WICHITA — Almost 20 years after opening in Towne West Square, Lane Bryant is closing.
The store’s last day in business is Feb. 23.
The national chain, which specializes in plus-size women’s clothing, has had plans to close the Towne West store since a Lane Bryant opened in NewMarket Square in 2011.
Missy Meyer, manager of the NewMarket store, says there are no plans to close or move the Towne East Square Lane Bryant.
WICHITA — If a business person would like to do business with the Vatican, is it as easy as calling up and asking?
Almost. At least that’s how it seemed to go for Nathan Smith and Traci Smith-Cone of ’Til We Meet Again, the casket store at Towne West Square that’s turning into a national chain.
The day after Thanksgiving, Smith says he and Smith-Cone signed a deal with the Vatican for Vatican-licensed merchandise.
“We are the only source for retail for all Vatican caskets, urns and memorial products throughout the United States,” Smith says. “It’s been something we’ve been working on for quite some time.”
Another company used to have the exclusive license, he says.
“That company that was doing that fell on some hard times and bad management and are no longer in existence,” Smith says.
When he heard that, he says he called the Vatican to inquire about the license.
“Through a lot of negotiations and talks, we thought it brought a lot of value to have that license from the Vatican,” Smith says. “It’s going to be a pretty big license for us.”
The company is in the process of working with the Vatican and several manufacturers on developing lines for caskets, urns, grave markers, jewelry and keepsakes.
Michael Payton (from left), Jeff Englert and Grant Glasgow are trying to market a new Towne West Medical Plaza for a nontraditional approach to filling the mall.
WICHITA — Area mall manager Michael Payton is using a new saying to describe Simon Property Group malls such as Towne East Square and Towne West Square.
“The malls are starting to become the ‘alls.’”
He means the malls offer more than retail and restaurant options these days.
“We’re starting to see more and more nontraditional users work their way into the mall environment.”
The latest foray into a nontraditional use will be the new Towne West Medical Plaza, a potentially 50,000-square-foot area that could be home to a variety of medical users.
“Basically kind of a one-stop shop for different medical needs,” says Jeff Englert of Grubb & Ellis/Martens Commercial Group.
Englert and colleague Grant Glasgow are marketing the property, which will be on the west side of the mall between Sears and Dick’s Sporting Goods.
“This is something they’ve tried in other markets,” Glasgow says of Simon.
“You have a built-in customer base within Towne West mall.”
Glasgow says the mall has 6 million visitors annually.
Payton says the medical location will be convenient for patients, who also could be shoppers.
“They can do some shopping. They can eat.”
Glasgow says to see why this idea makes sense, look at the number of medical providers in the southwest Wichita area.
“It is by far the fewest in Wichita,” he says.
Englert says that area has only 1 percent of all medical offices in the city.
“Obviously, there’s a clear void,” he says. “That’s another reason why we thought this would be a good use of space.”
In addition to being convenient for patients, Glasgow says a medical plaza at the mall makes sense for doctors and dentists, too.
“This allows medical users to cluster,” he says. “They like to all be together.”
On-site management is another plus, he says.
“There are benefits like 24-7 security.”
The area likely will develop in phases.
“It will not cut off through the rest of the mall,” Englert says of access to shopping through that entrance.
WICHITA — Willow Group continues to ink franchise deals for more ’Til We Meet Again stores, but the Wichita company has also experienced its first setback.
The chain’s first franchisee was to open a custom casket store in Glenbrook Square in Fort Wayne, Ind., in May, but Willow Group’s Nathan Smith says mall management changed its mind without giving him or local media a reason.
“Glenbrook Square officials likely sealed a casket company’s fate in Fort Wayne,” read the lead of a Journal Gazette story, which was one of several stories about the issue that appeared in local media outlets.
“It was a mess,” says Smith, who is partners in Willow Group with Traci Smith-Cone.
“Honestly, it took us by surprise,” Smith says. “We do everything we can in the beginning to make sure everything is secured.”
He says the mall took five months to approve the contract.
No one with Glenbrook could be reached for comment.
Smith says the franchisee lost about $100,000 on remodeling and other expenses when told she’d have to vacate the mall five days before opening. He says the store had a contract, but there was a clause that the mall could ask the store to leave at any time.
