City of Wichita putting out guide to downtown development incentives
Downtown officials will roll out a 10-page guide to available development incentives next week, the first step in their one-stop information shop for retail and residential prospects.
The document, a comprehensive list of incentives and criteria to develop projects downtown, will be rolled out on the Wichita Downtown Development Corp's website, www.downtownwichita.org.
"The more information we can provide to the development community as they look downtown will give us a competitive edge," said Jeff Fluhr, WDDC president.
"This is the critical information developers need to make decisions. If they can quickly identify what this downtown has to offer, they can make decisions about projects that will help them proceed to secure sites and funding."
The document pulls together incentives from the WDDC, the city of Wichita, the state of Kansas and the federal government.
It also identifies the goals of the downtown revitalization program spelled out in the Goody Clancy comprehensive plan, project eligibility requirements, contacts and other thresholds.
Included will be information on historic tax credits, grant programs and an up-to-date map of the city's tax increment financing districts.
Patrick Ahern, a commercial broker with Grubb & Ellis/Martens Commercial Group, said the incentives document is essential to recruiting new downtown business.
"For somebody like Dave Burk, he knows where to go," Ahern said. "But if you have a company from outside Wichita, it's easier. And if I'm trying to market downtown, I can include this to show a potential buyer."
Many downtown buildings are run down, Ahern said.
"It's very important because the incentives make it feasible for these projects to be profitable," he said. "Without incentives, a lot of the properties will languish as they have. The incentives make adaptive reuse financially feasible."
In addition, the WDDC is surveying the Douglas corridor from Washington west to the Arkansas River, documenting available and occupied space on ground floors. Ground-floor activity is the centerpiece of Goody Clancy's plan to revitalize downtown.
On Thursday, the WDDC and the city released the final draft of "Project Downtown — The Master Plan for Wichita," a 20-year blueprint for downtown revitalization.
The document is available at www.wichita.gov or www.downtownwichita.org. The Metropolitan Area Planning Commission will hold a public hearing to consider adoption of the plan at 1:30 p.m. Nov. 18 in the 10th-floor City Hall Conference Room at 455 N. Main.
This story was originally published October 29, 2010 at 12:00 AM with the headline "City of Wichita putting out guide to downtown development incentives."