WICHITA — Ron Boss is moving his west-side CPA firm, Boss & Co., from 1,500 square feet at 10011 W. 21st St. to 1,800 square feet at 889 N. Maize Road, which is just north of Central on the west side of Maize Road.
Adam Clements of Builders Inc. handled the deal.
The move happens May 31. There are no changes with Boss’ Andover office.
WICHITA — A new T-Mobile retailer is entering the Wichita market with plans for at least six locations.
Readi Connections, which does business as T-Mobile the Phone Zone, bought an existing T-Mobile outlet at Towne East Square this month and is preparing to open one in Andover Village at 321 S. Andover in April.
Missouri residents Chris Michael and his mother, Melissa, had been in commercial real estate previously.
“We bought out one of our tenants and saw the great potential with wireless,” Chris Michael says.
They’re planning to open 25 stores in the next 36 months in a six-state region.
Michael says they decided to come to Wichita in part because the T-Mobile signal is strong here.
“It’s extremely strong,” he says.
Michael says the Towne East store was a good starting point.
“I felt like that had a really strong retail presence in it and some really strong growth potential as a store.”
WICHITA — Insurance Specialist Group has moved into almost 4,000 square feet in the Bank of Kansas building at Wilson Estates Office Park near 21st and Rock Road.
Previously, the company had 1,400 square feet at the building.
“We really only had room for basically five of us,” says partner Paul Masterson.
The company, which is an independent insurance agency, has seven employees including Masterson and partner Jeff Dodds.
The new office can accommodate about 15 workers.
“We have room to grow,” Masterson says.
Adam Clements of Builders Inc. and Patrick Ahern of Grubb & Ellis/Martens Commercial Group handled the deal.
Insurance Specialist Group also has a Hutchinson office that DJ Kauffman opened in June. It’s not a franchise, Masterson says, but it is Kauffman’s operation.
“DJ’s been a perfect fit.”
Masterson says he and Dodds are open to having similar arrangements elsewhere.
“We’re always looking for good opportunities.”
WICHITA — This summer, Have You Heard? reported that Child Start would be moving its headquarters within the Parklane Shopping Center.
This weekend, it’s happening.
Child Start, a nonprofit that provides early childhood development services, is keeping a sliver of its current space but moving the rest of its administrative office to about 30,000 square feet where Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores used to be. That store moved to the former CompUSA space at 3665 N. Rock Road.
The new Child Start space is designed to meet the nonprofit’s needs. Eighty of Child Start’s 250 employees will work there, and there will be training facilities as well.
“In addition to having space that is more flexible for staff, we hope that larger training rooms, increased visibility and new signage will make us more available to families and caregivers as we prepare young children for lifelong success,” said executive director Teresa Rupp in a statement.
Dennis Fitzroy, a vice president with Builders Inc., handled the new Child Start lease at Parklane. Jeff Englert of Grubb & Ellis/Martens Commercial Group represented Child Start. WDM Architects also helped with the new space.
WICHITA — Another business is moving to Andover Village at 321 S. Andover Road.
Last month, Have You Heard? reported that Computers Plus would relocate there.
Now, Dave Tingley is moving his Plaza Barbers there.
He’s been in about 800 square feet at 616 N. Andover Road for seven years.
Joining Tingley will be his father, Virgil, who today closed his Virgil’s Barber Shop, which he had for 17 years.
“He reached a point in his life where he kind of wants to do it part time,” Tingley says of his father.
“It’s something we’ve talked about for a couple of years,” he says. “The timing seems right.”
They’ll both continue to offer traditional barber services.
“We still want to keep it comfortable for our older generation,” Tingley says.
He’s also adding salon services such as manicures, waxing and possibly massage.
WICHITA — Dream Catchers Case Management has signed a new lease with the Garvey Center.
“We provide case management services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities,” says president Kathleen Blackburn.
Dream Catchers has been in Broadway Plaza but is moving for more space. Its new office will be about 800 square feet.
Blackburn says the Garvey Center made sense for several reasons, including parking, being centrally located and having a health club.
