Tour lets public check out downtown Wichita housing options

Downtown Wichita was packed Sunday afternoon with people crowding sidewalks, crossing streets and touring buildings.

An estimated 2,000 people took advantage of an afternoon-long tour of downtown apartments and condos.

Grant Ford was waiting by the elevators in the lobby of the Eaton Place Apartments with his 3-year-old daughter, Hailey. The rest of his family, he said, was “lost somewhere.”

As people flowed past him and toured the apartments, he said, “I’m not looking to move down here, but instead, I’m just being nosy. (The apartments) aren’t me. I like a house.”

Still, it was a chance for the public to tour available residential housing in downtown Wichita.

“You have a large scale of apartments that are available, from a 550-square-foot loft to two- and three-bedrooms available in our inventory,” said Jeff Fluhr, president of the Wichita Downtown Development Corp. “With these units, you have all the amenities around you. A lot of our residents enjoy being able to walk to a destination. They aren’t necessarily getting rid of their car, but they like being able to walk out the front door and soon be at a coffee house, restaurant or cultural event.”

In 2010, when Wichita began its master plan for redeveloping downtown, there were 890 units available for housing, Fluhr said. Currently, there are 1,320 units, and within the next 20 months, there are plans for an additional 550.

Downtown housing often runs at 98 to 100 percent occupancy, he said.

“It is a great indicator of what is happening downtown,” Fluhr said. “Downtown is becoming a city transformed. Just seeing this many people out in it is just exciting and rewarding.”

This story was originally published March 29, 2015 at 9:39 PM with the headline "Tour lets public check out downtown Wichita housing options."