If the Wichita City Council wants to ensure the future of the historic Broadview Hotel with a name franchise flag, it probably should bite the bullet today and approve the incentives package for Drury Southwest, including up to $25 million in industrial revenue bonds and a five-year property-tax abatement. Doing so would allow for the $6 million sale of the long-bankrupt hotel to close Sept. 9. Unlike an earlier proposal by New York-based PAZ Management, this deal has the advantage of not involving a city handout for renovations. Even so, Missouri-based Drury Southwest intends to spend up to $19 million on upgrades and transaction costs over the next five years. The Broadview badly needs financial stability and renovation if it’s to be a key piece of downtown Wichita’s slow but sure rebound. This 86-year-old riverfront jewel deserves better than a sheriff’s sale.
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The great Wichita historical icon, the Broadview Hotel, has reached a point of needing remodeling to bring it into the 21st century.
The Broadview was built in 1921/22 by Wichita’s greatest builder/contractor/owner, George Siedhoff. The north wing was added in 1929 just before the Great Depression set in for a decade. Siedhoff built a long list of Wichita buildings and monuments during the more than ten years of the “golden twenties, before being cut short in the 1930’s by the nationwide economic depression.
Wichita’s Arkansas Valley Interurban (AVI) headquarters were around the Broadview. AVI headquarters were located in a building on the west edge of the Broadview, later used as a radio station by KAKE. The AVI ran trolleys from behind the Broadview to Newton and Hutchinson for many years until competition from automobiles closed it before WW II.
Another entepreneurial lion, Fred C. Koch, moved to Wichita in about 1925 and officed for a time in the nearby First National Bank building before moving into the Marland/Continental Oil building, now the present day Boathouse (currently closed). The elder Koch officed on the second floor of the Boathouse for fifteen years, 1930 to 1945, where he was tremendously successful in the early petroleum refining and oil pipeline business. His final downtown building was across Douglas from the Broadview Hotel.
Nearby on the west side of the Arkansas River, on the south side of the 400 block of Douglas Avenue, were the offices of Travel Aire Company. The three lions of Wichita’s future air industry officed together there, Clyde Cessna, Walter Beech and Lloyd Stearman (later Boeing). Recently I could still find a large spike in an interior wall marked “propellers.”
Of course, the Broadview Hotel overlooked the famous but long gone, Island Park, on an island in the Arkansas River. Wichita’s long time successful city manager in the 20’s and 30’s, Bert Wells, got the WPA to grade away the west leg of the Arkansas River eliminating that island forever and its old wooden baseball stadium (which burned) and the roller coaster.
Just then Ray “Hap” Dumont jumped in to get WPA to build the present Lawrence-Dumont Stadium (the “Dumont” was added later to honor Hap) which opened in 1935 along with Wichita’s fabled National Baseball Congress (NBC) and continues to play annually here in Wichita.
So, bottom line, the Broadview Hotel is the jewell in the center of this fabulous 1920’s and 1930’s urban history of Wichita. The Broadview must be retained as the icon of downtown Wichita history … don’t you agree?
Over the years The Broadview has been sold, been renovated, let slide into disrepair, sold, been renovated… I don’t remember a sustained time of business for this property.
Here’s what I think is the problem. There is nothing to draw people to downtown Wichita. If you must drive to get anywhere — dining, shopping, recreation — then why not stay where your car is parked at the door FREE? Successful downtown properties are those where the visitor flies into town, takes the complimentary shuttle to the hotel and then is able to walk to dining, shopping, recreation until they take that shuttle back to the airport at the end of their visit. Think of the cities that have these amenities available and you’ll find many successful hotel properties there also. It’s where people go for vacations, it’s where companies book their meetings, it’s where tourism has meaning.
Where do you park if you stay at The Broadview and what is the cost? If you don’t have a car (you’ve flown into town and not rented an auto) where do you eat? If you’re here more than a day or two you probably are bored with the choices quickly. Other than sit in a bar what are the options for entertainment without transportation? Is there a movie theatre? A museum? Shops?
And forget public transportation. Our city doesn’t have that either.
In many ways this is a chicken-egg situation. I would note that Century II is right across the street – first-class Music Theater of Wichita, Opera, Symphony, etc. The Q connects to Old Town (but not sure of hours). There is parking available across the street to the east.
It seems to me that if we can spend millions for overpriced bars and a theater we can support the hotel. Especially when all the downtown people say there is a shortage of hotel rooms.
