Drake Development has announced plans for a Friday groundbreaking ceremony for its new project, Streets of West Pryor. The $178 million mixed-use development will cover nearly 70 acres near I-470 and Pryor Road and will bring with it apartments, senior living, a luxury hotel, dining and retail. It will be anchored by McKeever’s Market, a new-to-Lee’s Summit grocery store. Drake Development President Matt Pennington said Lee’s Summit is a perfect fit for the Streets of West Pryor because of its demographic.

“It’s got a great population. It’s the kind of households you want to see for a high-end project like this,” Pennington said.

Still, Pennington believes the development can fill a void.

“It’s the kind of high-end development Lee’s Summit needs because of its demographic,” Pennington said. “This whole development is something Lee’s Summit doesn’t have.”

The Streets of West Pryor will house the 235-unit apartment complex, built by Pearl Companies. The Summit at West Pryor apartments will offer units ranging from 650 – 1,300 square feet. Plans for community features include a gated, secured, underground parking lot. In addition to more than 22,000 of adjacent commercial space, Summit at West Pryor features 13,000 square feet of amenities including interior courtyards, a resort-style pool, fitness center, 4th floor indoor/outdoor rooftop, bocce ball, raised box resident gardens, fire pits, dog wash, bike storage, bike mechanics and more. Rent is expected to range from $1,100 to $2,000.

Pennington says the location at I-470 and Pryor was highly desirable to him, partly because of the success of the SummitWoods Crossing shopping center located east of Pryor, but the acquirement phase proved to hold its own complications. Pennington began the process in 2014 and quickly discovered the land was rocky, full of power lines and controlled by eight different property owners he would have to negotiate with. In the end, it took Pennington five years to assemble all of the land needed for the project.

“To pull 70 acres together in a high-profile site is not easy,” he said.
Once the land was acquired, Pennington also faced challenges from neighboring homeowners associations. In response, Pennington formed a series of planning meetings to address their concerns, which ultimately led him to incorporate connectivity to nearby Lowenstein Park as part of the design plan.

“We truly believe Streets of West Pryor was ‘co-created’ with the City of Lee’s Summit and its residents,” Pennington said in a statement. “Usually you don’t have a 40-acre park right next to the development, but it’s really turned into an asset.”

Pennington said he expects to announce which retail and dining options will be occupying the Streets of West Pryor in the coming weeks. Until then, he hinted many of them will be new to Lee’s Summit. Dirt work is already underway. The grocery store is expected to be complete by late spring or early summer of 2020, with the apartments and senior living facility expected to follow.