Building a Community Open Space in the Heart of Downtown Wichita
The Community Survey is live and we want to hear from you!
Project
Project Overview
Housing & Revitalization of the Historic Shirkmere Building
At the heart of the project is the adaptive-reuse of the historic Shirkmere building into around 100 thoughtfully designed residential units, including 40 apartments dedicated exclusively to affordable housing making downtown living accessible for a variety of people such as graduate students, hospitality workers, first responders, and artists. The redevelopment will transform the building into a vibrant, welcoming residential community that blends historic character with modern living. Renovations to the building will begin this month with opening anticipated in the second half of 2027.
Music Venue
The project will be anchored by a 3,000-person capacity music venue designed to attract world-class performing artists, host concerts, and provide much-needed downtown event space for non-profit and corporate events. The venue is currently in the design phase, with construction anticipated to begin next year and an opening date targeted in 2029.
New Grocery Store
A planned 30,000-square-foot urban market concept is being developed in partnership with the Queen family of Kansas City. The Queen family is one of the founding owners of the well-known Price Chopper brand and is an experienced independent operator known for quality and community-first grocery stores. The downtown Wichita store will be a new urban-focused grocery concept and brand that will feature fresh produce, meats, and traditional grocery store essentials in addition to prepared foods and other staples tailored to meet the needs of the downtown shopper.
Community Open Space
A central focus of the vision is creating a vibrant and active open space that Wichitans are proud to call their own, and begins to implement some of the community input provided in the recent community meetings held by Downtown Wichita to develop the forthcoming Downtown Action Plan. Details regarding upcoming community listening sessions to shape the open space design will be announced in the coming weeks.
TEAM
About Movement Musick and The Team
Movement Musick is a non-profit dedicated to empowering creators and professionals while driving positive social change in Wichita and beyond. Individuals from all walks of life unite around a shared vision: to discover their talents, develop and apply their skills, and contribute to the advancement of their communities. We provide a platform for emerging talent, offering resources and opportunities to unlock their full potential, while fostering innovation and collaboration across creative and professional fields.
