Amazon may be bringing a new concept to Wichita, but where?

There’s a bit of a confusing document making its way through the Metropolitan Area Building and Construction Department.

It’s an application to make at least $840,000 in changes to a building at 2132 N. Rock Road, suite 101. That’s at Bradley Fair at 21st and Rock Road.

Under the project name on the application, it says Amazon 4-Star - Retail. Except there’s another tenant already in that space: Il Vicino.

“The only thing we’re deducing is there’s a typo on the suite number,” said Rick Post, an Albuquerque co-owner of the restaurant.

He was on a Tuesday morning Zoom call with management and employees who were wondering about the application and what it means.

“Everybody was surprised, as are we,” Post said.

His group renewed its lease this summer for another two years.

Neither Bradley Fair nor Amazon cleared up the confusion.

“We don’t have anything right now that we can announce,” said the center’s associate general manager Abbey Wolfert.

Andy DiOrio, an Amazon regional PR manager, said via e-mail that “we are constantly evaluating new locations to best serve our customers” but that Amazon doesn’t “reveal our future roadmap.”

In the last year, the company opened a Wichita delivery center and a massive Park City fulfillment center.

An Amazon 4-Star store is a concept that the company started in 2018, which at the time it described as “a new physical store where everything for sale is rated 4 stars and above, is a top seller, or is new and trending on Amazon.com.”

While it’s likely that Amazon is considering bringing one of its stores here, and that it could be at Bradley Fair, it doesn’t seem likely that it will be at the Il Vicino space. There are other vacant — and larger — spaces at the center that would seem a better fit.

“We’ll dig into it as much as we can,” Post said.

As will Have You Heard? Stay tuned.

This story was originally published September 21, 2021 at 2:29 PM.