Margarita’s Cantina owner had planned to reopen downtown, but that deal is off
Margarita’s Cantina ended its 33-year-run at 3109 E. Douglas on New Year’s Eve, and shortly after, owner Jesse Lee shared plans to reopen the Mexican restaurant downtown at Union Station.
Now, though, those plans are off — at least for the space he originally chose: the former home of The Kitchen and Express Kitchen at 725 E. Douglas
Late last week, Occidental Management president Chad Stafford said that Lee’s lease has been terminated. Stafford’s company owns and operates Union Station.
“We got with Jesse, the deal was done, he was working on renovation plans, he had architects and contractors, and then it just stops,” Stafford said. “I’m not sure what happened, but it got to a point where we needed to terminate the lease and move on and find new tenants.”
Lee has not responded to messages asking about his plans now for reopening Margarita’s, but this story will be updated if he does. As recently as late May, he said that the deal was still on.
Stafford said that two different restaurants are interested in taking over the Union Station space and that he thinks he’ll be able to share news of a new tenant very soon.
“When you have a built-out restaurant, and it’s got a cooler, and it’s got a hood, and everything’s in it, especially in downtown, they go pretty quickly,” he said.
Initially, Lee said that he hoped to have Margarita’s reopened in the space by mid-March. He took the building over on Feb. 1.
Lee and friend Jon Wood bought Margarita’s in 2021 from founder Don Overstake, who opened the restaurant on July 22, 1992. They learned in late 2025 that the building would be sold at auction, which led them to reevaluate whether the space was still working for them.
In October, real estate developers Brian and Paul Suellentrop bought the building, but Margarita’s owners had decided by then that they weren’t staying. They announced that their final day in the original spot would be Dec. 31.
Earlier this month, the Suellentrops asked the Wichita City Council to place an added 1% sales tax on future businesses that operate on the property at 3109 E. Douglas. The tax would reimburse the owners for renovations to the Margarita’s building.
The Suellentrops plan to spend another $1 million on renovations and would get $233,250 in public funding under the proposal.
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