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 — At long last, Michael Gonzalez is looking to bring his Metro Grill downtown.
“Since Day 1 at the mall, they’ve been asking me to come downtown,” he says of customers from his Metro Grill stand at Towne East Square. “They’re dying for us to go downtown.”
In addition to the mall location, Gonzalez has a sit-down Metro Grill at the Waterfront at 13th and Webb Road, and another restaurateur has Gonzalez’s former Metro Grill in Andover.
The downtown location, which would be close to Cafe Bel Ami near South Broadway and East William, isn’t official yet.
“This is not 100 percent,” Gonzalez says.
He says he’s only in talks with a developer, who approached him.
“If it’s a sweet deal, I’ll take it.”
“It improves safety for everyone — not just individuals with disabilities.”
– Brian Coon, the city’s Americans With Disabilities coordinator, regarding a plan that could allow city buses onto property at Towne East and Towne West Squares
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 — Also opening at Preston Village where BattleStations Gaming is locating is Better Buy Jewelry, which used to be in Towne East Square.
Juan Gonzales says he was forced to move because of Wright Career College’s expansion at the mall, but he doesn’t mind.
“We like the (new) area not only because I live nearby but also because we feel like it’s more secure,” he says. “It’s in a better, safer place.”
Also, Gonzales says, he doesn’t have much competition.
“There’s no jewelry stores on … this side of Kellogg and Rock Road.”
Like the BattleStations deal, Adam Clements of Builders Inc. handled this one as well.
The new store, which will also repair jewelry and watches, opens Sept. 25 and will have a grand opening Sept. 29.
WICHITA — A new business is going in the former Highlands Gastropub and Cardroom space at 3731 N. Rock Road, but this time it’s not a restaurant.
Famous Footwear is taking the 7,500 square feet.
No one with the company returned calls for comment, but remodeling is under way, and it looks like the store should be open in a few months.
Andy Boyd of Walter Morris Cos. and Christian Ablah of Classic Real Estate handled the deal.
After Highlands Gastropub closed in late 2009, Colorado-based BenchWarmers Tavern & Grill signed a 10-year lease for the space but didn’t end up coming.
Before the gastropub opened in the building, Serengeti Grill was briefly there, and Black Canyon Grille had a longer existence there before that.
In addition to the new Famous Footwear, the existing ones at Towne East Square and Eastgate Plaza at Kellogg and Rock Road will remain open. There also are two Famous Footwears on the west side.
WICHITA — Has the mattress boom gone bust?
That was one reader’s question after noticing that – following the glut of new mattress stores in Wichita the last couple of years – the U.S. Mattress near Kellogg and Greenwich is closed along with the Mattress Hub clearance store at Central and West.
No one with U.S. Mattress could be reached for comment, but Mattress Hub co-founder Ryan Baty says business is great.
“The mattress business is a cutthroat business, but what allows you to succeed over time is giving customers a bigger, better deal and a variety of options.”
Baty says customers begin to focus more on price and options as a market gets saturated.
He says his chain’s clearance store didn’t close, but it did move to Towne West Square to capitalize on foot traffic.
The Mattress Hub at Towne East Square is being remodeled into a speciality sleep gallery that focuses on Tempur-Pedic and Serta iComfort gel beds.
The chain became a Tempur-Pedic Elite Retailer earlier this summer, which Baty says is the top distinction the company awards.
With Wichita already saturated, Baty says he’s working on two more stores in Kansas City, where he already has three Mattress Hubs.
“Our focus really is on Kansas City right now.”
WICHITA — Florida-based Body Central is opening a second Wichita store, this time in NewMarket Square at 21st and Maize Road.
The first Body Central, a clothing store that caters to young women, is at Towne East Square.
“Your part of the country has been very successful for us,” says Matt Swartwood, senior vice president of stores.
“We have a solid group of stores in Kansas City. We do some great business in Oklahoma.”
The chain also is in Topeka.
Swartwood describes the store as “junior fast fashion,” meaning it quickly turns whatever the latest fashions are for the junior set.
Competitors include Charlotte Russe, Forever 21 and Wet Seal.
The 4,000-square-foot store will open next to Carter’s at NewMarket Square.
April Reed of Slawson Cos. handled the deal.
If all goes well, look for the store to open in August.
“We just see this as part of filling in the market,” Swartwood says. “We’re just awfully excited to come to your city with another store.”
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 — A source says there were layoffs at both JC Penney stores in Wichita Monday and that it appears to be mostly managers who were affected.
The Plano, Texas-based company will confirm only that it is “operating with fewer layers of management.”
“We are unable to provide specific details on how the restructuring impacts jcpenney stores on a local level,” wrote spokeswoman Sarah Holland in an e-mail.
The company has stores at Towne East Square and Towne West Square.
“The Company’s new approach to pricing, promotion, merchandising and the customer experience has simplified our business and removed a lot of the process-oriented work that was previously required,” Holland wrote.
“These changes are essential to helping us achieve our long-term goals. Over time, we expect that the likelihood for new and more enriched job opportunities will develop as our business grows. We would not have moved forward with these difficult decisions if we did not believe it was absolutely necessary for the future growth of our Company.”