Downtown Wichita takes off
Downtown Wichita has had $372 million in development in since 2010, with another $112 million underway or about to break ground in 2013. As of December 2010, when the new plan was adopted, the city had 1,350 housing units in its 800-acre downtown — that number is expected to more than double by the middle of this decade.
Compared to larger metro, Wichita is a relatively small real estate market and not known as a “creative class” mecca. Yet the city is seeing many of the same trends that downtowns are experiencing nationally with a rise in demand and revitalization.
Prior to the recent activity, Wichita’s downtown had “epicenters of vitality, but they weren’t connected,” says Jeff Fluhr, president of the Wichita Downtown Development Corporation. The city, under mayor Carl Brewer, hired Goody Clancy to create a downtown plan and brought in market experts to get a precise picture of the development potential.
Illustrative plan for downtown Wichita includes mixed-use residential, office, hotel, and civic. Plan courtesy of Downtown Wichita Plan, Goody Clancy
“The plan clarifies the design concepts we are striving for, such as connectivity, infill development, creating a walkable, pedestrian-friendly city, how we shape the public investment,” Fluhr says. Key investments made in connection with the plan were streetscape improvements, conversion of one way streets to two way, planting of street trees, traffic signalization, and a parking garage, he says.
A single block, which the city has dubbed Block 1, has seen over $40 million in investment, including the adaptive reuse of a 12-story building that had been vacant 12 years, a 117-room boutique hotel, the $9 million expansion of the Kansas Health Foundation headquarters, and a mid-block passage that is a new public space.
Sarah Woodworth of W-ZHA did a hospitality study that helped to bring two new hotels to the city. Laurie Volk of Zimmerman/Volk Associates (ZVA) “challenged our developers by saying they could get more per square foot. That’s what’s happening,” Fluhr says.
Much of this is fueled by younger adults, 20-something to 40-something, who want to live downtown, which is also fueling the restaurant activity and nightlife. But there is also a cross-section of people moving downtown, including some families, he says.
Downtown Wichita residential projects
Corporations are moving downtown as well. Airbus located in a revitalized area of downtown called Old Town. Cargill made a significant investment in a research and development center. The city would like to see a major multitenant office building, a building type that has not been built in downtown Wichita since the 1980s.
The existing downtown land use code did not need to be revised to implement the plan, Fluhr says, which is not the case in many cities.
ZVA listed the assets of downtown Wichita that make it attractive from a market perspective:
• Historic buildings, many of which are architecturally significant
• Employment: Downtown is a regionally significant jobs center
• Culture and entertainment
• Shopping and dining
• Walkability
• Central location and access to the rest of the city
