A condominium project near Douglas and Hillside will drive the renovation of an area that has slowly gone downhill, say residents and business owners.

The Wichita City Council on Tuesday approved the more than $50 million project at Victor and Rutan. Developers plan 160 condominiums in brownstone townhouses and a 12- to 14-floor tower.

The units will be $200,000 and up. It will be aimed at those older than 50 and younger professionals. The project will take between a year and two years to finish.

The Douglas and Hillside intersection is currently caught up in a months-long street widening project that has hurt, even killed, some of the businesses.

But Allen Bell, economic development director for the city, said there are already hints the condo project is helping.

“From the contacts that I’ve had with property owners in the area, they’ve been wishing they could have gotten in on the project,” he said. “They have plans to upgrade their property.”

A project such as this ripples into the surrounding area in several ways.

It will be built where the State Office Building once stood, replacing it with attractive and valuable new residences. That, alone, will increase real estate values in the nearby neighborhood.

The project also adds several hundred upscale shoppers with their discretionary income. That means that neighborhood-oriented businesses could see greater sales.

Frank Turner, owner of College Hill Liquor, 211 N. Hillside, has seen the properties along Hillside and the houses to the east grow shabbier over the years.

He said he’d put more money into sprucing up his business when the project is built to attract new customers. He’d also broaden his selection of wine and high-end spirits.

“It would definitely help us by adding another demographic with more disposable income,” Turner said.

“The only way to go from here is up,” said Beth King, vice president of the College Hill Neighborhood Association.

The revitalization won’t have far to go along Hillside to meet up with another tax-assisted redevelopment project, at Central and Hillside. In the past several years, a new shopping center, with several popular restaurants and a hotel, plus other new strip malls, have been built.

Bell said he hoped that the revitalization could even begin spreading west along Douglas.

“I could see the development at Douglas and Hillside creating a synergy with the rejuvenation spreading from Old Town to meet at East High,” Bell said. “We’ll be cruising Douglas like in the old days.”

Source: www.kansas.com

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