Larry Weber of Builders Inc. handled the deal for the Garvey Center, and Tony Utter of Utter Commercial Real Estate represented Dream Catchers.
WICHITA — It’s a tricky thing to open a computer shop in a new space while temporarily maintaining the old store, too, but that’s not stopping Neil Coleman.
He’s moving his Computers Plus from 608 N. Andover Road to 321 S. Andover Road. He sells and services all kinds of computers.
“With computers, unfortunately you can’t shut down even for a few days,” Coleman says. “It’s kind of a strange deal.”
Coleman has been in business since 1997 and in Andover for more than three years, but he says his store is “stuck behind buildings.”
“The visibility is terrible there,” he says. “I’ve still got customers that come in and claim they didn’t even know I was there.”
At 1,300 square feet, Coleman’s new space will be slightly larger than his existing store.
Adam Clements of Builders Inc. handled the deal.
Coleman hopes to open in the new space on Nov. 28.
WICHITA — Xerox is moving its Wichita office from 1320 E. Mount Vernon to 2626 W. Pawnee.
“They’re just relocating for a variety of reasons,” says Adam Clements of Builders Inc.
He handled the deal for the almost 2,000 square feet, which is near Pawnee and Meridian.
Clements says the building is newer and has interstate access and good visibility.
The company will use the building as a base for Xerox technicians to work out of.
Xerox is in the process of moving in now.
WICHITA — It’s getting to the point you can’t call Robert Eyster and Michael Ramsey nascent developers any longer.
Eyster has purchased the former Protection One building at the northwest corner of First and Market, which makes the sixth downtown property he’s bought to redevelop in less than a year.
“In the process of looking for buildings that have kind of been neglected or buildings that are too big or too small for people . . . we’ve looked at probably all the buildings downtown,” Ramsey said.
That’s how they found the 7-story, 171,000-square-foot Protection One building, which the former Kansas Gas and Electric Co. built in 1953.
“That building has got some very dynamic bones to it,” Ramsey said. “It just spoke to us.”
He and Eyster are renaming the building the Lux and creating luxury apartments and possible condos along with commercial on the first two floors.
“It sounds like a really exciting development,” said Patrick Ahern of Grubb & Ellis/Martens Commercial Group, who was one of the agents who handled the deal.
Ahern, who specializes in downtown properties, said, “More people living downtown will attract more retail and give more vibrance to downtown and that area in particular.”
He said the sale of that much Class B downtown property “potentially helps the market because it’s less space for other buildings to compete with.”
Ahern and Steve Martens represented Protection One, and Marty Gilchrist and Grant Tidemann of J.P. Weigand & Sons represented Eyster.
Eyster has already purchased and is redeveloping the former Zelman building, the Board of Trade building, Victoria Park Apartments, the two-story building at 100 S. Market and Kelly Donham’s former property on Douglas between Main and Market.
With the help of Kansas City, Mo., architect El Dorado Inc., which designed the Finn Lofts on Commerce Street, Eyster and Ramsey hope to use a lot of the 1950s architectural elements already in the mid-century modern building. That includes light fixtures, door knobs and railings.
“They have actually cataloged everything they could in the KGE building in the hopes we . . . could repurpose those elements,” Ramsey said.
Farha Construction is the contractor and Builders Inc. is managing the building.
“This is really going to be a unique facility,” said Larry Weber of Builders Inc.
WICHITA — For her new salon near 21st and Ridge Road, Terra Honey has something old, something new and something original for her business name.
Her salon is going in the former Salon Images space at 2250 N. Ridge Road. So Honey is naming it Salon Images by Tivoli.
Tivoli is “I love it” spelled backward without the “e.”
“It’ll be enough for people to remember the name,” Honey says.
Honey has been in the business for seven years and has longed for her own place the whole time.
“It’s kind of like the hair-school dream,” she says. “It’s just taken a lot of work and a lot of patience.”
The salon will have six styling chairs, which Honey says stylists can use on a part-time or full-time basis.
Adam Clements of Builders Inc. handled the deal.
Look for Salon Images by Tivoli to open in early July.