Daily Archives: Jan. 11, 2012

Kansas Casino Shuttle prepares to expand its service

Jan. 11, 20125:32 p.m.

WICHITA — The new Kansas Casino Shuttle, which has been operating out of Old Town since New Year’s, is preparing to expand its popular free service to the east and west sides of Wichita.

“We’re getting to bring the full model out,” says owner Dennis Sanders, who is offering free rides to the new Kansas Star Casino. “We were just kind of testing the waters.”

The colorfully decorated shuttles offer free rides from the Farm & Art Market Plaza every Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 6 p.m. to 4 a.m. Pick ups are at the top of every hour. The shuttle returns from the casino every half hour.

Sanders pays for the shuttles through print and video advertising inside the shuttles.

Riders love it, Sanders says.

“They just can’t believe that it’s free.”

There will be several east and west pick-up points, though they’ve not been finalized yet. Sanders says to keep an eye on the shuttle’s website or call 316-262-4500. The new locations will be ready next month.

There’s no drinking on the shuttles, but Sanders says it’s a great service for people who want to drink at the casino and not have to drive.

“It’s really cool and fun, like a party bus atmosphere on there,” Sanders says. “It’s a free party bus.”

 

By Carrie Rengers | Tags: , , , Filed under Casinos | Comments Off

Gold’s Gym International and one other large chain working on deals for several Wichita gyms

Jan. 11, 20124:28 p.m.

UPDATED — At this time of year, heading to the gym is a popular thing.

This happens to coincide with an apparently popular time for new gyms to come to Wichita.

There are two chains working on deals here.

No one with Texas-based Gold’s Gym International is talking details yet.

“I can tell you that we have identified Wichita as a market that we are going to build out, and we do have some sites that we’re currently working,” says Coleman Brown, director of real estate for TRT Holdings in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

It looks like the company wants at least three gyms in different locations across Wichita. The first of those three deals, which is at Harry and Rock, may be done.

These apparently will be corporate stores, not franchises.

There are more than 600 Gold’s Gyms internationally. The more than 45-year-old company bills itself on its website as “the original, the place where it all began.”

A second large fitness chain also is close to what may be several Wichita deals. Look for more information in the next week or two.

 

By Carrie Rengers | Tags: , , Filed under Uncategorized | Comments Off

Walt’s will be selling hamburgers in former Smashburger space near 35th and Woodlawn

Jan. 11, 20124:07 p.m.

WICHITA — Walt’s Great American Sports Bar & Grill owner Larry Doss and his daughter and son-in-law, Heather and Chauncey Kent, are opening another east-side Walt’s.

This one will be strictly a hamburger place – not a bar like the Walt’s in Piccadilly Square at Central and Rock.

The new restaurant will be in the former Smashburger space near 35th and Woodlawn.

“We thought it would be a great idea,” Doss says.

Smashburger opened in the spot in 2008 and then in 2009 hired Sullivan Higdon & Sink to help revamp its image after not starting as strongly as corporate hoped. Then the chain sold the location to a franchisee, who last year closed it.

Doss isn’t concerned about Walt’s potential success in the space. He never ate at Smashburger, but he says from what he heard from people who did, “The price point was pretty extreme.”

Look for the more inexpensive Walt’s to open in the next month or two.

By Carrie Rengers | Tags: , , , , , , Filed under East side, Real estate, Restaurants | Comments Off

You don’t say

Jan. 11, 20122:30 p.m.

“I can go there and eat and not have to pay.”

– Ty Issa, joking about why he’s acquired an ownership in Ya Ya’s Eurobistro

By Carrie Rengers | Tags: , Filed under Restaurants, You don't say | Comments Off

Robert Eyster buys Stewart’s Jewelry building at 415 E. Douglas

Jan. 11, 201211:17 a.m.

WICHITA — Developer Robert Eyster has purchased another downtown property, but he and business partner Michael Ramsey don’t have big redevelopment plans for this one.

Eyster purchased the Stewart’s Jewelry building at 415 E. Douglas.

“We bought that building because it was the … remaining property that was in the Esther Moses portfolio,” Ramsey says.

Eyster already purchased the late Esther and Herbert Moses‘ former Zelman’s clothing store space at Douglas and St. Francis, which he and Ramsey redeveloped for residential and commercial use.

David Stewart’s jewelry store will remain where it is.

“I’ve been here 31 years,” Stewart says.

At one time, he’d hoped to buy the building.

“In their family, pretty much once you buy property, it stays in the family,” he says of how the Moses family operated.

The couple had planned for their son, David Moses, to use the 415 E. Douglas property for his law practice when he got out of school.

Instead, Moses, now with Case, Moses, Zimmerman & Martin, went to work for Vern Miller in the district attorney’s office.

Read More »

By Carrie Rengers | Tags: , , , , , , , , , Filed under Uncategorized | Comments Off

Kwik Shop to open next to Dillons at 13th and Woodlawn

Jan. 11, 201210:54 a.m.

WICHITA — A new Kwik Shop is going to open next to the Dillons at 13th and Woodlawn.

No one with Kwik Shop, a sister company to Dillons, returned calls for comment. But the owner of Mariam’s Quick Mart, who was forced out because of Kwik Shop’s purchase of the land, confirms it.

“It’s no big deal,” Mo Siddique says of having to leave. “It was just too much work for me.”

He also has a Mariam’s at Central and Webb.

“I’m actually glad,” Siddique says of having less work.

His store closed in December.

Siddique says Kwik Shop was supposed to start demolition this month, but that’s been put off for at least a month or so while environmental studies are done.

 

By Carrie Rengers | Tags: , , , Filed under Closings, East side, Grocery | Comments Off

West-side Pathfinders Birkenstock to close

Jan. 11, 20125:08 a.m.

WICHITA — The economy has spoken, and the west-side Pathfinders Birkenstock store is closing at the end of this month or in early February at the latest.

“The economy is telling us we’ve not needed two stores in Wichita for some time,” says owner Jill Dunning. “It makes no economical sense to have two stores when, honestly, we probably never needed two stores in the first place.”

The previous owner signed a 10-year lease for the west side store south of NewMarket Square near 21st and Maize. Dunning bought the store about eight years ago.

Renewing the lease wasn’t an option.

“With an accountant husband, of course I can’t,” Dunning says, laughing.

Still, she’s sorry to have to do it.

“We love the building over there, and I hate to take away the ease of a west-side store for my west-side customers.”

Her store in Normandie Center at Central and Woodlawn will remain open

“Business as usual.”

 

By Carrie Rengers | Tags: , , , Filed under Normandie Center, Retail, West side | Comments Off