CVS may come to the Wichita market, starting at 21st and Amidon

Feb. 29, 20124:46 p.m.

WICHITA — It appears CVS is working on a deal at the northwest corner of 21st and Amidon, though no one involved is talking.

CVS has been playing a little hard to get with Wichita for the last several years.

In 2006, Have You Heard? reported that the Rhode Island-based company completed its acquisition of 700 Sav-On and Osco drug stores, including 22 in Kansas. A spokesman said that meant Wichita’s three Osco stores – on North Amidon, South Seneca and East Harry – would convert to CVS stores along with 19 others around the state.

Less than a month later, Osco employees here were informed their stores would be closing instead.

Then, in late 2008, sources confirmed that CVS was in the market scouting locations.

For the last few years, phone books have still been running a phone number – although it’s not working – for CVS at 2323 N. Amidon. That’s the former Osco space. There aren’t listings for the other former Osco sites, so it’s led some people to wonder if that’s because CVS is returning to the 21st and Amidon area.

Read More »

By Carrie Rengers | Tags: , , , , Filed under New business, Real estate, Retail, West side | Comments Off

Cox retail center at Shops at Tallgrass near 21st and Rock to move, but not far

Feb. 1, 20125:00 a.m.

UPDATED — Cox Communications Kansas/Arkansas is moving its retail center at 21st and Rock, but it’s not going far.

The store will move from the Shops at Tallgrass near the northeast corner across the parking lot to the north of Dillons.

“We are just keeping in line with the Cox retail marketing strategy,” says spokeswoman Sarah Kauffman.

At 3,000 square feet, the new store will be larger than the existing one.

“We really want consumers and customers to have an experience when they walk in a Cox store,” Kauffman says.

The new store will be especially hands-on with technology, she says, “where customers can test or try out the products.”

That includes high-speed Internet, digital cable and home phones.

Ish Tamas of J.P. Weigand & Sons handled the deal.

In about a week, Cox will start remodeling the space, which was where Supplement Giant and Home Fitness Exercise Equipment Co. used to be.

Last summer, owners Wayne and Lisa Ragsdale made their own short jaunt across the parking lot to new space where a former Blockbuster was.

The new Cox store should open in a couple of months.

 

By Carrie Rengers | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Filed under East side, Real estate, Retail, Shops at Tallgrass | 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

Southeast corner of Central and Oliver ready for development, including a restaurant

Oct. 27, 20113:50 p.m.

WICHITA — It’s been a long time coming, but developer Christian Ablah has acquired an entire city block on the south side of Central near Oliver and is preparing the property for development.

“I’m just basically preparing this for future development,” says Ablah, a broker with his family’s Classic Real Estate.

“I’m just trying to clean up the area,” he says. “The project’s taken a lot longer than I thought it ever would.”

Ablah is close to a deal with a restaurant that would go in the former Dillons store on the southeast corner of the intersection.

There’s talk that it could be a certain Mexican restaurant looking to expand.

“I can’t do the guessing game, but I can tell you it is a sit-down restaurant,” Ablah says.

Part of his demolition of nearby duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes is to make room for parking for the restaurant.

“All the demolition will be complete in a couple of weeks,” Ablah says.

He says any new development will complement what Nathan Toubia is doing with his Bocconcini Italian Eatery next to the former Dillons.

Ablah hopes to close on the restaurant deal in a couple of weeks, but he’s working on other leases as well.

“There’s a lot of demand right now for office — large office space — as well as retail,” Ablah says.

Read More »

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

Yoder Meats to open third Wichita store

Sept. 27, 20115:20 a.m.

WICHITA — Yoder Meats is expanding its Wichita presence by taking over the former Kline’s Meats location near Maple and Maize.

“We just stepped in and bought that equipment and will be opening that location up the first of November,” says owner Alan Waggoner.

In addition to the Yoder Meats retail shop in Yoder, Kan., the company also has stores in Normandie Center at Central and Woodlawn and at 798 N. West St.

“We’ve had a lot of requests and demands from the far west side of Wichita,” Waggoner says.

“People only travel so far,” he says. “I think that’s why there’s a Dillons on nearly every corner.”

Waggoner says there will be about six miles between each of his stores.

“They’re all very even across the city.”

So is the far east side next on his agenda?

“Far east Wichita is something I’d look at, but probably not before I’d considered Rose Hill or Derby,” Waggoner says.

There’s also a Yoder Meats plant in Yoder.

