Wichita developers have two new retail centers, and one is getting quite the attention

What happens when an excited tenant tires of waiting on developers to break ground on the strip center where her new business is going?

She does it herself via a TikTok video. At least that’s what Crystal Wiley did last week.

Wiley is opening her second Hotworx franchise, a 24-hour infrared fitness studio, at the Shops at Avante.

That’s a planned 28,000-square-foot retail center at the northwest corner of 37th and Ridge Road that brothers Brian and Paul Suellentrop officially will break ground on any day after receiving a permit from the city.

“We really appreciate her enthusiasm,” Paul Suellentrop said of Wiley.

Until now, the brothers have had two retail centers they’ve built from the ground up — the Shops at Chadsworth on North Maize Road across from NewMarket Square and Brunswick Place near Maple and Ridge Road — though they’ve purchased and updated others.

Now, they’re building two more, and they have plans for more to come in the next few years.

Avante is their latest, and it’s named for the apartments developer Paul Jackson built nearby.

Brian Suellentrop said the L-shaped new center will be “right out on the corner in front of the apartments.”

“There’s not a lot of true retail in that area,” he said.

Paul Suellentrop said there are a lot of medical offices and financial institutions, but the growing number of residents in the area — including at more apartments that will be coming — need services.

“There’s a lot of housing out there,” he said. “That area is underserved for . . . retail businesses from nail salons to restaurants.”

The Shops at Avante will have space for a drive-through on the west end of the building.

Construction will start as soon as the permit is issued, and the center should be ready about six months after that.

Don Piros of Landmark Commercial Real Estate is handling the leasing, and Legacy Bank is doing the financing.

“Seems like there’s a lot of interested parties,” Paul Suellentrop said of potential tenants.

Brian Suellentrop said Wiley has “been waiting for five years to go on that corner.”

She opened her first Hotworx franchise near K-96 and Greenwich in 2019. Members do various exercises in semiprivate, 125-degree saunas. That includes workouts such as hot yoga, hot pilates, high-intensity interval training, hot cycle, hot row and hot bands.

The Hotworx classes are led by virtual instructors.

Wiley also is now a Hotworx corporate trainer who helps other franchisees start new sites for the chain.

The brothers also are about 90% complete with another new center called the Hawthorne Court at 12938 E. 21st St. just east of 127th Street.

Paul Suellentrop said that’s close to churches and schools and has “really great traffic counts on 21st from Andover to Wichita.”

The 10,000-square-foot center will fit five potential tenants and has one spot with drive-through capability.

Piros is handling leasing there as well.

The Suellentrops also have the Sandlot Garage Condos, which is man cave and she shed space that customers can own, at 33rd and Ridge Road.

The two grew up around construction because their father, Mark, built houses. He added commercial properties when they were older, and Brian Suellentrop got into the business with him in 2003. Paul Suellentrop joined after returning to Wichita during the pandemic.

Brian Suellentrop said that’s how they’re now able to take on more development projects.

“We have a few things we’re working on,” Paul Suellentrop said.

He and his brother aren’t ready to announce everything yet, but perhaps they should enlist Wiley when they do since she knows a little something about promotion.

In the first 24 hours or so her TikTok was online, she said, “Girl, it’s already gotten, like, 5,000 views.”

In that unofficial groundbreaking video, she used a not-suitable-for-everyone song (Warning: very adult language). Then Wiley made a more PG version over the weekend.

Brian Suellentrop simultaneously admired and laughed at her industriousness, even if it was a slightly different approach than he and his brother would take.

“We‘re just as excited as she is to get going.”