Max Cole isn’t giving up the fight for a new library at his Office This development

May 16, 20125:46 p.m.

WICHITA — Office This developer Max Cole isn’t giving up his dream of a progressive southeast library without a fight.

In September, Have You Heard? reported that Cole made an offer to the city to do a 60,000-square-foot library at the development in the former Wichita Mall at 4031 E. Harry. At the time, Cole said he would charge $5 a square foot and throw in an extra 20,000 square feet for storage.

This week, when Cole heard the Wichita City Council approved further study of a scaled-back central library at Second and McLean, he fired off a quick e-mail to director of libraries Cynthia Berner Harris.

“I thought the economic downturn would cause the Library Board to be more realistic about the Central Library plan,” Cole wrote. “But I was wrong!”

He called the plan a “proposed book museum with computers in the downtown area.”

“The plan is so out of touch, it’s embarrassing,” Cole wrote.

He copied the e-mail to several others, including District 3 City Council member James Clendenin.

“He doesn’t pull any punches – ever,” Clendenin says of Cole. “I was somewhat speechless at first.”

He says he’s not against Cole’s proposal.

“What is the library of the future going to look like? I think Max has a really good idea of what that could look like.”

Cole wrote that he’s proposing “a digital-age vocational library that is intended to close the achievement gap in Southeast Wichita, where it is most needed … .”

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By Carrie Rengers | Tags: , , , , , Filed under Libraries, Real estate | Comments Off

Epic Sports asks city for 10-year tax abatement to purchase and remodel former Coca-Cola plant

Feb. 10, 201212:17 p.m.

UPDATED — Epic Sports, a Wichita-based team sporting goods supplier, is asking the city for a 90 percent 10-year tax abatement to help it purchase and remodel the former Coca-Cola plant at 3001 E. Harry.

Currently, Epic Sports has a 75,000-square-foot warehouse at 1730 S. Laura and an office at 400 S. Emporia. It would move both facilities to the 160,000-square-foot former Coca-Cola space for an almost $2.5 million expansion.

“I’m actually worried that Coca-Cola building may not be big enough,” says Epic Sports president Gary Proctor, who founded the company in 1998.

When he moved into the 75,000-square-foot current space, Proctor says, “We overflowed it in two years.”

He’s eyeing another building that could work for any future overflow.

Proctor says he’s also considering buildings in Oklahoma City and Hutchinson.

“We’ve got some real good opportunities in Oklahoma City,” he says. “They’re pretty aggressive right now.”

That’s not his first choice, though.

“I mean, we prefer to stay here.”

His request will go before the Wichita City Council on Tuesday.

City Council member James Clendenin, whose district the former Coca-Cola plant is in, is traveling and hasn’t had a chance to study the Epic Sports proposal yet. He’s looking forward to it, though.

“My ears always perk up, and I’m always very happy when people show a little bit of interest in southeast Wichita, and so I’m extremely interested to get more up to speed on this,” Clendenin says.

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By Carrie Rengers | Tags: , , , , Filed under City government, Real estate, Retail | Comments Off

Developer Max Cole offers city a library deal at his Office This development on East Harry

Sept. 21, 20116:33 p.m.

WICHITA — Office This developer Max Cole was reading a Wichita Eagle story about the city’s proposed almost-$50 million library, and it got him thinking.

“I started on YouTube looking around the world at libraries and seeing what the difference is between the time I used to go to them and today, and I got really excited about it,” he says.

So he wrote District 3 City Council member James Clendenin with a new library offer for his Office This development in the former Wichita Mall at 4031 E. Harry.

“I’m proposing to do a 60,000-square-foot super deal,” Cole says.

“I’m offering them the world. It’s a paradigm shift, believe me. I know I shocked them with the offer, but it’s the right thing to do.

“I want that southeast part of town to succeed. I invested 10 years and a lot of money.”

He got the attention of Clendenin and others.

“Tell you what, I’m very intrigued by Max’s presentation,” says Clendenin, who has visited the property several times, including with library board members.

“I think everybody sees the extreme potential that the Office This space gives District 3,” he says. “That location is smack dab between two of the most underserved neighborhoods in Wichita.”

He’s referring to Planeview and Hilltop, but Clendenin says Office This is ideally situated for most of the district.

Director of libraries Cynthia Berner-Harris says the library board has invited Cole to make a formal presentation at its Oct. 18 meeting.

Cole’s offer was discussed at the board’s meeting Tuesday.

“They also were very intrigued by the possibilities, but they do have concerns that 60,000 square feet is beyond our capacity at this time,” Berner-Harris says.

She says southeast Wichita is an area scheduled to be addressed with the library’s master plan. The plan calls for a neighborhood facility of 7,500 square feet.

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By Carrie Rengers | Tags: , , , , , , , , , Filed under City government, Office This, Real estate | Comments Off