After council vote, Crown Uptown owner can move forward with theater’s demolition
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Wichita council failed to add Crown Uptown Theatre to historic registry in 3-3 vote.
- Owner Mike Brown may proceed with demolition despite calls to preserve theater.
- Brown cites property rights and city's failure to increase capacity of theater.
Though several Wichita City Council members strongly urged him not to, the council cleared the way Tuesday for Crown Uptown Theatre owner Mike Brown to demolish the 97-year-old building if he chooses to.
The council failed to approve a motion that would have added the venue at 3207 E. Douglas to the Wichita Register of Historic Places. The vote was 3-3, but because building owner Mike Brown had filed an objection to the building’s addition to the registry, a super majority of five votes would have been required for approval.
At the meeting — which Mayor Lily Wu missed because she’s attending the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative in New York City — council members J.V. Johnston, Becky Tuttle and Dalton Glasscock voted not to add the building to the registry. Maggie Ballard, Brandon Johnson and Mike Hoheisel voted to add it.
Contacted after the vote, building owner Brown said that what happened next was up to the council members. If they wanted to revisit his request to increase the theater’s occupancy, they’d need to reach out to him, he said.
“If they can figure out how to get our capacity up, we’ll talk to them,” he said. “But otherwise, we’re going to move forward with the development of the site.”
But the city isn’t going to do that, said city spokeswoman Megan Lovely. The only way Brown can revisit the occupancy question is he files another zoning application and the council hears the case.
Had the council members voted to add the building to the registry, Brown still could have eventually obtained approval to demolish the building, council members were told on Tuesday. The process, though, would have been more time consuming and difficult.
Owner wants more occupancy
Brown, a Tulsa businessman who bought the theater in 2023, applied for a demolition permit for the theater in early 2025 after a failed attempts to increase its capacity. He bought the venue, he said, so that he could put on big concerts and maintained he would not be able to turn a profit unless he could get 2,066 people in the building.
His original proposal was rejected in December by the council, who cited concerns about fire safety and parking and sent the matter back to the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission. Then, in February, the council also denied an application asking that the fire marshal set the occupancy limit.
Brown filed for a wrecking permit the day after that meeting,
In March, the council voted to take interim control of the building and initiate putting the theater on the registry. Its control period will be in place until Aug. 4.
But when it came time to vote on the historical designation on Tuesday, several council members said that, although the theater also was meaningful to them, they had to vote on the side of property rights.
“I think that value can be subjective, but property rights are not, and I hope that somebody from this bench would stand up for my property rights if someone was trying to exert influence over my property without my consent as well,” council member Dalton Glasscock said before the vote. “... I hope that as a community, we can find a solution to save this building because I do believe it has significance to our community.”
Public comments on the issue
During the public comment period before the vote, a few community members spoke in favor of adding the Crown to the registry, including arts advocate Ann Garvey. She listed some of the many events she had attended at the venue over the years, from dance recitals to office Christmas parties, and talked about how many meaningful memories had been made inside the Crown’s walls.
“... I feel morally obligated to stand here in front of you and beg that it not be demolished,” she said to council members. “It will never be returned. It can never be replicated. We cannot do this again. We will lose a very valuable place.”
Later, Brown addressed the council and said that adding the building to the registry would be tantamount to a “regulatory taking” of his property.
“You’re putting restrictions on a private property that were not there at the time of the purchase. They did not show up in title work. They were not present at all,” Brown said. “... This is a business. This isn’t a museum. It’s not a publicly owned building. It’s not subsidized by the city.”
During the meeting, planning director Scott Wadle told council members that Brown could opt to resubmit an occupancy proposal — in a month or two if the proposal was significantly different from his last one or in February if it wasn’t.
Brown then indicated he was ready to discuss and settle the occupancy issue on the spot, but vice mayor J.V. Johnston, running the meeting in Wu’s absence, told him that wasn’t possible.
After the meeting, Brown said he wasn’t interested in going through that process again. And he said he didn’t know how long he’d wait to make his decision on the Crown’s fate.
“They’re going to have to figure out what they want to do,” he said.
This story was originally published July 15, 2025 at 2:34 PM.
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