Wichita inks deal for casino mogul Phil Ruffin to buy city land for big development
Casino magnate Phil Ruffin will be getting a prime piece of property for a retail, restaurant and entertainment complex near where Kellogg meets the Kansas Turnpike and K-96.
The Wichita City Council on Tuesday officially accepted Ruffin’s offer to buy the site north of Kellogg and west of Webb for $8.7 million.
Although no business names have emerged yet, Ruffin is planning a major development on the site that used to be the location of a Kmart and Michaels craft store.
The city purchased the land more than 10 years ago because it needed part of the property for the right-of-way to extend Kellogg east to Webb. The land Ruffin is buying is the unneeded remnant left over now that the highway project’s complete.
“The Ruffin team put quite a project together,” said council member Jeff Blubaugh, who served as a non-voting member of a committee of staff and local movers and shakers that recommended accepting Ruffin’s proposal. “It’s gonna be a great attraction coming in off K-96 and I’m very excited about it.”
Ruffin grew up in Wichita and ultimately rose to own two Las Vegas casinos, the flagships of a multi-billion dollar business empire in land, oil, convenience stores and manufacturing.
In an interview last week, he called the Kellogg and Webb property a “world class location” and said he’d start recruiting businesses for the new development as soon as he had the land locked up.
He plans a large retail development, restaurants and possibly a venue for the growing sport of pickleball, a tennis-like game played on a smaller court with solid paddles and a plastic ball.
This story was originally published July 6, 2021 at 6:54 PM.
