Brad Barber and his father, David, have been silent partners in the renovation of Twin LakesShopping Center but have now taken over management of the project.

"It was in quite a bit of a mess," says Colorado-based Brad Barber, who owns TWD Properties with his father.

"I had to make a lot of phone calls and calm some people down," Barber says. "We had to do a few months of damage control."

That was after a couple-month halt to renovations over the winter.

"The whole deal basically had to be restructured," Barber says.

That included restructuring the financing and management.

"There were, like, six or seven people you had to go through to get anything done," Barber says.

He’s trying to create a friendly environment for tenants.

"The biggest problem with this is, people for years were telling tenants the things they were going to do," Barber says. "They just act like most landlords do, and that’s take every penny out of it they can and run."

Barber says he’s talking to three or four potential major tenants for the 340,000-square-foot property.

Don Piros with Landmark Commercial Real Estate Inc. is helping lease the space.

About $1 million of the almost $2 million in renovations is complete.

"It’s just really now taking shape," Barber says. "I’m almost shaking I’m so excited about this property."

It looks like there may be a sales contract pending on the property across from Twin Lakes where Big Lots is.

No one with the center is talking, but Barber has heard about the sale, too.

He says he would have been interested in the space if he didn’t already have so much going on.

If there is a sale along with some new tenants — namely an occupant for the former Food-4-Less space — it could be big news for that area.

"That intersection is going to catch a lot of attention shortly," Barber says.

The owners of the new Amici Italian restaurant in Siena Plaza at 37th and Rock Road already have expansion plans — and big ones at that.

"My idea was to expand this and expand very quickly," says co-owner Ryan Watenpaugh. "I like money."

He won’t discuss immediate plans, but it looks like Andover (near the new library) and west Wichita are first on his list.

"We put together a very solid system for this," Watenpaugh says.

His eventual goal is for something like 300 or 400 Amici restaurants nationally.

"I want to take on Outback," Watenpaugh says.

He says restaurants are too "corporatized" these days.

"I believe that things can be done just a little bit better without compromising," he says. "All it takes is a little bit of intelligence and some caring and heart."

"You know, whenever there’s bad weather, I’m here. My poor dear wife and kids are the ones who have to deal with that."

—Dave Freeman, the KSN, Channel 3, chief meteorologist, on the fact that he doesn’t have a basement