I have a selfish reason here. When I attend theater etc at C-II I enjoy a good dinner before or after. Having Chisolms and Le Parc scross the street in very convenient.
JWink, I meant to BEGIN my post with a thank you for the very interesting history you provided! I learned a lot and do appreciate the time you took to share.
Ben, I agree with much of your reasoning, especially the part about spending. Spending seems selective, doesn’t it? Depends on who you are and whether you’re part of the GOBN. What’s good for most doesn’t seem to be a criteria for spending.
But until we have daily opportunities for entertainment, dining, shopping near The Broadview we’re still limited by that chicken / egg scenario. It will take both in order for both to achieve success.
Why is it the Cities job to Constantly bail out failing business?
JWINK
Did you read the AVI stuff I put on the “Cowtown” thread? I will repost them here.
did a loop around, not a look around, lol
Franklin: Where’s your AVI stuff? I looked back at the “Cowtown” thread and you haven’t put anything there either. I hope you will put something substantial you learned from your father about the old AVI trolley line here. I understand your “did a loop around, not a look around” remark but where’s your substantial information?
The EAGLE carried an interesting article about the Broadview Hotel this morning in it’s “local” section. Later in the morning, the Wichita City Council approved the agreement with the Drury Inn people out of Cape Giraurdeau (sp?), hometown of Rush Limbaugh.
So, barring any unforeseen changes, I believe we are on the way towards a restored Broadview Hotel in downtown Wichita.
A lot more controversy exists on establishing the downtown arena district TIF, a form of tax abatement. This was also voted on this morning by the City Council. I will have to wait for news reports later today and in the morning’s EAGLE to understand the implications of the council’s TIF vote.
“Why is it the Cities job to Constantly bail out failing business?”
Because.. that’s the way “The Wrecking Crew” works! All this rat phucking of the government for the benefit of private businesses may have started at the federal level, but it is anchored at the state and local levels with three buzzwords. “Economic development.” and “Jobs.”
I mean, who can be against “jobs”, right? EVERYONE has one, had one, or provides one, or at sometime has done all three. So.. “jobs” is the magic word that gives the keys to the public treasury to private business. And “Economic Development” the biggest hoax ever perpetrated on the American Taxpayer, is the banner under which business sneaks into the Treasury to use it’s magic keys.
Funny thing is.. in Kansas… particularly in Western Kansas… we have more jobs than people. Hays had to start a website, hayshasjobs.com, to try to attract WORKERS, not businesses. And Shulte Manufacturing in Plainville closed it’s plant there because… wait for it… the market for their product was booming and they couldnt find enough WORKERS to meet the demand.
And yet, neufeld and the state Wrecking Crew want Holcomb built because Western Kasnas needs the JOBS? WTF?
Six impossible things before breakfast.
Ask any business owner out here, in any town. From the trades to the professions to regular jobs, we need PEOPLE, not more jobs to go unfilled.
But hey… JOBS! JOBS! ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT! ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT! have such a nice ring no? Rings like the keys on the key ring that says “public treasury” on the tag…
I know that’s heresy, but I’m tellin’ ya, it’s the truth. It isnt social services emptying your pockets, it’s private business flying under the banner of economic development.
I’m ashamed of my 20+ year career in perpetuating that hoax.
JWink
I gave you several AVI links.
Maybe you were not impressed?
I tried to explain: Dad loaned out much of his AVI documentation.
I did try to answer your quetions. Mainly, no permanent structure actually covered the TRACKS.
The AVI ARCH area of the Broadview was the Freight area, for loading and unloading cargo like oil barrels, boxes, etc. Much of the area around the North of the AVI arch was designed for truck traffic and loading docks.
More history, in 1941 or 1942, the AVI was having hard times. Passenger service had stopped already. AVI was barely profitable. Then, the bridge by the Broadview got washed out, and the powers that were decided not to finance a new bridge. The AVI was over.
Another history tip? Go upstairs, on the Water Street side of the Broadview. Somewhere up there, maybe around the 4th Floor? Dad thinks you will see an “apendix” (for lack of a better word.)
There is a “hallway to nowhere” in the Broadview, an area that was SUPPOSED to lead Across Water to the Parking Garage.
Grand Dad used to work for the AVI.
Dad used to work for Shelly Electric. Shelly had the bid to do the electrical work for the “walkway” back in the 60’s or 70’s (When ever the parking garage was built, I do not recall.)
