Development group buys fifth property in the shadow of Intrust Bank Arena

Before Intrust Bank Arena opened a decade ago, there was much anticipation of the development it would bring to the area immediately around it.

That hasn’t exactly happened except for pockets here and there. One of the chief people helping make it happen is Bruce Rowley, whose previous focus was solely advertising and marketing, not development.

He, Alan Banta and Mike Snyder, who own Commerce Street Development Partners, have just purchased their fifth property in the shadow of the arena — an area that Rowley hopes will become known as the Arena District.

The property is at 420 S. Emporia, which runs most of the block between Lewis and Waterman.

“A lot of people bought property speculatively,” Rowley said of the area.

“A lot of those people thought that those properties were going to be a lottery ticket. A lot of those folks were just looking to flip properties, not necessarily do the work. It’s taken a lot of time to get the properties into the hands of people who really want to develop the area.”

Unlike some of Commerce Street Development Partners’ other properties, Rowley said 420 S. Emporia already has some tenants and is move-in ready for others.

JACO General Contractor used to be in the building before moving to FireWorx — a sixth property Rowley owns with some other partners nearby at 500 S. Topeka — and had already updated the interior and mechanics in the building.

This summer, the Commerce Street partners will update the exterior of the building and add what Rowley calls dramatic lighting. That includes some lighting some trees.

“The building has these huge, beautiful sycamores out in front of it,” Rowley said.

The partners also own the property at Commerce and Waterman where Syndeo Staffing is along with RSM Marketing, which Rowley and Snyder own.

Just to the west of that, they own two properties at St. Francis and Waterman that will be combined into one with a multistory, multiuse shipping container building called ArenaPointe.

“We have to do that along with the city,” Rowley said.

The city has plans to redo St. Francis, which will temporarily block the entrance to the property. Rowley said that probably puts his project back to 2022.

Further west, the partners also own property at the southeast corner of Emporia and Waterman.

“It’s got amazing views of the arena and downtown,” Rowley said. “It’s a super-cool building.”

The plan is to use it for offices, retail and a restaurant that could take advantage of the building’s existing patio.

However, the building has no parking as of now and will have to share with ArenaPointe, so this project is on hold as well.

With the arena out of business due to the coronavirus pandemic, Rowley said that “it’s in a bit of a time lock right now.”

“There was a lot of energy and a huge number of shows that they had lined up,” he said. He said every time his calendar alerts him to a show that was supposed to happen, “It’s a bit heartbreaking.”

Rowley is happy to see so many things happening downtown, though, from the new Naftzger Park and development in the Spaghetti Works District around it to Fidelity Bank’s expansion at Main and English.

“I certainly would love to have more people investing down here,” he said.

“In real estate, what I’ve learned, of course, (is that) it takes a long time. By the time everyone in town is talking about it . . . all of those decisions . . . happened five, 10 years ago.”

Rowley said he and his partners aren’t looking for more property to develop right now.

“Our pipeline’s pretty full for the next, really, three, four years.”

There’s another business opportunity he’s already jokingly thinking about, though, related to 420 S. Emporia and how marijuana is known by 420.

“Just think of the value when they legalize marijuana. Dispensary central right there, baby.”

This story was originally published July 1, 2020 at 2:36 PM.