Portion of Broadway closes after bricks begin falling off downtown Wichita building
Latest news: Wichita firefighters get called to a job they have only trained for in recent years
Drivers and pedestrians were asked to avoid Broadway, from Central to Murdock, after bricks fell off a building Wednesday afternoon.
The Wichita Fire Department was sent at 1:59 p.m. to the 200 block of East Elm for a report of a building collapse, a Sedgwick County Emergency Communications supervisor said.
The city heard from the fire department at 2:38 p.m. that bricks were falling from the Commodore building, 222 E. Elm, city spokesperson Megan Lovely said.
Bricks fell off the side of the building from a space roughly 40x40 feet in size. No one was hurt and no vehicles were damaged, Lovely said.
The intersection of Broadway and Elm was temporarily closed, as well as Broadway from Central to Murdock.
An engineer from the Metropolitan Area Building and Construction Department “approved tying the brick back so no more fall off,” Lovely said in a message.
“We will begin this process, but unknown length of time to complete — less than 12 hours,” Lovely added.
The city is contacting the building owners, who are based in California.
Pacific Sands Funds, a privately held real estate firm based in Irvine, bought the nearly 100-year-old nine-story apartment building in October 2021 for $2.25 million. The firm planned to improve the building, which included repairing the brick facade, a news release said at the time.
This story was originally published February 26, 2025 at 4:23 PM.