General News in the 316

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Eagle - Tallgrass Film Festival announces the second wave of films for the 22nd annual event

The Tallgrass Film Festival recently announced the second part of its lineup for the 22nd festival, taking place in downtown Wichita Oct. 24-27 in several venues, including the Orpheum Theatre, Century II and the Advanced Learning Library.

The festival will feature more than 129 films culled from more than 1,700 submissions worldwide, including a record number of films from 72 countries.

Here are some highlights of the second announcement (the complete schedule can be found at www.tallgrassfilm.org; times and dates are subject to change):

A number of films mentioned in the article, but a few that stand out to me:

"Luther: Never Too Much" is a film over the life of Luther Vandross

"Hope in the Heartland" is an exploration of homelessness in Wichita and the effects on the community.

"Missing from Fire Trail Road" explores the 2020 disappearance of a Native American woman and exposes how hundreds of indigenous women have gone missing in the US and the effects of all of these unsolved murders and disappearances on reservations.

"Young Frankenstein" is exactly what you think it is. A special screening of the Mel Brooks classic.

More can be found at Tallgrass Film

Looks like they'll have a couple of events honoring the late Hattie McDaniel.

"American Underdog" appears to be a film about an Indian-American immigrant and MMA fighter straight out of jail that stops a crime and finds himself as a local hero. Internal conflict. Starring Danny Trejo who is ****ing awesome! I'll watch anything with Trejo in it.

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Always a hit and he seems to genuinely love Wichita

KSN - Food Network star coming to Wichita

Television personality, author, and famed foodist Alton Brown announced his final national theater tour will visit more than 60 U.S. cities in 2025, including Wichita.

“Alton Brown Live: Last Bite” will be at the Orpheum Theatre on Thursday, May 1, for one show only at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets go on sale to the general public on Oct. 11, 2024, and can be purchased through Select-A-Seat—online at selectaseat.com, by phone at 316-755-SEAT, or in person at the Select-A-Seat Box Office at Intrust Bank Arena.

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WBJ - U.K.-based technology company expands into Wichita, picks downtown

A U.K.-based technology company is headed to Wichita.

Bloc Digital, a technology and software company, has secured a lease for a 3,400 square-foot office inside the Epic Center at 301 N. Main.

With its U.S. headquarters in Mentor, Ohio, the company provides a suite of in-house technology and software services, including web 3D development, 3D modeling, animation, immersive technologies like augmented reality, software services, training courses and maintenance aids.

Co-director Keith Cox said the "main reason" — among others — to come to Wichita was the amount of aviation companies and supply chain in the area. He said the tech company, which was founded as an entity that worked with Rolls Royce on its jet engines, has expanded rapidly into supporting aviation and aerospace companies over the last 25 years.

"That's basically all of our clients in one area, so it's almost like shooting fish in a barrel for us," he said.

Sounds like this wouldn't have happened if the Greater Wichita Partnership didn't have a presence at the Paris Air Show last year.

Wichita State's Shocker Studios was also a selling point, on top of being loaded with aerospace companies.

They want to hire 10 people within the first year and want Wichita to be their tech hub.

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WBJ - Textron Aviation Defense wins $21.8M contract for more Thailand work

Textron Aviation Defense's military work for Thailand has yielded another sizable contract award.

The U.S. Department of Defense announced last week that the defense segment of the Wichita-based company won a $21.8 million service contract tied to the Beechcraft A-T6 Wolverine used in the southeast Asian country.

"Textron Aviation Defense is pleased to be selected by the U.S. Air Force to install the Airborne Extensible Relay Over-Horizon Network datalink system in the Royal Thai Air Force AT-6 Wolverine fleet," said Tom Webster, vice president of global sales for Textron Aviation Defense, in a statement. "The AERONET system uses commercial secure datalink capability to share voice, data, chat and full motion video between air, ground and command and control forces, increasing the already robust suite of communications equipment in the RTAF AT-6.

Thailand loves Textron.

