New owners of Margarita’s building talk plans for space after restaurant exits
On Thanksgiving Eve, the owners of Margarita’s Cantina at 3109 E. Douglas announced that Dec. 31 would be the restaurant’s last day in the space that it had occupied for 33 years.
At the time, there wasn’t much information about what would come next for either the building, which was sold at auction in late October, or for the restaurant, whose owners implied in a news release that they may reopen Margarita’s elsewhere.
Now, though, both sides have shared more information about their plans. Brian Suellentrop, who purchased the Margarita’s building with his brother, Paul, said this week that when they put in their bid, the two assumed that the owners of Margarita’s wanted to stay in the building. Margarita’s co-owner Jesse Lee said as much in October, when auction signs went up on the building. At the time, he expressed fear that the signs were leading customers to believe that the restaurant was closing, even though its lease would continue through April.
Once the sale was complete, though, the Suellentrops learned that Lee and his business partner Jon Wood had decided to leave the space after all.
“At the time, we had assumed and hoped that we would continue to work with Margarita’s, but as you know, they had to do what’s best for them,” Brian Suellentrop said. “We respect that.”
Now, the brothers — real estate developers who have built, among other things, the Shops at Avante at 37th and Ridge, the Shops at Chadsworth on North Maize Road, and Brunswick Place near Maple and Ridge— are looking for a new tenant for the Margarita’s space. Though it’s already set up as a restaurant, Brian Suellentrop said, they’d entertain a retail tenant as well.
They’re assuming that tenants will be attracted to the building for the same reasons they were.
“We just really like the College Hill area,” Brian Suellentrop said. “It’s really come alive in the last five years. There’s a lot of good stuff going on there, and that’s kind of an iconic building.”
It doesn’t hurt, he said, that the building comes with around 80 parking spaces.
“That’s hard to find,” Brian Suellentrop said. “So that’s a huge benefit, too.”
Contacted on Tuesday, Margarita’s co-owner Lee said that he and Wood had initially hoped to stay in the building, which was previously owned by the late Darrell Leason, a commercial real estate broker in Wichita who died in 2016 at age 87. The building has been tied up in probate for a while, but Leason’s heirs finally decided they wanted to sell it. Leason was Wood’s grandfather.
Once the “auction” signs went up, though, the owners’ worst fears came true, Lee said. Business at Margarita’s did, in fact, drop off. Then, a water main was punctured and briefly shut the restaurant down. When the owners started thinking about another winter in the cavernous building, which tends to get pretty chilly when temperatures dip, they realized something had to give.
“We had just been hitting so many hiccups,” Lee said. “It had just been so difficult, and we just couldn’t afford a single day of no business.”
Leason’s estate agreed to let Margarita’s out of its lease early, Lee said, and they chose the New Year’s Eve closing date. After the final day, the owners will put on a liquidation auction and try to offload tables and chairs and kitchen equipment they don’t think they could use at a potential new location.
And they are serious about relocating Margarita’s, Lee said, though they want a smaller space. Their current building has nearly 4,500 square feet, two levels, two kitchens, and a stage — and that’s too much, he said.
They’re open to hearing from anyone who has a building that might be a good fit.
Prime location
Brian Suellentrop said that he and his brother decided late that they’d take a run at the Margarita’s building, though they were skeptical they’d end up with it — especially after they saw the “crazy high” $1.9 million sale price that The Anchor building at 1109 E. Douglas fetched in July.
But the Margarita’s auction got to a number they were comfortable with, he said, so they went for it.
Though they were surprised to learn that Margarita’s owners didn’t want to stay, Brian Suellentrop said that he thinks the building will be a nice fit for another business.
The Suellentrops have sent inquiries to architects to talk about ideas for giving the building’s interior and exterior a new look, but it’s early in the process, Brian Suellentrop said.
“We think it’s a great opportunity for another local restaurant,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of amazing restaurateurs in the city, and we’d love to work with whoever to come up with some concepts for how that building would best fit a restaurant and see who’s out there that would like to entertain it and have a location in that College Hill corridor.”
Wood and Lee bought Margarita’s in 2021 from founder Don Overstake, who opened the restaurant on July 22, 1992. Margarita’s became known not only for its sour cream enchiladas but also as a place where people could dance the weekend away to the music of Overstake’s band, Lotus.
The band continued to perform on weekends at the restaurant even after Lee and Wood took over. But the two decided in the summer of 2024 to stop having live bands inside the restaurant and focus on the food. Lotus, by that time, had already stopped playing as a group.
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The Margarita’s building was put up in the 1940s as a new home for a food market called Landrum’s. It also served as home over the years to a Halloween shop and to a couple of clothing stores, including Jeans Unlimited in the 1970s.
Before it was Margarita’s, the building was home to Harry’s Safari, a restaurant and nightclub by the owner of Harry’s Uptown Bar and Grill next door.
This story was originally published December 2, 2025 at 12:43 PM.
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