Print edition: 
Hale Ritchie's happy being the landlord of one of northwest Wichita's most visible Class A office buildings.
But if there's a buyer out there for the former Ritchie Paving corporate headquarters on Ridge Road near 29th North, Ritchie's willing to sell.
The 45,610-square-foot, fully leased building at 2872 N. Ridge Road, built in 1994, carries an asking price of $4.975 million and is being marketed by its largest tenant, J.P. Weigand & Sons.
"I don't really care if we do or don't sell it," said Ritchie, who's overseeing Rainbows United's emergence from bankruptcy.
"But it's a good building, we've got it leased up, and if we can find a buyer who'll pay a good price for it, that's fine."
Ritchie and his cousin, Tom Ritchie, have been divesting themselves of businesses and real estate for the past several years. The headquarters has been part of that sale effort, he said.
Ritchie Cos., in Wichita since 1917, sold its concrete, aggregates and paving companies in 2006 to Lafarge North America.
The plant just east of the Ridge Road building was sold to Atlanta-based Quikrete Cement and Concrete Products.
Patrick Ritchie, Hale's son, is marketing the building with Marty Gilchrist for Weigand.
Weigand moved its west office to the building in early 2007 and now occupies more than half of it with 24,000 square feet.
The company intends to remain there, said Jerry Gray, Weigand's commercial general manager.
Other tenants include Tect Aerospace, eServ and United Bio Energy, the longest tenured tenant.
Patrick Ritchie said the building is 100 percent leased long-term, which should make it attractive to investment buyers.
"Once the family started the divestiture, we were looking for strong lease terms with market rates," he said. "It was something we were lacking because the building was owner-occupied for so long."
"It's just a case of us getting the leases redone, getting the prices up and improving the value of a good piece of property," Hale Ritchie said.
"If it sells, great. If not, I'm happy."
