Riverfront Legacy Masterplan

[Kung Wu]

Is there a website dedicated to the reno concept for C2?

Edit I found a link to this PDF:

https://web.archive.org/web/20230302013154/https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23692449/230228-wichita_final_presentation.pdf

[SubGod22]

Park City investing about $600m into a city center with aquarium
Any updates about the Riverfront Legacy Plan or is it similar to cicadas that come out once every 17 years with nothing left but an empty shell of promise?

any updates?

It's more than $600M. The Champtown development (160 acres) is at least $500M on its own and will host the aquarium and butterfly sanctuary as well as baseball/softball fields, hotel, multiple dining and shopping options, and a multi-purpose facility that will include MMA octagon. I believe they already have a deal with an unnamed big box store and plan to have 12 restaurants. The Park Centre development (48 acres), which is being billed as their new downtown, will have a large mix-use area with single and multi-family homes as well as shopping/dining options, and a senior living facility.

Champtown is expected to have their ball fields ready to go for next season (spring '25). Park Centre is expected to start going vertical before the end of this year.

I can't recall seeing numbers for the Park Centre development. But Park City is being aggressive and I like it. They have a good location to make things happen.

Now if only Wichita could stop getting bogged down with bullshit, pull their heads out of their asses, and get things moving it would be great. It takes time. Many, many years to really get things rolling and moving forward and building upon what you've already built upon.

One would hope that as the Riverfront Stadium district continues to move forward and the Bio-Med campus gets going that maybe someone will finally do something to connect the two areas and build up the river.

I'm not holding my breath.

[ShockerFever]

I agree. The town of Park City is way more forward thinking than the city of Wichita. Who would’ve thunk?

[ShockerFever]

Century II is the biggest roadblock to developing the riverfront. It holds back the Performing Arts and limits what Wichita can bring in even on the convention side.

I admit, I've never been enamored with the structure itself. I don't find it interesting or attractive. It stands out like a sore thumb. Hell, my old high school had a domed area that stood out and made it unique and even they tore that down when it was time to improve the facilities.

But regardless of what they do with CII, they absolutely need to build a new PA facility. Wichita has a lot to offer in the performing arts world and they all deserve a better facility. To me, CII is just taking up valuable space that could be better utilized for the city. Hell, even as a green space it would provide more value than it does now in my opinion.

Totally agree here. Not sure what the allure is to keeping an aging, out-of-date building so badly other than the nostalgic purposes that so many older citizens have. Nostalgia can only hold on so long before it ends up hurting a city. There are so many shows and conventions that bypass Wichita because of this out-of-date space. It’s a shame. But not entirely surprising.

If you look at every comparable regional city that has surpassed us, most by laps… Tulsa, Omaha, OKC, Des Moines, the common theme is those cities are spending money and investing in the future. Wichitans are hell bent on the past. There’s the difference.

[SubGod22]

Totally agree here. Not sure what the allure is to keeping an aging, out-of-date building so badly other than the nostalgic purposes that so many older citizens have. Nostalgia can only hold on so long before it ends up hurting a city. There are so many shows and conventions that bypass Wichita because of this out-of-date space. It’s a shame. But not entirely surprising.

If you look at every comparable regional city that has surpassed us, most by laps… Tulsa, Omaha, OKC, Des Moines, the common theme is those cities are spending money and investing in the future. Wichitans are hell bent on the past. There’s the difference.

There are times and places for protecting the past. But usually that makes sense when those buildings can still bring value to the city. I look at a place like the Orpheum. One of the older still functioning structures we have and has really good bones. They're preparing for a multi-million dollar facelift and updating some things that need to be updated, but it still serves a valuable purpose and allows us to bring in some pretty solid comedy acts.

I know of at least one comedian that I really enjoy that refused to come back to Wichita years ago because he hated the people that ran the Looney Bin. He also wouldn't play at their other venues. And it wasn't just the people, he hated the way it was setup. He has since become a bit of a bigger deal and plays mostly venues like the Orpheum. I keep hoping we can get him here so I won't have to travel to KC. Even outside of him, we have Brad Williams here this weekend I believe. It's also hosted guys like Joe Bonamassa numerous times and I believe in recent memory we've had Jo Koy and Bert Kreischer perform there. I'm a fan of doing what we can to preserve and improve that venue.

But CII would require hundreds of millions of dollars to make it more than just serviceable and it still wouldn't be enough to get a lot of events. It's just not functionally designed well. With the amount of money you'd have to invest in it to try and make it work, you'd be better off spending that money on new venues that can actually attract and retain and provide an economic boost to the city.

A little sidetrack, but I do wish we had a smaller comedy club venue to bring in those comics that aren't going to fill the Orpheum or those who are still trying to make a name for themselves.