NewMarket North aims for a different feel in northwest Wichita

NewMarket Square already is expanding to the north, with stores and restaurants opening in front of Target, but the growth spurt isn’t over.

And the next phase will feel a bit different – more intimate and pedestrian-friendly.

“We’re going to try to make it a very compact, walkable plan,” said Jerry Jones, vice president for commercial development for Slawson Cos., the center’s developer. “That is the vision.”

That means no big-box stores in what will be called NewMarket North. Instead there will be a mixed development of small shops, restaurants and second-story office space.

“Our focus and our planning has been on apparel and quick, casual restaurants,” Jones said.

Slawson has been required to figure into its planning about an acre of protected wetland at the southwest corner of the development, along Maize Road. The area can’t be built on but can be enhanced with plants, Jone said. Plans call for it and a strip of landscaping to serve as a buffer between NewMarket North and busy Maize Road. A terrace with outdoor seating for restaurants would look out over the area.

The project will be built in phases as Slawson lands tenants. When full, the site would contain six buildings with a total of about 120,000 square feet. Two thirds of that would be used for 15 to 20 retailers and four to five restaurants. The rest would be leased for office space. Parking space for several hundred vehicles is included.

Slawson “would definitely like to break ground later this year,” Jones said. “It’s really the northern extension of NewMarket Square.”

Slawson leasing agent April Reed said the development will lean toward higher-end clothing and specialty stores.

“We have heard a lot of customers say they’d like to see even more apparel,” Reed said. “A lot of these specialty apparel stores want to cluster together.”

As for restaurants, she said: “Breakfast keeps coming up as a need that hasn’t been met yet,” along with restaurants offering both indoor and outdoor seating.

The site plan now calls for two restaurants connected by a 200-foot-long terrace overlooking the wetlands area.

The buildings will look much like those of current NewMarket Square tenants facing Maize.

“We call it a Main Street look, where stores have window sills and each one has detailing,” Jones said.

Further in the future is another planned mixed-used development to be located on 73 acres across Maize Road from NewMarket North that Slawson purchased last year. It’s known as the Cadillac Lake property for a body of water located there.

As for the original NewMarket Square, its 840,000 square feet of space stretching north from 21st Street is now about 97 percent full with some 90 tenants ranging from big box retailers at either end to clothing stores, restaurants, banks, salons and more nestled between. Reed noted that five of the most recent six tenants to set up shop there are franchisees.

The only significant space left for development is a building pad with room for about 30,000 square feet near the plaza west off the main entrance on Maize Road. “All it would take would be a couple of tenants that want to be there,” Jones said.

NewMarket opened in 2001, one of the most visible projects of Slawson Cos. founder Don Slawson, who died last year.

Although it draws customers from around the region, Slawson touts the immediate area’s demographics as a key component in that success:

▪ The average household income within one mile of the center is $95,772.

▪ Nearly 100,000 people live within five miles of it.

▪ And the intersection of 21st and Maize Road is the sixth busiest in the city.

“Don Slawson had a big vision, but I don’t think any of us envisioned all of this 15 years ago,” Jones said, referring to the company’s founder. “When we’re done, we’ll have close to a million square feet.”

This story was originally published February 16, 2015 at 3:17 PM with the headline "NewMarket North aims for a different feel in northwest Wichita."