Anyone want a free house? Wichita business is giving one away, and there’s only one catch
.jpg "A College Hill bungalow at 3344 E. Oakland is free to anyone who can move it somewhere else quickly.")
The owners of Happiness Plaza are giving away a house. For free.
The only catch? Whoever takes the house — a cute little one-story bungalow with a wraparound porch — has to agree to move it off their property in the next 30 days.
In December, the owners of Happiness Plaza, 3555 E. Douglas, and its restaurant tenants The Belmont and Larcher’s Market, finally got approval to build a parking lot behind the business. They’d been trying since 2021.
Now, they’re ready to start construction on the lot, which will fill the space at the corner of Clifton and Oakland that two 1920s-era houses occupied until the Happiness Plaza owners tore them down three years ago.
But there’s still one house on their property that they have to move before they can start construction: a little three-bedroom, one-bathroom at 3344 E. Oakland that was originally built in 1907.
Happiness Plaza’s owners have been trying to get someone to take the house for more than two years, said Tory DeMarce, one of the owners of The Belmont and Larcher’s Market.
They’ve made several different deals only to have them fall through at the last minute. One of the groups wanted to move the house closer to Kellogg in College Hill and turn it into a rental. A few local charities indicated they might want to move it somewhere and use it for offices.
When the most recent would-be taker backed out, DeMarce said, the owners had to come up with another plan. They settled on the free-house offer.
“It’s always been our intention to try to relocate that house,” DeMarce said. “We’re starting to run out of time.”
The owners are asking that any interested party with the means to move the house — and a place to put it — fill out the form found at https://forms.gle/ewupCpQSJGpQDfFe9
Anyone, anywhere can have the house, DeMarce said, as long as they’re willing to get moving quickly. The utilities have already been disconnected, he said, and the city of Wichita has indicated that it would take about seven days for someone to secure the correct permits to move the house.
If they find no takers, DeMarce said, the owners will have to demolish the 1,344-square-foot house. They’re hoping to have their 29-space landscaped parking lot finished and ready for use in May.
The owners of Happiness Plaza bought the houses in December of 2021 with the intention of adding parking for their businesses. Soon after, they tore down two of the houses.
A week later, the Wichita City Council denied their zoning change request after the College Hill Neighborhood Association gathered neighbors who were opposed to the parking lot. Since then, the lot has been dirt-covered and surrounded by metal fencing.
The owners tried again for a zoning change in 2023 and were again denied.
In December, the council approved the request.
DeMarce said he’s not sure how much it will cost for someone to move the house. He’s heard lots of different numbers, he said. A lot depends on how far it needs to go.
“The whole intention was to be able to get more parking and get the cars off the streets,” he said. “But we are stuck here at the moment.”
This story was originally published February 26, 2025 at 11:47 AM with the headline "Anyone want a free house? Wichita business is giving one away, and there’s only one catch."
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