Biggest local retail shock of the year: Janelle King is leaving Cleveland Corner

A decade after putting Cleveland Corner on the retail map, Janelle King is leaving.

The ever-restless entrepreneur’s Workroom lease at the corner of First and Cleveland is up in April, so she’s been contemplating what to do.

If she could have bought the property where her store and incubator projects are, she said she probably would have stayed.

Instead, she’s moving her business to a building where she’s always felt a pull: Eaton Place, the prominent 1887 building at the southwest corner of Douglas and St. Francis across from Naftzger Park.

“I love the historical architecture. I think it’s just a absolutely beautiful space.”

She’s taking the almost 10,000-square-foot corner spot where Urban Interiors was most recently.

King called it “a key corner point for the city of Wichita and downtown Wichita to really kind of be an anchor and a destination.”

“One of the frustrations I’ve had with Cleveland Corner is it’s just kind of an (outlier),” she said. “Every person who’s walked through our door, we’ve had to organically pull.”

Douglas is already activated, King said, and she’ll have twice the square footage to do something with. The plan is to build another retail hub.

Her Workroom, which sells gifts, art and home decor, will be the anchor tenant as it is at Cleveland Corner, and she’ll retain at least one incubator space.

There’s an additional storefront there as well, so King is seeking another retail tenant.

She’s also planning a bar and coffee shop that opens onto the store.

The space already is known for when prohibitionist Carry A. Nation took a hatchet to the one-time bar that was there, and her statue sits out front, looking into the building.

Then there’s a former ballroom area.

“What I’m probably most excited about is the ballroom,” King said. “It will be what I’m calling the Ballroom Collective.”

She said she’s always looking for new ways to provide platforms for local artists, especially those who may not be able to have their own stores.

There will be booths throughout the ballroom and a single checkout counter. There will be booth fees and a small commission percentage.

King has been known for the outside markets she’s held at Cleveland Corner, and she said there still will be outdoor possibilities at Naftzger Park.

Jake Ramstack of InSite Real Estate Group handled the Eaton deal for King. Drew Gannon and Trevor Stacy of NAI Martens represented Eaton Place.

King is looking to move in the spring and will share more details then.

She said there are a lot of possibilities.

“I do want to bring in new concepts and things,” she said of the building that “I’ve always obsessed with and loved.”

This story was originally published December 13, 2023 at 4:04 AM.