Wichita City Council extends deadline on Downtown Hilton after pool takes 8 months

The developers of the Hilton Garden Inn in Downtown Wichita asked the city council for an extension on its project completion date and the ability to get more money after a late-addition rooftop pool shut down the project for eight months.

Wichita Downtown Hotel LLC also asked city council to lift the $930,000 cap on incentives because of the costs of the re-design, which includes the pool, a rooftop bar and commercial space on the first floor of the Hilton at 401 E. Douglas.

City council approved the extension to March 31 but left the cap in place.

This is the second deadline extension for the hotel. Its original completion date was March 16, set to align with the NCAA tournament in Wichita, which it missed. The city granted a six-month extension to the developers, but the project was not completed on Sept. 16 like it was supposed to be.

If the developers miss the March 31 deadline, the tax incentives will be off the table, Wichita Mayor Jeff Longwell said.

“That pool, what we are doing is ... pretty much the second pool in the United States that’s going to be overhanging the Douglas street with a glass bottom,” developer Mitesh Patel said.

“We stopped the project for about eight months to design that pool,” Patel said. “To make sure it’s structurally capable to do it.”