Downtown Wichita is getting a new hotel, but when?

It may seem like the new Marriott AC Hotel downtown is taking forever, but developer Sudha Tokala said it’s not that far behind schedule.

Her intention was to open it yet this year, she said, and now it’s looking more like next spring.

“The elevators were the main issue,” Tokala said. “We just couldn’t get them in time. We paid for them two years ago.”

There have been labor shortages, too.

In 2018, Tokala announced that she was bringing an osteopathy school downtown followed by a culinary school and food hall, a hotel and student housing.

The nonprofit Kansas Health Science Center and its Kansas College of Osteopathic Medicine opened in 2022 at the former Finney State Office Building, which is two joined buildings at 130 S. Market and 230 E. William.

WSU Tech’s National Institute for Culinary and Hospitality Education, or NICHE, opened early this year at the former Henry’s building at 124 S. Broadway.

The hotel is opening at the former Broadway Plaza building at 105 S. Broadway next to the Ambassador Hotel Wichita, Autograph Collection.

Student housing was supposed to open next year at Sutton Place at 209 E. William St., but Tokala said it’s delayed, too, and will open in 2025.

The new hotel will have 119 rooms on 11 stories.

There will be a bar on the first floor along with a coffee shop and a tapas restaurant.

“It’s a very European type of hotel and restaurant and bar,” Tokala said.

The hotel also will have a gym.

Tokala said she spent some time acquiring the building from 11 different owners.

“It was one of those Minnesota buildings,” she said of Real Development — better known as the Minnesota Guys who bought a lot of downtown buildings and then sold them floor by floor.

So now that she’s almost three fourths of the way done with her developments, how does she feel?

“Ahh, I don’t know,” Tokala said. “It’s just a lot of work.”

Does any part of her regret taking on such a mammoth endeavor?

“Probably every part of me, but it’s OK. It’s been a good journey.”

Now, she said, “I just want to get it done.”

We didn’t even have to ask the next question. Tokala asked and answered it herself.

“Would I do any other building? No.”

So no new downtown development after the hotel and housing are done, and no new buildings anywhere else either?

“Yep. Definitely.”

This story was originally published November 7, 2023 at 4:47 AM.