Proposed DO school takes major accreditation step: ‘This is real now’

There have been skeptics who doubted whether the proposed Kansas Health Science Center - Kansas College of Osteopathic Medicine actually will happen downtown, but the center has taken a significant step forward with its second step of accreditation.

“This is real now,” said Sudha Tokala, the pharmacist-turned-developer who had the vision for the school.

The ramifications of this step are bigger than solely for the center and school.

“It was a trigger point in our agreement with Sudha and the school,” said Assistant City Manager Scot Rigby.

The city is using $1.3 million in tax increment financing to expand and remodel the pocket park on East Douglas between Broadway and Market, which is named for civil rights leader Chester I. Lewis, and it now can acquire the extra land it needs and get to work.

“I’ll call it a front door not just for the school but for that part of downtown,” Rigby said.

Previously, Tokala has been reticent to speak about the school, but she said now she’s ready because of this phase of accreditation.

The national Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation (COCA), which accredits osteopathic medical schools that grant doctor of osteopathic medicine degrees, has granted the proposed Kansas College of Osteopathic Medicine what’s called candidate status.

What does that really mean? Tokala said almost all proposed schools that reach this point go on to actually happen.

The school will submit for the third phase of accreditation early next year, and the final phase would come immediately before the first class graduates, which likely will be in 2026.

Enrollment can’t start until the school achieves pre-accreditation status in the third phase, but center president Tiffany Masson said the goal is for the first class to start in fall 2022. A full class is a proposed 170 students, and Masson said COCA guidelines are to start with half those students in the first year, 127 in the second year and the full 170 in the third year.

Masson said in next seven months, she’ll be hiring more than 40 faculty and staff with another 60 hires to come in the next three years.

Through her Douglas Market Development, Tokala is renovating five buildings in the core of downtown for the center, which includes the school, student housing, a hotel and a culinary center.

Tokala’s “incredible vision” aligns with the city’s as well, said Jeff Fluhr, president of the Greater Wichita Partnership.

“Think about the journey that downtown has been on over the last decade, over the last 20 years,” he said.

Fluhr said the center and school are a testament to where the city has been and where it’s going.

“This project is five buildings, it touches three blocks. I think it really demonstrates physically the transformation that our city is undergoing right now.”

Signs of downtown change

Though there have been some exterior signs that work has begun on the center, Tokala said, “I know from the outside it looks pretty quiet.”

That’s about to change.

Tokala has full permitting done for the Broadway Plaza building at 105 S. Broadway, which will be an AC Hotel by Marriott. Framing has started there.

She has a conditional permit for work on the school site at the former Finney State Office Building, which is two joined buildings at 130 S. Market and 230 E. William and has completed framing on some of the floors.

Plans are complete for student housing at Sutton Place at 209 E. William, but permits haven’t been pulled there yet. However, asbestos abatement is complete and demolition work is done on five of the building’s eight floors.

The former Henry’s building at 124 S. Broadway is where the culinary-hospitality center is going, and demolition work is complete there.

It’s a lot to come together at once.

“I eat, breathe and live this all day every day,” Tokala said.

She said she always had a bigger vision than one building or a only a school.

“It’s just amazing to see all this come to life.”

Fluhr said how the center incorporates into the urban fabric of downtown is crucial. It’s “exactly what we started out to do with Project Downtown as a community.”

“It’s a testament, I believe, to what is going on with the innovation, the creativity and the thought of how you really create a dynamic urban center.”

Masson has hopes of making the center a technology hub for downtown.

“I really want it to be sort of a medical-education technology hub.”

Rigby, who Tokala said was a key supporter early on, said the center is going to help attract other businesses and investments.

“This is more than just a building and those students and that faculty,” he said. “It has a huge ripple effect and that’s going to attract other activity.”

Rigby said there will be 824 net new jobs through the center, more than 500 of which will be at the school. There will be a payroll of $1.2 billion over 20 years and a capital investment in buildings and equipment of more than $100 million.

These numbers don’t include what students will spend in Wichita or the hotel’s tourism numbers, which Rigby said means the impact will be much higher than what these numbers show.

Tokala said that remarkably, the pandemic isn’t slowly down the center’s progress.

“I asked one of my banker friends . . . ‘What are you lending to?’ And they said, ‘Only healthcare.’ I’m, like, good. I’m at the right spot at the right time.”

A statewide reach

Masson said as much as technology and innovation are focuses for the center, so are diversity and inclusion.

Rigby, the father of four daughters, said “it’s a cool role model” to have a major developer and the president of a proposed new medical school both be female.

He said the center will have a statewide reach in helping provide medical care to Kansas communities in desperate need and in retaining talent in the state.

“This is more than just about Wichita.”

Within Wichita, Fluhr said, the residential market will be bolstered with the influx of more people, and he said, “This will be a catalyst for future development that we may not even know yet.”

He and Rigby both point to the park as being another key connecting point downtown and helping create another experience for visitors.

“Streetscape and connectivity is a very important part of a vibrancy of a community but also the authentic experiences,” Fluhr said.

Rigby said the center is an opportunity for Wichita to further diversify. He said as much as the city is an aerospace center of excellence, “We want to be an educational center of excellence for Kansas.”

He and Fluhr said they hope others reach out with ideas for similar projects or any kind of new ventures for Wichita.

As Fluhr said, “There’s a tenacity in our community to make ‘em happen.”

This story was originally published December 2, 2020 at 4:49 PM.