Chase Koch’s musical passion project could have a profound impact on downtown Wichita

Chase Koch quietly has amassed about half a dozen properties for a venture in the city’s core that — if his vision succeeds — could have a profound impact.

“I’m investing in Wichita,” Koch said of his hometown.

Charles and Liz Koch’s son, who is executive vice president at his family’s Koch Inc., is making that investment through what for him is a passion project: Movement Musick.

It’s a nonprofit umbrella organization he created for some lofty musical and other goals.

“The raw material is there . . . in our community to really leverage music to do good,” Koch said.

Movement Musick funds Midtopia, a type of development program for musicians that Koch started in 2023 — the same year he began acquiring properties.

At the time, Koch didn’t put his name to Midtopia, nor did organizers share where it was located.

It’s at 235 N. Emporia, though the two projects within the space now have more specific names.

Koch’s properties stretch from Second and Topeka, where the former Shirkmere Apartments sit, then east to the former Loony Bin space at 219 N. St. Francis.

Midtopia was the backer for last year’s Elsewhere Fest & Conference, a two-day festival with everything from local to national acts, art installations and a conference for people in the music industry. It was held in the same area Koch either had already purchased or has since bought property.

The festival, which attracted more than 12,000 people, has been rebranded as the Somewhere Fest & Conference, and it returns June 13 and 14.

The Somewhere name ties in to two other Midtopia endeavors.

First is Somewhere Works at 235 N. Emporia where Midtopia was born.

Somewhere Works is a membership-only organization for new and seasoned musicians to have access to rehearsal space and resources to evolve their craft. It’s designed to help build careers that can sustain musicians who otherwise have to have other jobs.

It’s also meant to be a creative hub, not only for artists but also industry experts, educators and community leaders.

Second is Somewhere Works Music School, which will be in the same 7,000-square-foot space and will offer a chance for musicians ages 8 to 17 to practice and perform.

“It’s always been with me that there’s a lot of musical talent in Wichita,” Koch said. “My hope is that we can unlock that potential over time.”

Supercharged passion

Koch left Wichita for college at Texas A&M then moved to Austin — a mecca for musicians like himself — before returning home in 2003.

Thirteen years later, when he was 39, he gave a talk to a packed downtown Wichita Rotary club.

Koch talked about his father’s well-known business theory of market-based management and his dad’s other Libertarian views, which he said he grew up schooled in, as well as about how it took him awhile to come around to working for the family firm.

“It took me until I was 25 or 26 to realize that ‘you’re an idiot if you don’t go back to Koch’ and really capture that opportunity to go learn and stop screwing around in Austin, Texas,” he told the audience.

However, it was what Koch said near the end of his talk that was particularly interesting to some.

He declared there was no reason Wichita had to settle for the music scene it had.

At least a few in the audience may have taken umbrage at the suggestion that Wichita didn’t already have a thriving music scene — with plenty of local, regional and national acts at various venues around the city — but they may not have understood what Koch was suggesting.

Koch already was aiming high, contemplating something even if he didn’t take concrete action on it for several years to come.

Now, Koch looks back on his years in Austin and says they “supercharged my passion” for music.

“It’s just the heartbeat of the town. Everywhere you go, there’s live music.”

He never had aspirations of making music his full-time career, Koch said, but he did participate in a lot of jam sessions.

So what does he play?

“Have you ever heard of a cowbell?”

He’s joking. Koch plays guitar.

Something big

During the pandemic, Koch was working with his father’s Stand Together nonprofit, a philanthropic group that he said works to solve community issues by “basically helping people remove barriers.”

“I had the idea to really experiment with the concept of music to unite people,” he said.

He and a few others used Zoom to bring musicians together to play, and he said he saw the power of the interactions.

“I was like, OK, there’s something really big here.”

Koch said it made him question what could happen locally to leverage music to unite the community and drive social change.

“That’s not just helping musicians.”

His inaugural music festival last year was “a great test and an experiment for us to say, ‘There is a lot here,’ ” Koch said.

He said that, in part, led to the name change.

“Wichita isn’t ‘elsewhere’ anymore,” Koch said. “We are somewhere.”

He said Somewhere Fest is “offering something very different” than the hundreds of other summer festivals nationally.

Koch said the social change element differentiates it.

Somewhere Works is a logical next step, he said.

“That’s all part of this movement,” he said of the musical hub.

So why has he purchased so many buildings? What else does he plan?

Koch isn’t saying just yet. He said his plans are in their infancy.

“I’m in listening mode right now. I want to listen and hear what the market needs.”

The properties

Most of the properties Koch purchased aren’t particularly well known except for the former Loony Bin space, which was renovated for the comedy club, and the former Shirkmere Apartments, which has boards over its first-floor windows and often attracts people who are homeless to its sidewalks.

