01/13/2012 12:00:00
By Carrie Rengers
The Wichita Eagle
Wichita will never be New York, but the Big Apple is Robert Eyster’s inspiration for redeveloping downtown.
The longtime Wichita orthopedic surgeon used to visit New York on weekends in the 1990s when his wife was in law school. Even though he lost sleep with action-packed itineraries in the big city, he regularly returned invigorated.
Eyster wants to bring that energy to Wichita.
“I am just really convinced that density of population rather than sprawl of population makes for a better society,” he said.
In the last 18 months, he has purchased seven buildings in downtown Wichita and is in various stages of redeveloping them for residential, retail and office use.
“It’s something that gives me great pleasure,” said the 64-year-old Eyster. “This is a passion of mine. It’s a new challenge.”
Eyster is supplying the vision and money, and his business partner and physician assistant, Michael Ramsey, is making it happen by finding downtown spaces and handling the day-to-day operations on each of the projects.
“I like building things,” said Ramsey, 50. “We’re just frustrated carpenters.”
It’s more like the two were special-ordered developers sent to fulfill the mission for downtown that Boston consultants Goody Clancy created for the city.
Jeff Fluhr, president of the Wichita Downtown Development Corp., said Eyster and Ramsey closely watched the creation of the downtown master plan.
“They began to see the opportunities,” Fluhr said. “Then they began to connect those opportunities with buildings. … They’ve done a tremendous job of assembling teams to make their vision become a reality.”
Eyster and Ramsey only reluctantly discuss their projects.
“I would much rather have this conversation in two and a half years,” Ramsey said of completing more work before talking about it.
Eyster said, “I want to complete whatever we start, and it’s a long process.”
The two seem to bring their careful approach with medicine to development as well.
“They make informed decisions,” said Ted Farha of Farha Construction, the contractor for all of Eyster’s projects. “All developers do, but for these guys to be so new in the business and to do it so well is eye-opening.”
‘Great bones’
Ramsey was standing on St. Francis during a scorching hot Taste of Wichita street festival in 2010 when he first eyed the Zelman building on the northeast corner of Douglas and St. Francis for potential redevelopment.
“We were looking for a second location for the Linkhaus,” Ramsey said of the restaurant near 37th and Rock Road, now closed, which Eyster started for his son, James, to run.
Ramsey liked the “beautiful” St. Francis and the “great bones” of the Zelman building, although not for the Linkhaus. He met Fluhr and other downtown promoters through looking at the building.
“That was when things really started clicking,” Ramsey said.
Today, the Zelman renovation is almost complete. Four of the nine lofts in the former clothing store are leased, and there’s restaurant and office or retail development yet to come.
Eyster also bought and is transforming Victoria Park Apartments, which has been low-income housing, at 612 E. Douglas.
He bought the former Protection One building on the northwest corner of First and Market and renamed it the Lux with plans to create luxury apartments and possibly condos along with commercial space on the first two floors.
Eyster also bought what’s been dubbed a trifecta of buildings – for which he and Ramsey haven’t yet announced plans – including the Board of Trade building at 120 S. Market, the former Merrill Lynch building at 100 S. Market and the Caldwell-Murdock Building at 111 E. Douglas along with the adjacent vacant property. The latter became known for a giant hole in the ground that Kelly Donham previously planned to develop.
Most recently, Eyster purchased the small Stewart’s Jewelry building at 415 E. Douglas.
“A lot of things came together pretty quickly, but it was months of research to get to that point,” Ramsey said of the purchases.
He said he spends hundreds of hours in research instead of putting a contract on a building and then doing due diligence.
“It’s just a whole process before we even think of buying a building,” Ramsey said. “I drive the real estate agents in this town crazy.”
'We clicked’
It was through Ramsey’s persistence that he came to work for Eyster 26 years ago.
Eyster, an Oklahoma native, came to Wichita for his residency in orthopedic surgery.
Ramsey, a Washington, D.C., native, came to McPherson College, which his father also attended.
After finishing a particularly grueling physician assistant’s rotation, Ramsey heard of Eyster and decided he wanted to work for him.
“He doesn’t believe in education through intimidation,” Ramsey said.
Eyster told Ramsey he didn’t need a physician assistant, but Ramsey convinced him otherwise and came to regularly work 90-hour weeks for him.
"He’s just an exceptional individual,” Eyster said one recent morning at the Lux while discussing his developments.
An embarrassed Ramsey quickly exited the room to get coffee and avoid the praise.
“Michael has the best work ethic of any person I’ve ever met,” Eyster said.
