East-side business to move downtown with a narrowed boutique focus

When Jess and Christy Hancock moved their Flint Hills Distributing downtown last year, they thought they might move their Wichita Gun Club there, too.

The Hancocks purchased property at 311 S. Emporia on the west side of Intrust Bank Arena for their worm distribution business and thought the space next door at 333 S. Emporia would make a good spot for the gun club. Jess Hancock said they thought it was too pricey, though, so they kept looking.

He and Jake Ramstack at InSite Real Estate Group checked out a lot of properties downtown and in Delano.

“I’m a gut feeling kind of guy, and none of them had what I envisioned,” Hancock said.

In the end, he came back to the property next to his other business.

“It’s scary still,” Hancock said. “It’s expensive.”

In addition to that gut feeling about the space, Hancock said there are a lot of attractions downtown.

“I see some good things happening there.”

He said he sees the area growing in years to come, too.

Plus, Hancock said, “We’ve always wanted to own.”

The Wichita Gun Club currently is in 3,700 square feet at the southeast corner of Kellogg and Edgemoor. At the new space, the store will downsize to 2,100 square feet.

“We’re just really going to focus on what we do well,” Hancock said.

He said that’s selling guns and “having that boutique, personal experience.”

The store will sell ammunition and will be able to order some accessories, but it will no longer stock holsters or parts for guns, nor will it offer to work on guns any longer.

Hancock opened the business in 2012 as an appointment-only store in 500 square feet within what was then the Ribbit Computers store at Kellogg and Rock before moving to the larger space a couple of years later.

“I did originally want to have a range,” Hancock said.

He said there’s not a lot of room in that market.

Hancock currently is stripping his existing store to build the new store with Alex Lent of DuraCon Construction.

He had outfitted the store with wood from his wife’s family’s dairy barn from late 1890s. He’s now adding that to the new space.

That’s less construction than what Hancock had once planned. He had an architect draw plans for a new building to be built on the back of his other downtown building, and he began interviewing contractors.

“Estimates were just so high.”

Between rising construction costs and losing parking spaces to construction, Hancock said the numbers didn’t make sense.

A financial offset with the new property is that Hancock has even more parking spaces to rent during events at the arena.

He had 28 spaces with his first downtown property and now has 61 more.

Hancock hires workers to rent the spaces, and his kids work most events, too.

“They get a generous-parent hourly wage.”

Look for the Wichita Gun Club to open downtown by April 1.

This story was originally published February 14, 2022 at 4:47 AM.