Anyway, a city councilman did not like the design of the “walkway” since it would be at an angle. He killed the whole deal.
Several “skids” of lights and wire and fixtures sat in the Shelly Electric warehouse for a few years after that. Shelly took on the job in “good faith” and had to eat some of their costs.
There JWink, how was that?
Also, look for “The Electric Way” — don’t know the author.
Also, look at the book(s) AVI by M.D. Isely.
Hope this is helpful.
Maybe….just maybe it is better to help out a business now and then instead of providing welfare for people because the businesses fold? The people against supporting businesses (that provide JOBS) are equally supportive of welfare, free medical, free housing, etc.
why not support the businesses that can employ people who might, just might, develop some PRIDE at having a job instead of depending on government handouts?
Raptor: I agree with you. Not only is the Broadview Hotel a historical icon of downtown Wichita, it does furnish jobs to a lot of employees who might be hard pressed to find similar jobs in this economy. Better to save existing jobs than to try to create new jobs where none existed before.
Ahhh! The Jobs argument. Another red herring to excuse the eternal transfer of wealth from the working people to the rich. The taxpayers are constantly bailing out some rich businessman whose efforts have justifiably gone for naught, and who wants to lose someone else’s Wal-Mart shirt rather than his own hand-stitched silk one.
Businesses fail for a reason, and mismanagement tops the list, followed closely by initial bad judgement. And we taxpayers get the honor of perpetuating those traits by handing over our hard-earned cash to people who have already proven that they can’t run a business like their daddy did.
If the Broadview or the Old Town Warren can’t turn a profit, they have no business taking up valuable real estate. If the local construction companies are short on projects, let them take the heat instead of tossing them more white elephants to build with our money. If all these things are as financially feasable as they want us to believe, why aren’t private investors clamoring for a piece of the action? The business of government is government, not business, which in a supposedly capitalist society ought to be more than capable of taking care of it.
Jed: Seems like you live in Atlanta or somewhere in the southeast, so perhaps you don’t read the EAGLE on a daily basis. I’m as critical as anyone on give-aways of our tax dollars to the “good old boys of Wichita” but this is not a give away.
In this case, the city of Wichita is granting the Drury Inn Company of Cape Giraudeau (sp?), Missouri the right to exercise an Industrial Revenue Bond of up to $25 million dollars, which of course would be paid back by Drury Inns over some period of years. As usual in IRB’s which have been used by many cities for many years, the devil is in the details but that is just business.
I think its a good business deal for downtown Wichita.
Franklin: I just read your last fairly long comment above. Very interesting. Hope you continue to ask your dad questions about the AVI.
Incidentally, I have read the AVI book by Isley. Its a reference book in the downstairs history room of the Wichita library. I don’t think I have read the “white way” book you mention but will look for it. I know that early on Wichita had a reputation for a lot of lighting, fluorescent??, on either Main or Douglas or both.
OK, I will take your father’s comment that the trolleys didn’t run through the arch but around the Broadview building.
I did know the AVI continued to deliver freight for a few years after it quit passenger service.
I didn’t know about the AVI bridge washout adjacent to the Douglas Street bridge but it makes sense. That would have been after the “island” had been eliminated in about 1934 by WPA, one of Franklin Roosevelt’s social programs during the Depression.
Regarding the “hallway to nowhere” which was planned to lead to a walkway overpass to the parking garage … this might be built yet by the Drury Inn people.
Hope I covered all you comments. J.W.
JWink. I believe in preserving buildings with historic merit. I do NOT believe in giving away the farm while waving the bloody shirt of jobs. I cant imagine that we are far apart on this issue.
And as usual, raptor completely misses the point. There are more jobs than people willing to take them. Really. So… why subsidize more jobs that can go unfilled.
If people are on welfare because there are no jobs for them to take? Then every goddamn con on this blog is a damned liar.
People should go on welfare short term. Temporary. There is no long term lack of jobs. Ask any employer. They cant find enough qualified applicants for their jobs. Jesus, even McDonalds has trouble finding enough applicants for their jobs. And what does it take to be qualified to work at Mickey D’s. BTW, Mickey D’s here pays the HIGHEST starting wage in town. Higher than the hospital. No kidding.
Jesus WEPT. Here’s a quarter, go buy a clue when it comes to employment and training FACTS.