Eyster said Ramsey suggested new surgical techniques, among other things, and that kind of dialogue with Ramsey has never let him down.
“He’s my best friend.”
Ramsey said they know what each other is thinking without having to speak it.
“We clicked.”
Ramsey had about 10 summers’ worth of construction experience working for a contractor in Maryland while in high school, college and physician assistant school. Eventually, he ran a crew and bid small jobs.
Ramsey still runs Eyster’s medical office and assists in surgery but now spends only about 20 hours a week at the practice. He meets Eyster after hours to discuss their developments. Eyster’s trust in Ramsey is at the heart of his investment strategy.
“That may be the key of investing,” Eyster said of trusting someone with his money. “You better know that person really well. It goes beyond knowing them as well as you do your family.
“How does that person hold up as regards to honesty, integrity and judgment?”
Caution is at the forefront of everything Eyster is doing downtown.
“Every move we make is with such trepidation,” Ramsey said. “We don’t develop off of speculatory vision.”
Ramsey said he’s seen just about every downtown property on the market along with some that aren’t.
“A lot of them were distressed buildings that really needed a lot of love and care, and they also were good buys.”
From there, Ramsey said, he’d “let the building tell us, along with the input from experts, what that building should be.”
“I didn’t come into this thinking I knew everything.”
He said he’s relied on people such as the late Maury Breidenthal, who was the architect on the Zelman building, and downtown experts such as Fluhr and Goody Clancy.
Farha said Ramsey knows how to get the best from others, whether that’s paying in an exceptionally timely manner or doing little extras such as bringing ice cream to a construction crew on a hot day or regularly buying them lunch.
“Number one, he likes to do that,” Farha said. “Number two, he knows that everybody’s going to appreciate that and go the extra mile for him, and I guarantee you every sub’s going to do that for him.
Farha said Ramsey is exacting, too.
“We have standing meetings on projects that we flat don’t miss,” he said.
Farha has come to know Ramsey as a friend – a friend who won’t let him eat bagels in his impeccably clean car or who won’t drive until everyone’s seatbelt is on.
“If he’s going to cook something, it’s going to be crazy good,” Farha said. “He goes the extra mile in all that he does.
I’m having a hell of a lot of fun working with him, and it’s fun to be in the middle of all this downtown resurgence.”
Building a team
Part of Ramsey’s crash course in real estate, he said, is that “I ask everybody about everybody.”
Farha is his exclusive contractor, and Leisa Lowry of J.P. Weigand & Sons is his real estate broker.
Ramsey said he tries to select an architect based on each project and has hired Wichita’s Shelden Architecture and Cathcart Architects and Kansas City-based El Dorado Inc.
He also regularly consults his nephew, Adam Wagoner, and Adam’s wife, Rebekah, of RAW Design. They designed the much-lauded Linkhaus building, which was more of a success than the restaurant.
Wichita’s Lifeboat Creative is handling advertising, and Todd Ramsey, who isn’t related to Michael Ramsey, is handling public relations through his new Apples & Arrows firm.
Lowry said Eyster and Michael Ramsey are all about team building and creativity.
“It didn’t take long to figure it out: They’re really smart,” she said.
Eyster and Ramsey don’t seem to be facing any criticism, such as the kind the Minnesota Guys of Real Development have attracted with projects plagued by financial problems. There’s more a curiosity about Eyster and Ramsey than anything.
“What I like is that they live here, they work here, they’re committed to this city with responsible development, which is really refreshing,” Lowry said.
“I think there’s a lot of people waiting on the sidelines with their fingers crossed … watching as they breathe new life into the downtown area.”
Patrick Ahern, of Grubb & Ellis/Martens Commercial Group, represented the seller in the sale of the Protection One building to Eyster.
“It’s exciting what they’re doing,” Ahern said. “Their social media strategy with the Lux, it’s a new way to market a property that’s going to be redeveloped,” he said of utilizing tools such as Twitter and Facebook. “It’s really creative. We’re pretty impressed.
“If they can do the Lux, and they have more people living in downtown, it’s going to be better for everybody.”
Ahern said there used to be a saying in downtown real estate: “How can you make a small fortune in downtown real estate? And the joke was to start with a large fortune.” He thinks that’s changed.
Ramsey said it’s not about fortunes.
“We’re not trying to swing for the fences,” he said. “We’re not trying to break the bank on the return on these.”
Eyster said his motivation is simple.
“I want a city life (in) downtown Wichita.”
Contact Carrie Rengers at 316-268-6340 or crengers@wichitaeagle.com.
Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2012/01/12/2172594/partners-envision-big-city-life.html#storylink=cpy
11/03/2011 12:00:00
Projects completed, slated for city center generate excitement in revitalization plan
By Bill Wilson
The Wichita Eagle
Wichita builder Ted Farha is all in for downtown Wichita. Three weeks ago, he moved his Farha Construction company to 120 E. First St. in the old Protection One building.
A year ago, he invested with family members in the Finn Lofts, a new housing project in the city's art district.
"Downtown is cool," Farha said. "There's a lot happening, and a lot getting ready to happen downtown."
Enough happening — with Intrust Bank Arena and Old Town as anchors — that one Wichita real estate analyst calls the last three years of development downtown a "remarkable run."
There are new hotels anchoring an entire city block of planned redevelopment, new business headquarters, new businesses and housing on the drawing board.
All in a period of economic unrest.
"When you think about the economic environment during this period, no one should have been surprised to see absolutely nothing happening," said Stan Longhofer, the analyst who directs Wichita State University's Center for Real Estate.
Jeff Fluhr, the president of the downtown development group leading the revitalization drive, said the focus remains on making downtown a complementary economic engine, one that combines with NewMarket Square on the west side and the Waterfront out east to make Wichita more attractive as a home.
"A calling card," Fluhr said, "and the front door to Wichita, one that helps recruitment and retention to the entire community."
Here's a look at Project Downtown's first year, from the accomplishments to the biggest challenges on the drawing board:
Accomplishments
Ambassador Hotel
The $30 million, four-star hotel is Project Downtown's biggest public-private partnership to date.
The Ambassador Wichita will be a 117-room boutique hotel built in the vacant building on the southeast corner of Douglas and Broadway that once housed Dockum Drugs. That was the site of the nation's first youth-led lunch counter sit-in protesting segregation.
The plans include the independent hotel, a 257-stall parking garage financed by the city and a small public park.
Work began in September, with the hotel scheduled to open late in 2012 — despite a protest petition seeking to invalidate $2.2 million in guest tax revenue the city has contributed to the project.
The hotel joins the Kansas Health Foundation expansion, the planned renovation of the Henry's building, and city garage and park improvements in downtown's first full block project, with investment in excess of $40 million, Fluhr said.
Robert Eyster and Michael Ramsey
Eyster and Ramsey have made six significant downtown purchases, but the plans for only a few have been publicly revealed.
They've acquired the old Protection One building at First and Market. They are renaming the building the Lux and plan to create luxury apartments and possibly condos along with commercial space on the first two floors.
They also have purchased the 20,000-plus square foot two-story building at 100 S. Market; the Board of Trade building at 120 S. Market; Kelly Donham's property on Douglas between Main and Market — jokingly called "Lake Douglas" for the giant hole there; the Zelman building at Douglas and St. Francis; and the Victoria Park Apartments at 612 E. Douglas.
"Put simply, we agree with the city: Participating in revitalizing our downtown is a great investment," Ramsey said.
"The projects we've started are designed to help carry out the plan the city has developed to make downtown vibrant, viable and valuable. We are simply excited to be a part of bringing that plan to life."
St. Francis projects
Eyster and Ramsey's work on the Zelman building, which is being converted into loft apartments, is considered one of the connectors along St. Francis to the new park planned by the Wichita Downtown Rotary Club on the old Coleman site at Second and St. Francis.
Other planned projects there include the relocation of Pixius Communications.
Kansas Health Foundation expansion
The Kansas Health Foundation plans a multimillion-dollar expansion to its downtown headquarters that will add meeting rooms and office space for the group it founded in 2005, the Kansas Leadership Center.
Last month, the foundation announced a $7 million to $9 million project to be built in the parking lot just east of the foundation headquarters at 309 E. Douglas. The building's design will feature a town hall-style meeting room with space for 200 people and another meeting room for 200 that can be divided into four smaller rooms.
Cargill
The $14.7 million, 75,000-square-foot Cargill Innovation Center at 300 W. First opened July 15.
The center houses research, development, culinary, laboratory, pilot plant and distribution capabilities.
Cargill's meat businesses employ approximately 1,000 people in downtown Wichita.
The building houses chemical and biological labs for testing and analysis of meat and meat products. It also includes a seasoning mixing facility.
Keys to the future
Union Station
The future of the downtown Union Station complex remains muddy, seven months after the latest development deal fell through.
Several real estate sources say the sticking points are two-fold: the asking price of the owner, Cox Communications, plus the substantial costs of converting a train station into a retail mecca.
