Andover home to first of four new tire stores

A three-state tire store chain is expanding to Andover, the first of four new Wichita-area stores planned over the next five years.

Kansasland Tire is the second retailer to join Vantage Point Properties’ MarketPlace at Kellogg and Andover Road.

Kansasland is the largest Goodyear dealer in Kansas, with four stores here and 30 statewide. The company also operates Nebraskaland and Missouriland locations.

"It’s not so much about what’s going on in the market," said Nick Phillippi, Kansasland’s general manager and chief operating officer. "What we see in the Wichita area is (there is) not a dominant player in our business.

"We feel like if we can get to eight stores, internally it will make better sense for us to advertise for eight stores and use the volume power that generates. It’ll allow us to market that there’s nowhere in the area you’ll be more than 15 minutes from a Kansasland."

Construction on the 7,000-square-foot facility, located on the west edge of MarketPlace on Andover Road, should begin in April, with a summer opening. Kansasland offers full-service automotive repairs in addition to tires.

Kansasland is redesigning its chain of stores, using the Andover store as its prototype.

The store’s new customer waiting area is segmented, including a play area for children and work stations with wireless Internet.

As the expansion develops, Phillippi said the company wants to add a motorist-assist vehicle roaming Wichita.

"But to finance those kinds of things, you’ve got to have enough market volume," he said. "Right now,
we’re not in the place in Wichita we feel like the market leader needs to be."

Brad Saville of Landmark Commercial Real Estate, who brokered the land deal, said market surveys show tire service and automotive repair is a need in Andover.

"We’re looking to attract retail users to the project that can support a wide range of services," said
developer Paul Jackson of Vantage Point Properties.

"We’ve heard the need for this kind of use frequently as we’ve planned MarketPlace. They’re a good operator providing a service the community needs. It’s a good catch for us."

Other tenants at MarketPlace, a 140-acre mixed-use project at Kellogg and Andover Road, include a Dillons Marketplace that is under construction and a 50,000- square-foot YMCA.

In addition, Andover’s new Prairie Creek Elementary School is being built in the project.

Vantage Point has been developing, managing and leasing properties for 14 years, developing more than a million square feet of commercial real estate in the Wichita area.