Dirt is moving on a new retail center in one of the city’s hottest areas for growth.
Developer Paul Suellentrop told the WBJ this week he is building a five-tenant strip mall on land he owns immediately to the east of the new HTeaO at 21st Street and 127th Street in east Wichita.
Suellentrop, who is also behind the Sandlot Garage Condos project in northwest Wichita, said he hopes to complete the 9,000 square-foot building — called Hawthorne Retail Center — by the end of the year.
He said while there are no tenants lined up yet, he expects the start of construction to generate increased interest.
“It’s a solid area that’s filling in nicely,” Suellentrop said in an email. “(There is a) need for more neighborhood and workforce services and food establishments.”
He said he’s heard feedback from area residents desiring “more choices closer than at Greenwich (Road).”
A mile east of the 21st and Greenwich area — which includes Greenwich Place and the Wichita Sports Forum, with Topgolf and Scheels Stryker Sports Complex just to the north — development momentum has been increasing near the northeast corner of 21st and 127th, including the opening of HTeaO’s first east-side location in December 2022.
Suellentrop Construction — which includes Paul, his brother Brian Suellentrop, and their father, Mark — is the general contractor on the Hawthorne project.
Krehbiel Architecture is the architect with David Parrish leading the design effort.
A commercial building permit issued for the construction has a valuation of $720,000, according to city-county records.
“The building will be a nice-looking, architecturally interesting, building with tile, brick and modern glass and stucco lines on the front,” Paul Suellentrop said. “The building will not have columns in the steel lines (free span) that a potential tenant would have to design around.”
He added the structure’s west side will have one drive-through lane for a tenant.
Landmark Commercial Real Estate’s Don Piros is leading the marketing of Hawthorne, which has a lease rate starting at $24 per square foot, according to a property brochure.
Suellentrop originally purchased the land in 2022, with Piros representing him on that deal, and Bradley Tidemann of J.P. Weigand & Sons repping the seller.
While he declined to disclose his total planned investment in the property, Suellentrop said, “I am spending a few extra dollars on this building to make it a place tenants won’t want to leave.”