“We have local products from local farms,” Waggoner says. “We process most all of our product here in Yoder from a three-county area.”

The newest store will be open Monday through Saturday, as is the Normandie store.

Waggoner says the West Street Yoder Meats also is open Sunday afternoons.

“Just so, you know, if somebody wants something they can drive a few miles, but they can get it.”

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

Dillons at Central and Rock had to close because of power issues again

Aug. 12, 20113:57 p.m.

WICHITA — Mama said there’d be weeks like this.

For the second time this week, the Dillons at Central and Rock had a power failure that temporarily caused it to close.

“That poor store,” says Dillons spokeswoman Sheila Lowrie.

Today’s issue related to a malfunctioning air conditioning unit on the roof.

“Through that process, we did lose electricity and partial refrigeration,” Lowrie says.

Store employees — including everyone from the pharmacy manager to courtesy clerks, Lowrie says — helped load food onto refrigerated trucks.

“Everyone in the store was pitching in,” she says.

The store reopened just after 1 p.m. after being closed for four hours.

On Tuesday, the store temporarily closed when an electrical problem caused registers to lose power.

Lowrie has never heard the adage that bad things often come in threes.

“Oh, goodness, don’t tell me that,” she says. “We will buck that trend.”

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

Beautiful Day Market & Cafe to open downtown this fall

Aug. 10, 20113:10 p.m.

WICHITA — Downtown dwellers have called for more grocery options in their area, and Charolett Knapic is answering.

Knapic, who owns Echo Landscapes, plans to open Beautiful Day Market & Cafe in 6,000 square feet downtown in November.

She’s not saying precisely where until she finalizes the lease. Cristi Howell at J.P. Weigand & Sons is assisting her.

Jill Miller of Creative Solutions is helping Knapic with her business plan, which is centered around locally grown and organic food.

Knapic grew up working at her grandparents’ Kingman restaurant, McQueen’s Cafe and Servateria.

That didn’t inspire her to want her own restaurant, though.

“Not at all,” Knapic says. “I thought I would never go back to it.”

The healthful side of the business is what’s attracting her.

“I want a place that makes you feel good.”

She got the idea because she was not feeling well.

“About five years ago I had a big health failure.”

Knapic says stress from her business caused her to have a physical breakdown.

Living a more natural, healthy life is what got her back on track and allowed her to find balance, she says.

“I learned a big lesson.”

Knapic wants to share that lesson.

Read More »

By Carrie Rengers | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , Filed under Downtown, Grocery, Leases, Real estate, Restaurants, Retail | Comments Off

You don’t say

Aug. 9, 20116:05 p.m.

“People are very understanding.”

– Dillons spokeswoman Sheila Lowrie on what happens when the chain can’t sell groceries, which briefly occurred at the store at Central and Rock Tuesday when an electrical problem caused registers to lose power

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

You don’t say

March 9, 20114:46 p.m.

“If I wasn’t having to fight Walmart and Dillons right now to stay in the liquor business, it would be a whole lot easier to stay less sober.”

— R&J Discount Liquor owner Jeff Breault who, when asked about the Daily Beast website naming Wichita the 16th most sober city nationally, instead wanted to talk about grocery stores trying to pass legislation to sell liquor

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

Twisted Cow yogurt shop to open in Newton

March 8, 20115:15 a.m.

Newton is not going to be left out of the yogurt craze.

A group of Hesston residents and friends are opening Twisted Cow in 1,507 square feet at 1400 S. Kansas Ave. in Newton. That’s in the parking lot of the south Dillons.

Carol Raleigh says she was traveling out of state when she discovered the frozen yogurt trend. She says this was before the Wichita area started getting Orange Leaf yogurt shops.

“We loved the idea and wanted to do it,” she says.

“I had looked into franchises,” Raleigh says of several she considered. “I couldn’t, first of all, get anyone to respond to me.”

Then she and her partners encountered what she calls “very high” franchise fees.

They decided to create their own shop, which will feature 10 types of frozen yogurt and about 35 toppings, such as fresh fruit, nuts and candy.

Customers will pay by the ounce.

Raleigh’s partners are her husband, Greg, and Roni and John Caffrey and brothers Rick and Bruce Weaver.

Carol Raleigh says there could be more Twisted Cows to come.

“We have talked that that would be a possibility,” she says.

“We want to make sure that we nail this one first and make sure that it is everything we want.”

Look for a May 1 opening.

By Carrie Rengers | Tags: , , , , , , , Filed under New business, Newton, Restaurants | Comments Off