We love having Crain Co. as part of the Groover Labs community. As experienced property developers, they bring a unique perspective and valuable expertise to our space. We were excited to see their progress featured in both the Wichita Eagle and the Wichita Business Journal as they move forward with plans to redevelop the historic Petroleum Building and the O’Rourke Title Building.

We’ve included a few paragraphs from each article, along with links to the originals, below.

Congrats to Graham, Randy, Jacob, and team!

A Note: We highlight our members (and former members) whenever they make headlines, but we understand the Wichita Eagle and the Wichita Business Journal lock their content behind paywalls. