Big Lots is getting a new lot in Wichita. The company is opening an approximately 24,000-square-foot store at Central and Tyler where Fadler’s Market used to be and Osco Drug before that.
"I’m really expecting great things," says Rob Claxton, senior vice president for marketing.
There will still be three Big Lots stores in the Wichita area because the Big Lots at 21st and Amidon is closing.
The new location will "give Big Lots more exposure and visibility and get them closer to their customers," says Brad Saville with Landmark Commercial Real Estate Inc., whohandled the deal.
The new store, which will employ about 30 people, will probably open in October.
"However, you never know when it comes to building," Claxton says. "If it goes much beyond that, it wouldn’t actually open until January or February, so keep your fingers crossed."
Saville knows something about things taking longer than expected.
"We started working on this deal in 2004, believe it or not," he says.
"At that time we were talking about expanding the building to 30,000 square feet," Saville says.
"Unfortunately, Fadler Market leased the building for approximately three years."
Since then, Saville says, "The prototype store for Big Lots was downsized slightly so this time around the building was a good fit."
Tasty addition
Fans of Il Vicino in College Hill will be pleased to know the restaurant’s owners are looking for a second location, this time in northeast Wichita.
Owners Paul Hoover, Dave Murfin and their New Mexico partners aren’t talking just yet, but it looks as if they’re seriously eyeing the 13th and Webb and 21st and Greenwich areas.
And that’s not all. It sounds as if they have a new concept they’d like to try on the east side, too.
Look for a decision on at least one of the new locations in a few weeks.
Sleepy time
The Sleep Medicine Center of Kansas is expanding.
The center, which has two Wichita locations, is adding another sleep clinic and lab at the Kansas Heart Office Plaza on East 35th Street North by the Kansas Heart Hospital on North Webb Road. The center also has a location in Newton and in Pratt.
"Part of it’s geography," says physician and center director Tom Bloxham. "We wanted to be a little farther east, for one thing."
The center has a lot of patients in Andover, Augusta and El Dorado.
"But the biggest part is just locating close to lots of people with cardiac problems," Bloxham says.
"There’s just a huge amount of overlap between sleep apnea and cardiac problems."
The new sleep clinic and office will open Sept. 1. The accompanying sleep laboratory will take longer to build because of all the technology that goes into it.
"We’ll plan to expand and build the lab part within the next year," Bloxham says.
Nutty idea
Siena Plaza at 37th and Rock Road already has a sweet deal with Cocoa Dolce Artisan Chocolates.
Now, it’s going nuts for a new business called Sweet Nut-things, a gift shop that will feature about 80 varieties of nuts and 40 types of candy.
In addition, the shop will feature local art and other items. "Just lots of fun things," says Angie Hall, who is opening the business next month with Shelley Riggins.
Hall has been in administrative accounting for 17 years. Riggins is a cosmetologist at Sola Salon Studios at Siena Plaza.
"Our great hopes are that this takes off, and I can wind down on hair," Riggins says.
Hall says the two are trying to create "somewhere where you walk into… and it feels good."
She says she’s always wanted to have her own business.
"It’s pretty scary, but very exciting," Hall says.
Siena Plaza developer Chuck Caro is happy to have another tasty business leasing space at the almost 3-year-old center.
"It was a goal that I was hoping to achieve, having that type of little niche," he says.
"It’s creating more of the walk-in traffic… for the center," Caro says. "This is starting to pan out pretty good."
Still waiting
Amici still hasn’t reopened at Siena Plaza since a June fire caused $300,000 in damage.
"They’re starting construction in about 30 days," Caro says.
Caro says the owners will be restructuring a few things on the inside and building a courtyard on the west side of the building.
It can’t happen too soon, he says.
"It’s a sad deal," he says. "I get calls weekly: ‘When’s Amici’s going to open?’ "
You don’t say
"Who would have thought this many people would have spent $75 to come see Dawson Grimsley when they could have stayed home and watched him for free?"
—Rene Steven of Spangles, who emceed the roast for DawsonGrimsley on Tuesday, which drew more than 400 people to the Broadview Hotel