“We definitely worked quickly with the franchisee to minimize even more loss of funds,” Smith says. “At the time, it was a scramble.”
WICHITA — It’s not exactly news when new space is available at a mall, but Jeff Englert makes a good case for 8,000 square feet that he and Grubb & Ellis/Martens Commercial Group colleagues are marketing at Towne East Square.
“To my knowledge, it’s the first time that Simon used third-party brokers in Wichita,” he says of Simon Property Group, which owns the mall.
Perhaps more significantly, Englert says, “They want to go after nontraditional mall tenants for this.”
Not that he and fellow brokers Nathan Farha and Grant Glasgow won’t look at retail.
“Retail is definitely going to be our first play there.”
However, Simon has had some luck with nonretail tenants, such as Wright Career College.
“They want to explore that some more,” Englert says.
The space is located on the west side of Towne East between Dillard’s and Sears at the second-most busy main entrance of the mall. Englert says it’s possible to add a glass exterior so the space is visible from outside the mall.
After retail, Englert says there could be possibilities such as office users, educational facilities or a fitness center.
He says he’ll soon have news on a new Towne West Square tenant.
“This will be pretty big news, let’s put it that way.”
Look for it in about a month or so.
WICHITA — Instead of continuing to work for other restaurants, Brahim Elhamdaoui and Destiny and Raed Mansour are now going to open their own.
“It’s been a dream of ours for a few years now, and we’re finally doing it,” Destiny Mansour says.
They’re opening It’s A Wrap at Towne West Square, just outside of the food court.
They’ll sell wraps, paninis, salads, smoothies, coffee, energy drinks and juice.
The kiosk opens April 1.
WICHITA — Towne West Square has what sounds like some cool news: It’s getting an ice rink.
Wichitans may enjoy the rink, but it’s not likely to cool anyone off this hot summer.
That’s because the Glide Plaza that Salvador Marroquin is bringing to the mall next month is made of synthetic ice instead of water-based ice.
Abby Marr, the mall’s director of marketing and business development, says the plastic surface will look and feel like the real thing, though.
“It will draw people to the property who just want to try something new in the middle of the summer,” she says.
When the mall is open, the rink will be, too.
WICHITA — The YouTube video “Death Comes to the Mall” has created more than just curious customers for ‘Til We Meet Again, the custom casket store that opened at Towne West Square in March 2010.
It’s also leading to a second store, this one in Hutchinson, in what owners Nathan Smith and Traci Cone hope will be a franchised chain.
“This whole thing has just taken . . . off and just taken us all by storm,” Smith says.
“I expected us to be open at least two years before we started putting (more) stores in.”
Hutchinson residents James and Robin McComas are two of the more than 120,000 people who have seen one of the videos that customers have made about the unique store.
“We actually drove down to take a look and see what it was,” James McComas says.
Then, Robin McComas’ father died, and her family ordered an urn from ‘Til We Meet Again that was customized to look like her father’s Harley-Davidson.
“It was a wonderful experience in the sense of closure for so many people,” James McComas says.
“Right after that, I kept hounding Nathan. ‘Hey, we’d really like to be partners with you.’ ”
He says the biggest trigger to open the store was when he lost his job as vice president for operations at Promise Regional Medical Center due to restructuring.
“It opened the door to this,” McComas says.
The Hutchinson store will open at 306 N. Main St. on May 19.
“I’m calling mine the Main Street model,” McComas says. “It’s designed for rural America. It’s a little bit different market niche.”
WICHITA — The Back Porch has been a fixture at Towne East Square for 16 years, but that’s about to end.
“Business has just continued to slow down for us,” says Bart Bath, who owns the store with his wife, Pam.
They closed their Towne West Square Back Porch last summer.
“What we sell isn’t something people have to have,” Bart Bath says. “It’s more of a luxury.”
The Back Porch is now mainly a gift store.
In past years, it also sold items made of wood, such as shelves, that you might find at a craft fair. In fact, the Baths often traveled to craft fairs in the past.
“We tried to evolve as best we could,” Bart Bath says. “Things just change.
“Go look around at people’s houses. . . . Just the tastes change.”
Online competition also is a factor, he says.
“That’s the way everybody shops is online.”
The store will be gone by late June or possibly a bit earlier depending on a new tenant.