Former downtown hotel, along with another well-known building, may become one again

Developers have plans to convert two well-known downtown Wichita properties to a hotel, which would return one of the buildings to its original use and take advantage of tax increment financing and historic tax credits in the process.

Developer Marv Schellenberg and apartment specialist Graham Crain want to convert the Petroleum Building and the former McClellan Hotel, better known more recently as the O’Rourke Title Building, to a hotel.

The properties sit near each other along South Broadway between William and English and are separated by a parking lot.

That lot would connect the buildings by a porte-cochere or some other kind of awning or covered area for the hotel.

According to planning documents at the city, the buildings would comprise one full-service hotel with about 110 rooms along with 4,000 square feet of retail space. There would be parking improvements as well.

Key to the plans, of course, is the proximity of the buildings to the Wichita Biomedical Campus, under construction directly across the street.

The area is part of the Center City South Redevelopment District, and that’s how TIF money is available.

Documents show that the entire cost of the hotel project is just over $41 million, and future TIF revenues should be more than $16 million over a 20-year term.

The developers would receive about $4.5 million of that, and it looks like the rest would go toward public improvements in the area.

The planning commission has recommended that the Wichita City Council approve the TIF financing. First, though, the Historic Preservation Board needs to consider the changes and whether they’re in keeping with historic standards.

Last summer, Schellenberg and Crain got the former O’Rourke Title Building put on the Register of Historic Kansas Places. However, due to interior finishes that were lost to remodeling in the 1980s, the building did not qualify for the federal registry.

Schellenberg didn’t comment for this article, but last summer he said he and Crain were exploring a variety of options and available historic tax credits for the Petroleum Building, the O’Rourke building and the Kress Energy Center, just up the street at the northwest corner of Douglas and Broadway.

They haven’t disclosed their plans for the Kress building yet, though apartments are one option.

‘Isn’t that wild?’

The Petroleum and Kress buildings already are on state and national historic registries.

The eight-story, Art Deco-style Petroleum building was built in 1929 as the Ellis-Singleton Building.

There is a sunflower motif on the front of the building, which sets it apart.

The five-story former O’Rourke building was built in 1923 as the McClellan Hotel.

Previously, Wamego historic preservation consultant Brenda Spencer said one “claim to fame on this hotel is it operated as a hotel until the 1980s.”

Spencer, who worked on the project, last summer said the coolest thing to her is “this was the first property built . . . on South Broadway off of Douglas and really spurred the development of the shifting of the community center from Main to Broadway.”

She said this was the first major building of many to quickly come south of Douglas.

“There were frame buildings everywhere.”

That included a two-story wooden hotel and a whole lot of garages where people kept their newly acquired vehicles.

Hand-cranked Model T cars couldn’t be left outside, Spencer said, and most people didn’t yet have their own garages.

She said they would take trolleys downtown to pick up their cars and drive to work.

“Isn’t that wild?” she said.

That quickly changed, though. Spencer said by 1935, most of those frame buildings had been replaced with more substantial ones, such as the 17-story Allis Hotel built across from the McClellan in 1930.

“To me, that was one of the most fascinating things about the history of this.”

The former Allis site is where the biomedical campus is going. Like the McClellan before it, the campus is now spurring other development at buildings throughout the area.

As Schellenberg said last summer, “The impact in that area is going to be significant.”

Look for more details on the possible hotel and other plans at Schellenberg’s three buildings as they become available.

This story was originally published July 8, 2025 at 11:28 AM.