WICHITA — The multifaceted Tierra Verde Development near 47th North and Webb in Bel Aire will be under construction within a month.
“It’s really coming together a lot better than we expected with the economy being such that it is,” says architect Paul Cavanaugh, who is working with Terrie and Stephen Grillot on the 77-acre project.
The three are about to begin a bid process to build roads in the development, where they are buying another 80 acres and have an option for 70 more.
Construction of the first phase — which includes a spa and sports complex — will begin as soon as the first roads are in.
Several years ago, Terrie Grillot had a vision for a surgical recovery spa. After a potential deal with a local country club didn’t work out, she began looking for land to start one from scratch.
That’s when she first talked with Cavanaugh about possibly being the architect for the project.
“The more I got involved with it, the more I realized it was really a good thing for a lot of different reasons,” Cavanaugh says.
The development’s green approach — with sustainable and recyclable materials — is partly what attracted him.
“We’re trying to make it a green, Earth-friendly development, and I thought that was really worthwhile,” he says.
Terrie Grillot and Cavanaugh have made deals or are in final negotiations for several deals in the first phase. They include:
– The Healing Center at Tierra Verde, which Terrie Grillot and physician Lisa Weber will develop. It will be, in part, a place for patients to prepare or recover from procedures elsewhere.
“When people have had surgery, and they are kicked out of the hospitals because of insurance or they think they’re well and they’re really not, they can come to us,” Grillot says.
The center also will include a destination spa for things such as massages and lectures on healthy living.
There also will be two 500-seat ballrooms that will be home to dance studios and be available for rent.
“This is my baby,” Grillot says of the Healing Center. “I just have the vision of having it all under one roof.”
– Champions Sports Complex, which respiratory therapist and coach Johnny Quick will develop.
It includes indoor and outdoor football fields and four outdoor soccer fields.
– The Hotel at Tierra Verde, a 120-room hotel that an investment group in Denver is in final negotiations to open along with a possible amphitheater.
“It’s going to be very green,” Terrie Grillot says. “In fact, they want their lobby to be an education center on green” living.
– The Organic Gardens at Tierra Verde, which Terrie Grillot and Cavanaugh are selling to a group in the process of putting together an LLC.
– Assisted Living at Tierra Verde, an assisted living facility that Grillot’s husband, family physician Stephen Grillot, and assisted living builder Jason Wiley will develop.
– Three barns will house a culinary school and restaurant, a learning center and an art cooperative. This area has not been sold yet.
– Three medical offices on five acres each. These have not been sold yet.
– Wichita Bible Church, which will add a site at Tierra Verde, though not until its second phase of development.
Cavanaugh says he and Terrie Grillot have committed to have the sports complex ready by late summer.
He says the Healing Center will be ready by the end of the year, and most everything in the first phase will be under construction within six months.
The second phase will include residential living for people 50 and older, though it won’t be a retirement village.
It also will have a town square and a dog spa. Grillot says she also hopes to have a post office and a grocery store.
“My other goal and dream is to put in an environmental school,” she says.
Grillot says the development would already be built if it hadn’t been for the economy.
Cavanaugh says that’s slowed progress but not stopped it.
“A guy can either sit in a corner and give up or figure a way around the hurdles,” he says.
Check back here for more information as the development progresses.