Wichita area getting its fifth Smoothie King, a free-standing store with all-new design
When Smoothie King reclaimed its four Wichita-area stores from franchisee Neil Bhakta and reopened them earlier this year, the chain promised that it would add more new stores to the area soon.
Now, it’s starting to make good on that promise.
The chain is planning to open a new corporate-owned Smoothie King at Greenwich Place — the growing development at K-96 and Greenwich that also has Dave & Buster’s and several other restaurants — by early spring 2022, said Chris Riley, the director of business development for Graycon Building Group. His company plans to break ground on the project next week and expects it will be complete in 17 to 18 weeks, he said.
The new Smoothie King, which will sit right at the entrance to Greenwich Place, directly across the street from Saltgrass Steak House, will be a free-standing building that reflects the chain’s newest design. It will have a drive-through lane, seating inside and lots of front-facing glass.
“We were very fortunate that this is going to be the first new-brand location,” Riley said.
A little more than a year ago, Bhakta abruptly closed his three Wichita Smoothie Kings at 8000 W. Central, 711 E. Douglas, and at 3236 N. Rock Road as well as the store at 1816 E. Madison Ave. in Derby. At the time, Bhakta said he was having a dispute with the Smoothie King corporate office and that he planned to turn the stores into a new concept he’d call Rind & Grind. He put up signage and menus and briefly operated Rind & Grind stores, focused on coffee drinks, smoothies and fresh-squeezed limeades and lemonades, in the spaces in Derby and on West Central in Wichita. But they closed fairly quickly.
In March of this year, Smoothie King corporate took the stores back over, freshened them up and reopened them. At the time, the chain said it planned to double the number of Smoothie King stores in the area within two years.
This story was originally published December 9, 2021 at 11:56 AM.
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