There’s a fast-growing area of Wichita that is proving ‘the sexy place to be’

Delano was a wild area filled with saloons, brothels and gambling before 1880, when it was officially incorporated into Wichita, but fast-forward a century to 1980, when Jack Kellogg moved his Hatman Jack’s Wichita Hat Works there, and Delano was wild for another reason.

“You could have (put) a rock-crushing plant next door to me, and no one would bat an eye,” Kellogg said of the lack of zoning for the area.

Today, Delano is an eclectic mix of distinctive retail shops, restaurants and a growing number of business offices. Then there’s the new Riverfront Stadium that’s attracting much potential development and keeping city officials and major developers laser focused on the burgeoning area.

How much the area is flourishing is something of a surprise, said City Council member Jeff Blubaugh.

He said he remembers a decade ago when the city was focused on the Block One development in downtown Wichita, which was a full city block of development around the new Ambassador Hotel. Blubaugh said he asked then about plans for Delano, part of which is in his district.

“Oh, we’re probably decades away from that growth,” he said he was told.

Several things helped change that, including actions by the city — ones that have been both lauded and criticized.

Perhaps more than anything, though, it’s the small business owners who collectively have made the biggest impact on Delano.

Take Kelsey Metzinger, owner of the popular Bungalow 26 boutique, who opened in Delano in 2006 after seeing promise in the area.

“It reminded me of Mass Street in Lawrence or just kind of any little cool, hip urban neighborhood.”

There wasn’t much retail, however, and Metzinger described the area as a bit desolate.

She said most of the other retail shops “were staples that were there forever,” such as Hatman Jack’s, the now-closed Devon Luggage and the now-closed Central Plains Novelty.

“Everything was such a destination back then,” she said. If you needed luggage, “You were going to Devon, but you weren’t going anywhere else.”

Now, Metzinger is acting like an unofficial broker for Delano. When she hears of vacant property there, she tries to connect other retailers to it.

When she heard one of the four properties Kellogg owns was for lease, she asked him if she could post about it on her social media accounts. Interest was swift, and so was a deal. The Vortex Souvenir art and gift shop is now open at 607 W. Douglas.

“I really do like to connect people in that way,” Metzinger said. “It’s selfish. I want cool stuff around me.”

It’s more strategic than selfish. Metzinger and other retailers and restaurateurs know that a density of similar businesses is crucial for the success of all of them.

“I have a really good following, and I want to share that business with somebody else, and I want them to share theirs with me,” Metzinger said.

She’s thrilled with Vortex, and Vortex co-owner Kevin Wildt shares her belief in what will make the area a success.

“Having businesses that people can experience and walk into is so critical,” he said. “Things that people can explore.”

Metzinger said she wants visitors to be able to walk up and down Douglas and pop into a restaurant or shop every fourth door or so.

“I want to see the sidewalks packed.”

A Catch-22

The dilemma of Delano’s current success is that the popularity of its shops and restaurants has been a draw for more and more offices — not necessarily more retail and restaurants — and that’s creating concern for some business owners.

“I certainly understand that sentiment,” said Trent Sebits, who is making a significant investment to remodel a former retail space at 929 W. Douglas for his Pickrell Drilling.

Part of what drew Sebits and his employees to Delano are amenities such as a park, a coffee shop, lunch spots and bars just “out the front door,” he said.

The fear is there won’t be room for many more such amenities if offices take up all the space.

“There has to be a balance,” said Curt Robertson, a partner in InSite Real Estate Group.

As important as retail and restaurants are to the flavor of the area, he said, offices are playing a key role in Delano’s revitalization.

“The groups willing to make the investment down here to bring these buildings back to life have been the office users,” Robertson said.

That includes his own firm, which bought property in Delano in 2009 and expanded there this year.

That also includes Hutton, a construction firm that recently built a 24,000-square-foot building in Delano for its headquarters.

The firm is “not the normal fit that we thought we’d see in Delano a few years back,” Blubaugh said.

Ben Hutton said he and his team like the area even more than they thought they would. He said a mix of businesses and residents “creates a more present and reliable customer base” for shops and restaurants, without whom “Delano wouldn’t have the magic that it has.”

At InSite’s urging, Will Hayes of the Hayes Co. was able to see past the pigeons roosting in the facade of the former Jim’s Builders Hardware store along West Douglas and transform it into offices. He then leveled a former automotive shop next door and built a two-story building.

“He was just willing to make the kind of investment not many other people really were down here,” Robertson said.

Hayes credits Robertson and his InSite partner Dan Unruh.

“They promoted Delano when no one else was really that interested.”

