Macy’s Pulling Plug at Independence Center

For the second time in three years, Independence Center will lose an anchor tenant when Macy’s closes the store in the spring. The retailer announced this week that that the site, at a mall routinely plagued by large-scale teen conflicts, will be one of 37 shuttered before May.

Macy’s officials said the larger plan announced last February had targeted roughly 125 stores that would be closed by 2023, and that Wednesday’s announced closings were part of that strategy. The retailer will also pull the plug on its stores in Joplin and Cape Girardeau.

The mall retains Dillard’s and Dick’s Sporting Goods as major attractions, but the loss of Macy’s will compound challenges that stemmed from the 2019 closing of the Sears store there.  Independence Center is owned by  IGP Business Group of Los Angeles, which reportedly paid $57 million a year ago to acquire the property.

In recent months, the mall has been the scene of huge teen gatherings that have devolved into fights and produced multiple arrests, further tarnishing the image of the mall, one of only two major covered malls remaining in the Kansas City region.