Sedgwick County records show the appraised value of all of Koch’s purchases is almost $2.2 million for more than 130,000 square feet of building space plus more for parking.

According to one industry expert, the price Koch actually paid was probably more in the range of between $10 million and $20 million.

The expert also noted that there’s a significant lag time — as much as a year or more — between when a property sells and when its appraised value is updated.

One indication that Koch likely paid more at least for the Shirkmere, which has an appraisal of $808,120, is that the last time it sold was in 2022 to an out-of-state group for $5.5 million. The group began renovating the building and shared updates and photos through social media, but all of a sudden, work stopped.

That’s because Koch last year purchased the 1919 eight-story building at 256 N. Topeka along with a small building and lot to its east at 417 E. Second St.

It looks like the deal had been in the works for some time, because the year before, Koch purchased the parking lot south of the Shirkmere at 202 N. Topeka.

Wichitans, many of whom are known for not wanting to walk far when going places or pay for the privilege of parking close, may be happy to know Koch has purchased adjacent parking lots with his properties.

His purchases have been made through two Delaware-based limited liability companies: Emporia Investments and Social Change.

Koch purchased two 1925 former Loony Bin properties at 217 and 219 N. St. Francis.

He also bought property to the west, or behind that former Loony Bin space, along Emporia.

That includes three 1922 buildings at and near 258 N. Emporia; a 1919 building at 226 N. Emporia; and a lot he acquired at 246 N. Emporia, which sits between the buildings he purchased along the street.

Koch bought the Somewhere Works and music school space at 235 N. Emporia in late 2023. It’s across Emporia from the lot and building he purchased at 226 N. Emporia.

A Koch representative confirmed the purchases.

A renaissance

Even without Koch’s acquisitions, the heart of Wichita is experiencing a renaissance.

That’s an idea that Greater Wichita Partnership president Jeff Fluhr has been known to tout more than once, but the numbers back him up about how noteworthy it is where downtown Wichita stands today.

Since the city and county adopted a downtown master plan in 2010, he said, there’s been $1.7 billion invested in the core.

Think the Kansas Leadership Center’s new home and all the buildings developer Sudha Tokala has renovated and inhabited with endeavors such as the Kansas College of Osteopathic Medicine and the NICHE culinary center.

Fluhr said there’s another $760 million in the pipeline thanks to the Wichita Biomedical Campus, development around Riverfront Stadium and other projects.

“We knew we needed to create an environment that would create these opportunities, and that’s what’s happened.”

Douglas and areas just to its south have been a key focus, Fluhr said, and expanding north is on the to-do list.

Koch’s plans are accelerating that.

Fluhr noted that Koch’s properties are near Wave on Second Street just east of St. Francis and complement the concert venue well.

Jessie and Adam Hartke, who are partners with a few others in Wave, also are Midtopia’s CEO and COO, respectively.

Wave played host to some of the acts at Koch’s first music festival.

“It went global in its first year,” Fluhr said of the people it attracted.

He said what Koch is doing is helping create a distinctive city, which is important for industries looking to attract and retain talent.

“All that becomes part of the ecosystem to make us a very successful city . . . and region,” Fluhr said. “We’re in a remarkable moment, especially as we look to the future.”

A Midwest Austin?

As word has circulated in the last year or so about Koch’s buying spree and likely plans, some have knocked them — and him— as striving for the unattainable.

Others have been quick to come to his defense.

Sure, Wichita isn’t likely to turn into a national music hub or destination organically, but with the power of Koch money behind it?

As one downtown enthusiast put it, whatever Koch has spent on his properties is like a rounding error for him.

One Wichita commercial broker pointed to Alice Walton and her Crystal Bridges as proof a billionaire, or a billionaire’s child, can accomplish a lot if she or he wants to.

Walton, who inherited some of her father Sam Walton’s Walmart money and is one of the richest women in the world, in 2005 declared she was going to open a world-class museum in Bentonville, Ark.

The Wichita broker said some laughed at her and asked if the museum was going to be in a double-wide trailer with paint-by-number pictures.

Walton has had the last laugh, though, since six years later she opened what has become a top-ranked museum and campus that is highly regarded worldwide.

Koch isn’t making a Waltonlike declaration.

He said what he’s trying to do is unlock potential and break barriers, and he thinks that will attract more people to Wichita.

In the tight artistic community, Koch said word will travel fast.

“If we do this well, then we’ll attract more artists here, and that will just build on itself.”

Koch said it’s not that he’s trying to create another Austin. He said he’s creating something else.

“Wichita’s gonna be Wichita . . . and we should all be proud of that, too.”

Contributing: Chance Swaim of The Eagle

This story was originally published January 16, 2025 at 4:04 AM.