KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The first Whataburger in the Kansas City area is expected to open Monday in Lee’s Summit.
“It is our understanding that they’re set to open on Monday,” Jordan Straits, the director of marketing and communications for the Lee’s Summit Chamber of Commerce, said Thursday. “We have heard that Monday is the day that the Lee’s Summit one is opening.”
Whataburger officials have yet to confirm the opening date, but a spokesman for the Lee’s Summit Police Department confirmed that they have been asked to provide assistance in connection with a planned opening next week.
“They approached us, we will be helping them with traffic the first week,” Lee’s Summit Police Sgt. Chris Depue, who serves as the department’s public information officer, told KSHB 41 News via email Thursday. “Once they finalize the traffic plan we will push it out on our social media.”
Whataburger confirmed in August 2020 that the fast-food burger franchise, which was founded in Corpus Christi, Texas, planned to expand into Missouri, Kansas and Tennessee.
The first location announced was at 1450 N.E. Douglas St., adjacent to the Saint Luke’s East Hospital campus off Interstate 470.
“We’re very excited to have them in the community,” Straits said. “As everybody kind of knows, they’ve been working at this for a long time ... so we are very excited for them to be opening.”
Construction on another location just east of I-470 off U.S. 40 in Independence also is nearly complete. That location also should open soon, but no opening date has been provided.
“They’re not (far behind), and from what I understand they were almost set to open before us,” Straits said. “... But we’re totally excited. There’s such a fanfare around Whataburger.”
Whatburger celebrated the expansion in the Kansas City area with a regional groundbreaking ceremony at the Lee’s Summit location and at a planned location at 8420 W. 135th St.. in Overland Park in April 2021.
Construction of another location in Blue Springs at 905 Missouri 7, just south of Interstate 70, also has started on the site of a former Winstead’s.
Whataburger announced its fifth Kansas City-area location and first in the Northland in July. It will be located in the Metro North Crossing shopping area near U.S. 169 and Barry Road.
KMO Burger — an ownership group that includes Kansas City’s most-famous Whataburger enthusiast, east Texas native and Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes — announced plans for an additional 30 restaurants throughout the Kansas City area during the next seven years.
No date has been formally set for a ribbon-cutting ceremony, but it’s not expected to take place for several months, according to a Whataburger spokeswoman.
