Nikki Lansford  - Restaurants

Whataburger eyes 4th potential Overland Park location near Bluhawk shopping center

The developer KMO Burgers, for which Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is an investor, has applied for a new Whataburger franchise on the corner of 159th Street and Lowell Avenue in far south Overland Park, near the site planned for the massive new Bluhawk youth sports complex. Image via Whataburger Facebook page.

A fourth Whataburger appears to be making its way to Overland Park.

This time, the Texas-based fast food chain is aiming to locate a new franchise near the Bluhawk shopping center in the southern part of the city.

An application was submitted by KMO Burgers for a Whataburger franchise at the southeast corner of 159th Street and Lowell Avenue, according to Overland Park city documents.

A 256,00-square-foot amateur sports complex is set to be built nearby.

Whataburger would be joining a handful of other chain restaurants currently located in the developing area, including Panera, Freddy’s and Jersey Mike’s.

The San Antonio-based hamburger chain is planning an aggressive expansion throughout the Kansas City metro, spurred on, in part, by the public advocacy of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, a Texas native.

Two other Whataburger locations in Overland Park, at 135th Street and Antioch Road and 95th Street and Metcalf Avenue, have already been approved and are set to open in 2022.

An application for a third prospective location at 115th Street and Nall Avenue has been submitted and is awaiting city approval.

The application for the franchise at Bluhawk will require planning commission approval like the other locations before it.

The new restaurant at Bluhawk would be one of the 30 new Whataburger locations the company says it wants to add in Kansas and Missouri over the next seven years.

“Expanding to Kansas and Missouri is a win for Whataburger and our fans in America’s heartland,” Whataburger president and CEO Ed Nelson said in a recent press release.

The company says the Midwest expansion of Whataburger also means more job opportunities with 500 openings in 2021 alone.

The entity KMO Burgers, which has applied for the Bluhawk location, includes Mahomes as an investor, according to Whataburger.

Hi! I'm Nikki, and I cover the city of Overland Park.

I grew up in southern Overland Park and graduated from Olathe East before going on to earn a degree in journalism from the University of Missouri. At Mizzou, I worked as a reporter and editor at the Columbia Missourian. Prior to joining the Post, I had also done work for the Northeast News, PolitiFact Missouri and Kaiser Health News.

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