Print edition: 
QuikTrip's latest Wichita project is coming to downtown.
The Tulsa-based convenience store chain has scheduled a "scrape and build" project at Douglas and Washington, the latest move to renovate and modernize its Wichita stores.
QuikTrip spokesman Mike Thornbrugh said the existing 3,200-square-foot store, which is one of the company's oldest in Wichita, will remain open while a new 4,600-square-foot store is constructed just to the north, similar to a recently completed project at Douglas and Seneca.
Then, the old store will be scraped away to make room for a larger parking lot and more gasoline pumps.
The company has purchased a former auto repair shop north of the current store, QuikTrip officials said, and the city of Wichita is considering a zoning application to vacate an alley just north of the store.
A start date isn't clear, Thornbrugh said, but the company hopes to open the new store next summer.
QuikTrip is moving toward larger stores, Thornbrugh said, to handle a new emphasis on fresh-made sandwiches and pastries as part of its move into the fast-food industry.
QuikTrip, founded in 1958 in a Tulsa strip mall, has nearly 530 stores nationwide, including almost 40 in Wichita. It is renovating Wichita locations and is expanding in markets such as Dallas, Phoenix and Tucson.
Local stores in progress include projects near 39th North and Ridge Road and in the 12000 block of East 21st Street.
The company also is offering vacant land it owns near two relatively new stores — at 143rd East and Kellogg and in Derby — according to the company's Web site.