‘A patchwork quilt’

Delano’s natural attributes include its proximity to the city’s core and ease of access without some of the headaches of downtown. The city of Wichita also has made numerous investments in the area over the years.

In 2001, it created the Delano Neighborhood Revitalization Plan that updated zoning and made street improvements, among other things.

The new zoning “prevented some really poor uses” of the properties, Kellogg said.

“We kind of got that together to protect what we had in the neighborhood.”

He said the area still is “kind of a patchwork quilt.”

“It’s a very eclectic business neighborhood, and I love that about Delano,” Kellogg said. “It’s become such a desirable destination. People know about it statewide now.”

In 2017, the city approved a $40 million Delano catalyst site that created the 225 Sycamore apartments, the Home2 Suites by Hilton and some commercial and green space. There was some dissension over whether this is what Delano needed and whether the city should have let development happen organically instead, but a lot of business owners now appreciate the number of new people the apartments and hotel bring.

Don Cary moved his All Things Barbecue to Delano in 2009 when he said the area was at a low point and later expanded to a 25,500-square-foot space. He said he anticipated things would get better, but he never expected the area to improve as much as it has.

“Honestly, I think the thing that’s most surprising to me is the city’s commitment to the area,” Cary said. “What they ended up doing (is) just really excellent.”

More recently, the city built the Riverfront Stadium at Maple and McLean, which even some who didn’t want the park admit has been a draw for the area.

Unruh said the arrival of the Wichita Wind Surge, a Minor League Baseball team, along with more apartments in the area, including 225 Sycamore and the River Vista Apartments farther north on the Arkansas River, “provided a solid foundation to build upon, which should attract additional demand. ... The market is getting healthier by the day.”

The ballpark, though, has exacerbated an ongoing issue for Delano: parking.

“We have a lot of groups that want to be down here, but finding the right building with convenient parking is difficult,” Robertson said. “If we could find a way to add some convenient parking ... we’d get more of the retailers down here.”

Several people point to the protection of the public parking behind the Monarch at the Delano clock tower as one of the most important issues in the area.

Others say the parking issue is a matter of perspective.

Metzinger said there’s a lot of available parking if people look for it on side streets.

“Bigger city people get it.”

Beautiful changes

Four years after moving from Lebanon to Wichita, Tony Abdayem and his family opened La Galette French Bakery & Deli in Delano in 1986.

“We were so lucky we chose the area,” Abdayem said.

Reasonable rent lured him, and Abdayem then began buying properties around him. In 2019, he purchased the white stucco building at the southeast corner of Douglas and Seneca a couple of doors down from La Galette.

The building had become an eyesore, but Abdayem exposed the original facade and made other improvements. His son, InSite commercial broker Chris Abdayem, is now working with potential tenants, including one retailer for the ground floor and a combination of office users upstairs.

Chris Abdayem called Delano “the sexy place to be.”

He said he’s heard from potential investors that “If there’s anything in Delano, you call me right away. It doesn’t matter what time.”

That compares to what he called gloomier times for the area when his parents were first there.

“What’s really special to me ... is that my parents really kind of stuck through it.”

Tony Abdayem said “it’s beautiful” to see the change in the area.

“If we didn’t have that COVID thing, that area would have been the number one destination area in Kansas.”

Metzinger said the area had just been hitting its stride with foot traffic and in attracting local businesses before the pandemic hit.

When things began opening more, she said, foot traffic started increasing again because consumers “were desperately trying to find local businesses to support.”

The businesses support each other, too, Metzinger said.

“It feels like we’re all co-workers for the same company sometimes.”

The bigger picture

As much as she’s an unofficial real estate broker for the area, Metzinger said she serves a public relations role, too.

When people take short road trips to Wichita from places like Oklahoma City and Kansas City, she said, “They’ll always say, ‘Where else can I shop down here?’ For a really long time, it was nothing.”

Now, she directs traffic.

Metzinger, a native of Korea, said she believes Delano’s diversity is a draw, too. She said that at any given time in her shop or on the street, there might be a grandmother alongside a gay couple holding hands, a mom pushing a baby in a stroller and “a dude with a mohawk and sleeve tattoos” walking by.

“To me, that speaks to the promise of a neighborhood and why I would want to have a business there. I feel like people feel comfortable in Delano, and I feel comfortable in Delano.”

Metzinger said she’s also now more comfortable with the role shops like hers play in the greater community.

“The longer time goes on, I realize it’s shops like ours that shape our city,” she said. “I guess I just never saw myself in a bigger picture.”

Metzinger said the businesses in Delano collectively are having an impact.

“These places are really creating a city culture that people want to travel to.”

This story was originally published December 26, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "There’s a fast-growing area of Wichita that is proving ‘the sexy place to be’."