At four times the size of Highland Park Village, there’s nothing small about the idea of turning around and tuning up Kansas City’s Country Club Plaza.

As of Friday morning, Ray Washburne, president of HP Village Management, planned to have power washers cleaning the grounds of the shopping and office center built more than 100 years ago.

An affiliate of HP Village Management officially closed on the Kansas City property with 970,000 square feet of commercial space spread across 15 blocks on June 28.

Country Club Plaza’s notoriety in the real estate community is that it was one of the first planned suburban shopping centers to accommodate shoppers arriving by car.

In the Midwest, it has served as a destination for out-of-town and out-of-state shoppers, much like Highland Park Village has, through the years, according to Washburne.

The opportunity to purchase the aging property was first brought to Washburne when he was speaking at an Urban Land Institute conference last May. Someone from investment manager Nuveen, coincidentally the lender on Highland Park Village, asked him if he’d be interested in another big project.

More than $100 million was spent on the updates to Highland Park Village. Washburne said that much more than $100 million will be spent on the Missouri complex, with Nuveen remaining involved.

Given Country Club Plaza’s size, it’s been envisaged into separate districts with a contemporary fashion district, a food and beverage district, and a luxury and designer district.

It’s similar to the retail balance that’s been struck between Dallas’ Knox Street, with which an affiliate of HP Village Management has also been involved, and Highland Park Village, Washburne said.

Currently, there are Tiffany & Co. and Coach stores at Country Club Plaza, but Washburne said there have been conversations with a lot of luxury retailers.

“They’ve seen what we’ve done [with Highland Park Village], and that’s very important,” he said. “There’s a trust factor with the tenants as there is a trust factor that they come in and they’re going to be in with someone who’s taking a long-term approach. We’re not going to put lipstick on it, paint a few storefronts, put a couple tenants in and sell it.”

Washburne said the first priority is security.

“We spend four times as much on security in the Village than they do, and they’re four times the size we are,” said Washburne.

Kansas City, like the Dallas area, has been tapped as a site for FIFA World Cup games in 2026, including a quarterfinal.

It’s a milestone that makes improvements at Country Club Plaza all-the-more critical without forgoing a sense of place.

“The pixie dust on this stuff is really creating an authenticity and uniqueness to the center. What we did at the Village is lead with a food and beverage scene that’s local. Second, you also have to have a number of local retailers,” said Washburne.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Multiple Kansas City architects have been engaged to help with an updated master plan for the Edward Delk-design buildings. Baroque revival and Moorish revival styles were utilized to mimic the architecture of one of Kansas City’s sister cities, Seville, Spain.

Leasing efforts are being led by Stephen Summers, whose family co-owns HP Village Management.

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• Under this new plan, one-way tickets to Miami on this route are $17.50. It would cost $35 a day to take the train in both directions.
• It will only stop at Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport, and the transfer station before reaching MiamiCentral.
• The express train will leave the West Palm Beach Station at 6:30 a.m. and get to MiamiCentral at 8:05 a.m.
• In the afternoons, the express train will leave Miami at 5:35 p.m.

A new way to get from West Palm Beach to the Magic City kicked off Monday morning.
Tri Rail is launching their pilot program for an express route to Miami, eliminating more than 10 stops along the way.
I asked Tri Rail leaders why they’re deciding to launch this now and if this has anything to do with Brightline rising their prices for their tickets.
Their answer was yes.
Brightline made the decision to get rid of their train passes, effective June 1.
They say “it has become increasingly difficult to accommodate all guests as peak trains are reaching capacity,” according to their website.
Before, you could buy 40 one way tickets for $400. Now, After their price increase and changes that started this month, those same 40 tickets would cost you $1,400.
Brightline says they worked with Tri Rail to alleviate this.
Under this new plan, one-way tickets to Miami on this route are $17.50. It would cost $35 a day to take the train in both directions.
I asked the executive director of South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, which runs Tri Rail how that relationship worked.
“We went through our schedule to see if we could actually squeeze it in. We saw that we could, and then we went to the board for the budget for it,” said David Dech SFRTA’s executive director. “Brightline recognized that there were going to be some people that were upset with the pricing and reached out to see if there was something we could do to help everybody.”
It’s a one-seat ride, meaning passengers won’t have to transfer.
The express train will leave the West Palm Beach Station on Tamarind Avenue and Clematis Street at 6:30 a.m. each weekday and get to MiamiCentral at 8:05 a.m.
In the afternoons, the express train will leave Miami at 5:35 p.m.
Tri Rail says this will cut the drive time between West palm beach and Miami by more than 30 minutes.
The new express route also eliminates a bunch of stops.
It will only stop at Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport, and the transfer station before reaching MiamiCentral.
The stops that were kept were chosen strategically, according to Tri Rail.
WPTV about more trains becoming available for this route. Dech says they’ll use all the information they get from the pilot to decide if they can add more trains to this route.
“Later on in the year we’ll be able to evaluate our business model in general,” said Dech. “I don’t have the funding or the equipment to just put on a whole bunch of additional express trains. We do share this line with Amtrak, we share this line with CSX. We don’t have a blank check to go out and kind of do whatever we want. But this is a good opportunity to see if there really is a demand.”

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ATLANTA – A person is in the hospital after being shot overnight in northeast Atlanta.

Atlanta police officers found the victim near Plasters Avenue and Armour Drive.

Investigators believe a road rage incident may have resulted in gunfire, but it’s not clear where it happened.

The victim was a passenger in a vehicle that was involved.

They were taken to a local hospital in serious condition.

No other information has been released at this time.

This story is developing.  Check back for details. If you have additional information, pictures, or video email newstipsatlanta@fox.com.