The Union Station campus on Douglas has been listed on the commercial real estate website LoopNet for $6.4 million, although at least one deal fell through at about a million dollars less.
However, other interested developers say the property — which would require an extensive and costly remodel to convert it into a retail center — is priced too high to be a viable business venture.
More housing
Despite some successes with new housing downtown — like the Finn Lofts, the Flats 324, and Eyster and Ramsey's project in the old Zelman building — downtown continues to need more affordable housing.
One particular source of that housing — the Minnesota Guys' $50 million Exchange Place project — remains embroiled in federal grant red tape and the group's ongoing financial problems.
Retail near the arena
Redevelopment around Intrust Bank Arena has been slowed by the economy and by the "show me" attitude of potential restaurant and club investors, brokers say.
With commercial lending almost non-existent since the fall of 2008, money for projects has been difficult to come by.
Mike Berne, a national retail consultant, is the city's lead on some of that revitalization, looking regionally and nationally for the right downtown businesses, Fluhr said.
His targets focus largely on regional niche businesses, clubs, restaurants and shops birthed in the Midwest that have succeeded and are looking for other cities on the move.
A long-term project
Longhofer, of WSU, cautions Wichitans to keep downtown revitalization in perspective: It will be a decades-long project that will be dynamic and evolve as Wichita's economic needs change.
Farha is a believer.
"Everything is convenient," he said. "I'm within a block and a half of three great places to eat, several banks, two blocks from City Hall and 10 major architectural firms....
"If I had more money to invest in downtown, I would and I will. That's how much I believe in it."
Longhofer is confident that faith will be rewarded.
"The only things I see having a major detrimental impact on progress downtown are poor management by the city... and the city has to be very judicious how it uses any development incentive tools," he said.
"I think that politically in Wichita there's a healthy dose of skepticism that many have about their use, and there's a case to be made that while incentives are useful and appropriate in the right circumstances, it's very easy to abuse them."
Read more: http://www.kansas.com/2011/11/03/2087917/downtown-on-its-way-up.html#ixzz1cfPGTa2w
08/26/2011 12:00:00
BY JOE STUMPE
Eagle correspondent
ACI Design Studio
Address: 1425 E. Douglas
Phone: 316-440-4944
Owner: Bill Jackson
Employees: Four
Website: acidesignstudio.com
The idea came to Brent Dorrah while he was managing Abode Home, the home furniture and furnishings store that closed last summer.
"We'd have people come in and say, 'My husband's new office, we're going to redo it.' That's kind of when the light went on — commercial."
Shortly after, Abode Home owner Bill Jackson gave Dorrah the go-ahead to start ACI Design Studio. The initials stand for Abode Commercial Interiors. ACI operated out of another Jackson business, Furniture Options, until moving across Douglas to its current location in the old Domestic Laundry building in October. Abode Home, meantime, has been transformed into a venue for live entertainment and other events.
Fans of Abode Home will feel right at home at ACI, which like its predecessor carries many out-of-the-ordinary pieces displayed in a stylish setting.
There's a free-flowing 110-inch conference table, a black leather curved desk, an 11-foot-high screen made of roots from a rain forest. There's a driftwood sculpture, a vintage red leather chaise lounge and a silk pom-pom tree.
ACI has kept all of its catalogs from Abode Home and still carries residential items on one side of its showroom, while the other is devoted to commercial furnishings.
ACI deliberately opened without a lot of fanfare, Dorrah said, instead opting for "a kind of a guerrilla-style marketing. Then I try to kill these people with service. We really pay attention to those $5,000 projects, where if they walk into a big place they might not get it."
There's still no prominent sign out front directing people inside.
"There's something about a place that doesn't have a big 'we're open' sign," Dorrah said. "It kind of sets a mood. It's not a busy, hustle-bustle showroom. A designer can bring in a client and have a good environment."
ACI also hasn't had a grand opening, although it recently hosted an open house for about 75 designers and architects. Commercial clients so far include the Kansas Humane Society (for its new headquarters on north Hillside), the Linkhaus restaurant, Oeno Wine Bar, several car dealerships and doctors' offices.
ACI offers its own design services as well, with a full-time designer on staff. Asked to describe ACI's style, Dorrah says it's "a really clean, cool executive feel."
Dorrah, who's worked for Jackson for 20 years, said it took him several years to become passionate about the furniture business. He is now, smiling as he tells about his recent discovery that his father once worked in a furniture store.
"I've never been more excited about design and furniture in my life," he said.