BTW with most of the money given away to create “jobs” there is little or no accountability. They can promise to create a hundred jobs, but if they only create ten?
no penalty… Incentive to lie? You bet. And the kicker? The politicians who vote to give the money for jobs gets to claim he/she “Saved” x number of jobs. It’s a shell game. And most of America is willing to fall for it.
Again, and again, and again, and again….
Ksfarmgrrl: Interesting that fast food restaurants across Kansas can’t find enough employees to keep the doors open. I ran into that in Johnson County some time back. A sign on the door of a fast food restaurant near Shawnee Mission Parkway and Antioch, perhaps a Long John Silvers, had a sign on the door, “Closed for the evening for lack of employees.” I haven’t seen this in Wichita but it probably happens here also.
Regarding Industrial Revenue Bonds (IRB’s), city governments must grant them and I don’t remember why. But the grantee company, in this case the Broadview Hotel, must pay the money back with interest just like a regular loan. In case of default, as I recall, the granting city government is NOT liable for the default amount. I presume the property or hotel building in this case is taken.
My main point is, IRB’s are NOT a giveaway like some of our deals here in Wichita.
What’s your experience with IRB’s?
Ksfarmgrrl: I thought I noticed our Kansas politicians, Neufield and Morris on television telling how they were recharging the Ogallala aquifer out in western Kansas. Since this is virtually impossible, I wonder what they were talking about? The camera showed a mostly dry lake in the background. Perhaps they were carrying one water bucket at a time …!
JWink,
Nope, I was born here, live right here in Wichita, and spent most of my life here.
And I’ve spent most of my life listening to grandiose proposals to “revitalize” downtown Wichita, and seen vast sums of the taxpayer’s money spent, and the results are that downtown Wichita is more vacant and rundown than ever. I think it’s time we admit that cities develop around the perimeter and die at the center, raze downtown and turn it into a large park. I’d even vote for a nice fountain in the middle!
“Artificial Aquifer Recharge” is the newest feel good buzz word in the water world these days. It’s the new “open sessame” for the keys to largess from the Kansas Water Office, the Division of Water Resources, and the Chief Engineer’s Office at the Ks Dept of Ag.
Mostly, no one knows exactly what it means, but it is apparently a multipurpose word. Hays used it to drain Cedar Bluff and “artificially recharge” the Smoky river alluvium all the way to it’s newly expanded well fields some thirty miles away. It allows Hays to squander treated, potable water on it’s golf course greenery.
It’s how Wichta got permission and kudos for taking city waste water, give it a ride upstream, and dump it in the Equus Beds where it re-enters the Wichita municipal water supply.
It’s late, or I could look up more examples. But… in the world of the water wars in Kansas, listen this legislative session for “artificial aquifer recharge” and “End the IGUCAS” to be the dog whistle words for “I’ve got my water, and I’m gonna get yours too, sucka”!
Mark my words when the session gets rolling. Governor “leadership” legacy will be to institutionalize the use of water as political capital. I.e. liquid payola.
Well Wink, it’s been a few years since I dealt with IRBs, but IIRC, they are only for specific projects, and I cant remember the criteria. They are issued by the city and are sold at a discount, then repaid in full by project. I think it takes the property in question off the tax roll and that spread is used to pay off the bond. If there is a default on the bond, the city isnt liable, the beneficiary of the bond is on the hook, and the bond jsut becomes a bad debt for the investor. Investors bid for the bonds on a discount basis. The riskier the bond, the lower the buyers will bid. I know that is over simplified and my not be completely accurate, but you get the drift.
Ksfarmgrrl: I am also suspicious of the City of Wichita’s recharge of Equus Beds aquifer from polluted flood water in the Little Arkansas River. There is an expensive preliminary treatment of the water but I don’t know what that consists of. Perhaps screening out plastic sacks and floating debris. Very expensive.
Here in Wichita, an alternative program could be to pump water out of our Arkansas River that conveniently flows through the center of town. This water could be used where untreated water would be adequate. For example for watering golf courses, landscaping, even water for fire protection. The cost here would be for small pumps at each pump site. Cost would be millions of dollars less than the vaunted multi-million dollar Equus Beds recharge project.
The Equus recharge project, IMO, is well thought out and well executed. The treatment and filtration will serve to protect the aquifer.
Keep in mind that ‘communication’ between ground water and surface water is normal anyway. All they are doing is enhancing it.