Downtown Wichita park named after civil rights icon recast as medical school entrance

A downtown Wichita park named after a prominent local civil rights leader will be recast as an entry plaza for a private medical school as part of a redevelopment project, according to a project plan approved by City Council on Tuesday.

Chester I. Lewis Reflection Square Park, a pocket park that was dedicated to Lewis in 2007 after a petition drive by several local youth organizations, includes a bronze sculpture commemorating the Dockum sit-ins of 1958, the first successful student-led lunch-counter sit-in protest of segregation in the United States.

Lewis was the local NAACP president at the time of the sit-ins and, as an attorney, was as part of the legal team that argued the landmark 1954 Brown v. Topeka Board of Education decision in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. He’s highly regarded as one of Kansas’ civil rights pioneers.

The city promises that the converted park will continue to honor that history.

“Primarily with the funds available, they will be constructing updates, repairing and replacing pavers (and) opening up the park as a gathering place. But they will be retaining the historic and cultural elements of that park,” said Mark Elder, an analyst in the city’s office of economic development.

Developer Sudha Tokala’s Douglas Market Development is renovating four buildings near the park — a medical school called the Kansas Health Science Center, a culinary arts school, student housing and an AC Marriott hotel. The city’s plan calls for making the park a gathering space for both the general public and medical students.

Elder said the redevelopment plan for Douglas Market Development complex is estimated to cost $75 million.

As part of a development agreement, the city will use $1.3 million in Tax Increment Financing, or TIF, to expand the park named after Lewis. TIF financing diverts property taxes that otherwise would have gone to the city, county and school district to finance infrastructure improvements in a redevelopment district.

“Those (dollars) will be guaranteed by the developer,” Elder said.

The park is tucked between two buildings in the Center City South Redevelopment District along Douglas between Broadway and Market.

The city will buy a building to the east of the park that’s set to be demolished. Once that building is cleared, much of the footprint will be taken up by a stairway into the Kansas Health Science Center, a preliminary drawing of the park shows, although a final design of the renovation has not been completed.

Tokala’s plans call for opening the Kansas Health Science Center, a school of osteopathic medicine, in the former State Office Building at 130 S. Market and 230 E. William by 2022. Across the street at 209 E. William , a 119-unit student housing facility would open in the former Sutton Place office building.

At Douglas and Broadway, the Broadway Plaza Building would open as a full-service hotel no later than December 31, 2021.

The former Henry’s building on the northeast corner of William and Broadway would be turned into a culinary arts school.

Chester I. Lewis Reflection Square Park joins other downtown parks — such as Naftzger Park and Delano Park — that have been renovated into entryways for private businesses as the city works to revitalize its core and promote redevelopment.

Delano Park on the west bank of the Arkansas River at Douglas and McLean has been transformed into a riverfront plaza for the River Vista Apartments. Naftzger Park was gutted and given a more open layout at Douglas and St. Francis, where the east perimeter of the park has been turned into a lawn and walkable frontage for new businesses in the Spaghetti Works redevelopment.

Elder said the design will be vetted before any construction starts.

“The process is going to be led by a committee that’s comprised of community stakeholders,” Elder said. “There will be public engagement on the redesign of the park, and the entire design and construction would be coordinated and timed with the Kansas Health Science construction to make sure that they open near the same time and not interfere with each other’s project.”

Council member Brandon Johnson called it “an exciting project,” and said the public involvement in the project will be key to its success.

“I’m looking forward to getting to work with Troy (Houtman) and community stakeholders on what an improved Chester Lewis Reflection Park could look like,” Johnson said. “It’s an exciting project, as well as everything else going on with this development, so I’m looking forward to that.”

This story was originally published May 5, 2020 at 4:01 PM.