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KAKE - Dirty Jobs host Mike Rowe in Wichita to promote work ethic curriculum, trade school careers

The longtime Emmy Award-winning host of the hit TV show "Dirty Jobs" made an appearance in the Air Capitol Tuesday.

Mike Rowe visited with instructors and students at WSU Tech, and got a closer look at the programs.

Rowe is the CEO of the Mike Rowe Works Foundation, which has worked with WSU Tech for the past five years to implement work ethic curriculum into courses.

The foundation is hoping to shine a light on trade school careers, and Rowe says WSU Tech is at the forefront.

"I do think what's happening here could be a template for the country. Some people are getting it right, this school is on the leading edge. In fact, you guys were first," Rowe said.

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In more good news, Spirit says that they have no plans to furlough employees despite the Boeing strike that is still ongoing. I believe they've previously stated that they have enough of a backlog that the should remain busy for awhile.

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KSN - Downtown improvements will require lowering Arkansas River

The City of Wichita is lowering the Arkansas River as part of a downtown improvement project.

The project is along the west bank of the Arkansas River between Douglas and Waterman. The city says the design is similar to the projects to the north in front of the Drury Plaza Broadview Hotel and the River Vista Apartment Complex.

The first phase involves constructing a sea wall and concrete cap beside the river, which requires the city to lower the water level. A $6,240,000 BASE grant from the Kansas Department of Commerce is funding the project.

At Tuesday’s council meeting, the Wichita City Council approved moving ahead with the project. The city says it will work with partners to ensure minimal impact on events planned for the area during construction.

Hopefully this is a sign that things are about to start moving along in the development in that area.

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WBJ - Phil Ruffin's Golden Circle picks up construction with September 2025 opening

Construction crews are quickly progressing at billionaire Phil Ruffin's Golden Circle at the former Wichita Greyhound Park site in Park City.

Workers from The Law Co., the general contractor of the project, were seen working on the roofing and interior of the east facility this week. The east facility is expected to house and operate 1,000 historic horse racing machines, which allow patrons to bet on past horse races without information about the race.

To the west, construction workers were seen constructing light structures for the 18,000 square-foot Gilley's Saloon, Dance Hall & Bar-B-Que. The Saloon was inspired by Ruffin’s Treasure Island Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, said Courtney Barnaby, the Ruffin executive vice president in charge of the project, in a January interview with the WBJ.

Workers were also seen moving dirt for work to begin on pavement for the entrance and parking. Golden Circle and Gilley's signage has been set at the 77th Street entrance to the development.

SPT Architecture, the WBJ has reported, is the architect on the project.

I still don't get how/why the historic horse racing is supposed to be a draw, but I don't have to as long as all of this works out to be successful in some way. Park City is soon going to have plenty of dining and entertainment options so this may just play into all of that.

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WBJ - Phil Ruffin's Golden Circle picks up construction with September 2025 opening



I still don't get how/why the historic horse racing is supposed to be a draw, but I don't have to as long as all of this works out to be successful in some way. Park City is soon going to have plenty of dining and entertainment options so this may just play into all of that.

I didn't either until I googled 'how HHR slot machines work' and found a few informative videos. On the surface plays like any other slot machine.

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KSN - Downtown improvements will require lowering Arkansas River



Hopefully this is a sign that things are about to start moving along in the development in that area.

Unfortunately, we don't really have any true investigative reporters in this town, seems they just go to meetings or wait for a press release to report on.

I've seen that a couple of preliminary building permits have been issued for the hotel and the apartment/garage in the 32M and 52M range if memory serves me.

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Unfortunately, we don't really have any true investigative reporters in this town, seems they just go to meetings or wait for a press release to report on.

I've seen that a couple of preliminary building permits have been issued for the hotel and the apartment/garage in the 32M and 52M range if memory serves me.

EPC seemed relatively excite/eager to get things rolling. I know they probably needed some time to finalize the engineering and such so I'm hopeful we see movement soon. I believe they'd originally announced at least a portion of their project to be open in summer of '26. I know they've done other work in the downtown/Delano area and have been pretty successful.

