed a November 2026 opening on the north side of Town Center Plaza, while the restaurant's own site still says fall 2026. The Leawood Chamber has a ribbon cutting on its calendar for Tuesday, Dec. 8, from 3:30 to 5 p.m. The Johnson County Post's April 23 report had targeted summer, so the date has already moved once.
2. French Corner, the former Houlihan's site. Drake Development plans to replace the building with two one-story buildings totaling four restaurant spaces, 10,217 square feet on the west and 6,484 on the east. Dave Olson of Drake declined to name tenants when the planning commission reviewed the plans in March. He described them as "high-end restaurants" new to the area and told commissioners, "I can bet you'll be happy with those."
3. Flower Child, inside French Corner. The Arizona-based healthy eatery, which opened in Prairie Village this summer, filed plans for one of the French Corner spaces. Its revised final development plan was on the Leawood Governing Body's Oct. 19 consent agenda, which the council approved unanimously. The Kansas City Star reported that Flower Child expects to open in late 2027.

On the north side, the old Hereford House is planned to become a Brooksider Sportsbar & Grill with an expanded patio, according to the same April Johnson County Post report.

That timing matters for this holiday season. At most, Town Center adds one new sit-down restaurant before the new year. Its four-restaurant project has one named tenant, and that tenant is aiming for the end of next year.

Park Place still has the rink and its established restaurants

That leaves Park Place with what made it a winter destination to begin with. The Ice, the outdoor rink on the center's green, runs daily from mid-November through March 1, weather permitting. Posted hours on the rink's page are:

• Monday through Thursday, 4 to 9 p.m.
• Friday, 4 to 10 p.m.
• Saturday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
• Sunday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Holiday hours may differ. Public skate costs $12, plus $4 for skate rental, and children four and under skate free. A weekday after-school rate drops admission to $9. The 2026 opening day had not been posted as of late October.

The established restaurants around the green are still in the center's directory. That includes Plate Italiano Moderno, Bamboo Penny's and the Outta the Blue coffee shop. The directory still lists some tenants that have since closed, though, so calling ahead before a holiday dinner reservation is the safer plan.

That shapes a December evening in Leawood this year. If the outing is shopping, it starts on 119th Street. If it includes a sit-down dinner in a room that has been there for years, or skating under the lights, it ends at Park Place, a few minutes away.

The city calendar fills in the rest of the season

The City of Leawood's own events add a few dates. Most of them take place at The Lodge at Ironwoods Park, 3640 Ironwoods Court, which is separate from both shopping centers.

• Jazz & Martinis at the Lodge, Friday, Nov. 6, 7 to 10 p.m., The Lodge at Ironwoods Park
• Cosmic Bingo, Friday, Nov. 13, 4:30 to 7 p.m., City Hall Oak Room, 4800 Town Center Drive
• Leawood Fire Department Open House, Saturday, Nov. 14, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Fire Station #1, 9621 Lee Blvd.
• Mayor's Holiday Lighting, Monday, Nov. 16, 5:45 to 6:30 p.m., City Hall, 4800 Town Center Drive
• Ironwoods Holiday Market, Sunday, Nov. 22, noon to 5 p.m., The Lodge at Ironwoods Park
• Breakfast with Santa, Saturday, Dec. 5, 7:45 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., The Lodge at Ironwoods Park

The Mayor's Holiday Lighting takes place at City Hall on Town Center Drive. That puts it close to the new stores, and leaves a short drive east for dinner afterward.

On the northern edge of the city, one new food business opened this year with no ribbon cutting still pending. Cornflower Baked Goods opened in August at 10555 Mission Road in Mission Farms, according to the Johnson County Post. For anyone filling a holiday dessert table, it is one bakery that has nothing to wait on.

If you're following how this year's openings and closings at Town Center and Park Place are changing the corner of Leawood where you live, The Gamble Group is glad to talk through what the changes along 119th Street and around Park Place's green mean for your street. Schedule a consultation whenever it's convenient.