Wichita Life
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🌾 Local Development (Downtown + Other)

🌾 Local Development (Downtown + Other)

Progress in the Wichita area

Landon Huslig
April 28, 2025

Together With

Good morning, Wichita!

Last Wednesday was the 20th anniversary of the first video uploaded to YouTube.

What are the first YouTube videos you ever saw that come to mind? For me:

Let's get to it!

- Landon

Champtown Full Speed Ahead

When you think of development in the Wichita area, where do you think of? Downtown? Out east or west maybe?

What about Park City?

The $500 million Champtown development in Park City is “full speed ahead” and is just down the road from the instant-hit Wild West World theme park of the past.

Champtown will include an aquarium, “Butterfly Wonderland”, multi combat sports facility, bowling alley, and more.

Speaking of development downtown (what a seamless transition eh?), the mixed-use project near the park formerly known as Riverfront Stadium (now Equity Bank Park), has finally begun prepping for construction.

Together with Advanced Orthopaedic Associates

Quick question - if someone you loved was hurt, would you want to be prepared beforeor after they were hurt?

The AOA Now and Hurt! partnership will make it easier than ever to get same-day orthopedic care in Wichita.

Kids will be kids, adults will be adults, and injuries happen.

With the Hurt! app, our community can now access injury experts for free!

LOCAL BUSINESS

Opening

Sally Sue’s NY Deli - Food Truck - Now Open
Bridely Boutique - 3200 E Douglas (in Historic Dockum Building, former Love of Character in College Hill) - Now Open

Moved

Bann Thai Restaurant - 5255 N Maize Rd - Now Open

Closing

Stroud’s - 3661 N Hillside St - Closing on Thursday 5/15

Returning to Life

DQ Grill & Chill - 1520 S Webb Rd - Closed last fall, coming back 4/28

Express Kitchen

Natasha Gandhi-Rue is one of the most talented chefs in Wichita and The Kitchen is one of our favorite places to eat. The downtown Kitchen is no more….as it has evolved into Express Kitchen which some compare to Chipotle, but if you know Natasha, you know this will be way better.

Career Center

A new $40 million Career & Learning Center was just opened by Textron Aviation this week. This is great news for the job market here in Wichita!

Design Source Interiors

Design Source Interiors in Andover is auctioning offer their 10k sq-ft space + all the furniture this summer as it moves to a digital future.

Largest Manufacturers

Who are the largest manufacturers in Wichita? I’ll give you the top 3: Spirit, Textron, BG Products

STARTUP

Health Innovation Startup Competition

Applications are now open for the 2025 Health Innovation Startup Competition through NXTUS!

#WichitaLife

@windsurgeict | Have you been to a Tumba Vacas game yet?

Use #WichitaLife to get your post in the Wichita Life Update!

HOME OF THE WEEK

Together with Weigand Real Estate

12419 SE 170th Ave, Norwich

4 bed, 2 full bath, 1 partial bath
2,400 sq-ft
2 separate 440 sq-ft apartments
Additional apartments are within a massive 40 × 54 garage / workshop
Overside Garage Doors (room to store RV, boat, motorize toys, or car collection)
20’ beamed ceilings

Price: $590,000

Listed by: Kellye Harp, Weigand Real Estate, MLS#653429

View all Available Listings at Weigand.com

CIVIL

City Manager Search

The City Council just approved the kick off to hiring a consulting firm who will help bring a qualified City Manager to Wichita after Robert Layton (city manager of 16 years) announced his retirement.

LOCAL

Dr. William Polite

I only had the pleasure to meet Dr. Polite a time or two, but the impact this man has made on Wichita has been huge. If you knew him, you knew this already.

Rest in peace to a man who truly loved our community and wanted Wichita to thrive.

Festival Season has Begun

Last weekend was ICT Veg Fest.

Here are a few upcoming festivals:

Midwest Winefest Walkabout at Old Town (May 1), Tacos & Tequila at the Boathouse (May 3), Mediterranean Festival at St. Mary Orthodox Christian Church (May 3) and more!

Rudy Love & The Encore

Rudy Love Jr is an core piece of the music scene here in Wichita.

He’s inviting you to buy his new album before you stream.

Did you know if you buy 1 album from them, it equals streaming their music 20,000 times?

Happy Birthday to Hopping Gnome

One of the OG breweries in the current Wichita Renaissance, Hopping Gnome, is celebrating their 10th anniversary in May! They will be hosting several events throughout the month:

Get ready to party!

Broadway in Wichita

The 25-26 Broadway in Wichita series is officially live! Check out the lineup:

WATER FOR ELEPHANTS (Jan. 12–14, 2026)
STOMP (March 4, 2026) SEASON ADD-ON
HADESTOWN (March 20–22, 2026)
Meredith Willson's THE MUSIC MAN (April 24–26, 2026)
CLUE (May 15–17, 2026)

The Voice Update

Wichita has had a lot of success on singing shows.

This year alone on The Voice, we have two contestents:

Kameron Jaso (of Maize HS) and Jaelen Johnston (out of Derby).

Both are extremely talented and we need to keep hyping up our own talent.

Unfortunately in the third and final round of “Knockouts”, Kameron Jaso was sent home. Jaelen is still going though, so stay tuned in.

Great job to both of these fellas!

ICT EXTRA

Exploration Place

Check out this documentary short film on 25 years of Exploration Place.

Master of Coffee

Andrew Gough of Reverie Roasters went on the WBJ BizTalk podcast.

Scam

Don’t fall for this scam.

Free Bowling

Did you know that Kids Bowl Free this summer at Let’s Roll Seneca and Let’s Roll Derby?

Local in National Competition

Ada Martin from Wichita is has 6 days left to move into the next round of a National Music Competition hosted by Timbaland (ya know the producer behind hits like Sexy Back). Go vote for Ada today!