Personally, I like what that area could be made into. I know there are some good businesses already in the immediate area, one I'm particularly fond of, but having more people (apartments) in the area will only help them as well as any new businesses that pop up there. A few more bar/restaurants around/near Riverfront could really make for a nice area, especially in the summer months.

The hotel I think would do fairly well too. Between Riverfont, Intrust, downtown businesses, and the soon to be Bio-Med campus and the new businesses that will pop up down there as well, there should be plenty of need for hotel options. And we're bound to host more NCAA tournaments down the road as well.

I'm just really excited about what downtown(ish) will look like in five years.

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More housing coming to Maize.

WBJ - After Goddard, Dallas developer expands work into Maize with 40-acre housing project

A Dallas development company has expanded its residential work into Maize.

Bridger Cos., a real estate developer and operator focused on cities in the Midwest and southwest, has started infrastructure work on The Heights at Maize, a 40-acre single-family and duplex development on the west side of 119th Street West, approximately a quarter-mile south of 37th Street North.

Fisher Wells, managing partner at Bridger, said the development broke ground in August with plans to build 120 duplex housing units on 26 acres.

Wells said single-family housing in the development will be built separately by Eric Gilbert's Liberty Communities. It will have close to 50 single-family lots on the remaining 14 acres south of the duplexes.

Wells said the duplex development will have larger, higher-end lots that will be an average of 84 feet wide and range from 1,300 to 1,450 square feet. A majority of the units will be three bedrooms and two bathrooms.

A lot of duplexes yes, but it's much needed housing options.

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WBJ - Meritrust Credit Union to merge with Colorado credit union

The Wichita area's largest credit union will become nearly twice as big in terms of assets and locations under a merger agreement announced Thursday.

Meritrust Credit Union said it will merge with Colorado-based Premier Members Credit Union. The merger is expected to be completed in March, pending approval from the National Credit Union Administration and a Meritrust membership vote.

Meritrust will become the name of the merged credit union, though Colorado locations will keep the Premier Members branding.

Meritrust, formed in 1935, has $1.9 billion in assets and serves over 118,000 members in 15 locations in the Wichita area, Lawrence and Manhattan.

CEO James Nastars said the credit union's board recognized the trend of consolidation in the financial industry and set up a "merger philosophy" in 2020.

"They began to see the pace of mergers become more rapid," he told the WBJ, "that's really where they thought, 'Well, let's just prepare ourselves. We're not actively out there looking for a merger partner, but let's just prepare ourselves if we should happen to come across one that makes sense.'"

I'm not going to pretend to know all of the ins and outs and the advantages of these things, but it sounds like it could be a positive. They talk about it helping innovation and it adds markets in Colorado that are economically diverse from those it's in in Kansas and that does mitigate some risks. So this will probably be good for members. I'm not one, so what do I know?

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KMUW - Wichita's rapid economic growth expected to slow in 2025

The annual Economic Outlook forecast from Wichita State University says a tight labor market will contribute to slower growth next year.

For a few years, the pandemic throttled Wichita’s economy.

But it has come roaring back the last two years.

Craig Compton says that’s about to end. He’s a research economist and project manager at Wichita State University’s Center for Economic Development and Business Research.

Compton delivered his economic forecast for Wichita on Thursday as part of the 45th annual Kansas Economic Outlook Conference at Century II.

He talked with Tom Shine about what’s ahead in 2025, the ongoing labor pinch and the overlooked contributions of agriculture to the local economy.

Still expected to grow, just at a slower rate.

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KSN - 'Cirque Dreams Holidaze' coming to Wichita

Cirque Dreams is bringing its “Holidaze” show to Wichita this November.

The show will be held on Nov. 26 – 27 at 7:30 p.m. at Century II’s Concert Hall. It is family-friendly and features a world-renowned cast of performers accompanied by an ensemble of aerial circus acts, sleight-of-hand jugglers, breath-catching acrobatics and much more. There will be news twists on seasonal musical favorites such as “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” and “Carol of the Bells.”