DeBoer family trustee responds to ‘indictment of the whole WaterWalk development’

In last week’s stunner of a City Council meeting, Jim Korroch said he tried to be up front about the failures of the WaterWalk development.

However, as one of three trustees of the late WaterWalk developer Jack DeBoer’s estate, Korroch said he didn’t mean to take the entire blame. Nor were he or the DeBoer family ready for what he called the unfairness that followed.

He said Mayor Lily Wu “turned it, really, into an indictment of the whole WaterWalk development.”

Korroch called it “a political statement from a bully pulpit.”

“Real leadership takes into consideration all perspectives . . . and I think that’s what was really missing from Tuesday’s meeting.”

Wu said she simply was trying to get to the bottom of what happened with the public-private development “that has left a huge black eye on our city for these past 20 years.”

She said she knows more than one side bears responsibility.

“I’m sure there are multiple entities . . . and that it’s not solely on WaterWalk.”

Still, Wu said, when she asked Assistant City Manager Troy Anderson for a thorough accounting of what has happened with the development — specifically, how many public dollars have been invested there — she said his report naturally included the city’s perspective only.

“That’s the only side I can have any direction on.”

Anderson reported that there has been almost $44 million in public money poured into WaterWalk, and the private investment has been almost $37 million.

Korroch said that’s incorrect and that the private investment is more like $57 million.

Wu said she’s open to Korroch returning to the council to clarify any numbers or further present the developer’s side of the issue. She said her fellow council members would have to agree to bring him back.

There’s one thing on which Wu and Korroch agree.

“I absolutely believe we need to have a full conversation on WaterWalk,” Korroch said.

Wu said “that this city deserves to know what has happened.”

Korroch said to know what happened will take more than a one-sided presentation from the city.

He said Anderson was put in a tough position, but his report “didn’t reflect at all on the city’s . . . responsibility for some of those things that have not gone well with WaterWalk as well, and there are many.”

Chief among them, Korroch said, is the $3 million that he said former Mayor Carlos Mayans pulled from the project, which he said scuttled potential deals with Bass Pro Shops, Commerce Bank and Foulston Siefkin and eliminated the canals that were supposed to be throughout the development.

Korroch pointed to a 2009 Wichita Eagle story that quoted Stan Longhofer, former director of the Center for Real Estate at Wichita State University, about the city’s role in hurting WaterWalk.

“In some ways, the city has done all they can to tank the project,” Longhofer said in the story. “I mean, if these are my friends, then who are my enemies?”

Moving forward

Whether Korroch returns to the City Council remains to be seen, but city spokeswoman Megan Lovely texted that city staff will be reaching out to him in the next month “to discuss a strategy for the Waterwalk development moving forward.”

City Manager Robert Layton last week laid out possible scenarios for the development, which are related to the DeBoer estate’s 99-year lease to develop WaterWalk.

One possibility is for the city to terminate its agreement with WaterWalk. That most likely would involve a lawsuit.

Another option is for both parties to renegotiate it or both parties agree to terminate it, which likely would involve the city buying out the existing lease agreement.

“Option one is the best option,” Wu said. “But that would be extremely complicated.”

Short of that, she said she would be in favor of renegotiating the agreement, although she said she wants the community to know that may not be possible.

Wu said she wouldn’t vote for anything that’s not fair to taxpayers.

Korroch said it’s also about what’s fair to the DeBoer family, particularly as it tries to attract developers to the WaterWalk site.

Last week, proposed affordable apartments at WaterWalk were denied, in part becoming a victim to the larger debate about what has happened at WaterWalk.

“After last Tuesday, it is going to be very difficult if not impossible to attract other developers,” Korroch said. “No one is going to be brought in front of the City Council for that kind of beating.”

For now, Korroch is going to wait to be contacted by the city.

“The ball’s in their court. I’ve been very clear that we’re open to a conversation.”

This story was originally published August 19, 2025 at 1:25 PM.