Airbus to leave Old Town for Wichita State’s Innovation Campus

Wichita State University has issued what it’s calling a “special invitation” for Tuesday, when it plans to announce “a major corporate partnership for the WSU Innovation Campus.”

There are two announcements, sources close to the situation said. The first is that Airbus is moving its main Wichita operations out of Old Town and will be the principal tenant in the Innovation Campus’ planned Partnership Building I.

The second piece of news is that WSU will use Airbus’ Old Town space once it moves out, which likely won’t be for a couple of years. It’s not clear which operations WSU will move to Old Town.

Airbus spokeswoman Mary Anne Greczyn refused to comment Wednesday on a potential move.

WSU spokesman Joe Kleinsasser confirmed there will be an announcement at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday at the All-American Club at Eck Stadium, but he wouldn’t confirm anything else.

“We are looking forward to the announcement on Tuesday because it fulfills the mission of Wichita State University to be an essential educational, cultural and economic driver for Kansas and the greater public good,” Kleinsasser said.

Greczyn said that Airbus has about 400 employees in Wichita, most of whom are engineers who do design and stress work for wings and fuselages.

She said Airbus opened its Old Town facilities at 213 N. Mead in June 2002. The France-based company has two Wichita offices totaling 80,000 square feet across a parking lot from each other just south of Old Town Square.

The earliest the first Partnership Building would be ready would be early 2017. Airbus will be the main occupant, sources said.

In August, WSU President John Bardo announced plans to replace the Braeburn Golf Course with an Innovation Campus to serve not only students but also companies and the public at large by being an economic driver in the community. He outlined a 20-year plan that, depending on market conditions, could include constructing more than a dozen buildings within the Innovation Campus.

At the same time, WSU released a request for qualifications for the development of the first Partnership Building. It said the building would be a minimum 80,000-square-foot with multiple stories to house commercial tenants by the southeast corner of the Innovation Campus, which is on the east side of WSU.

“This new building will provide enhanced experiential learning opportunities for the student body and economic development opportunities for the region and is defined as a ‘partnership building,’” the request said.

A series of partnership buildings, which will be privately funded and developed, will house companies that focus on innovation and learning opportunities that can create jobs in the region. Though the master plan for the Innovation Campus calls for eight buildings, that number is flexible given market demand.

This story was originally published March 18, 2015 at 8:16 PM with the headline "Airbus to leave Old Town for Wichita State’s Innovation Campus."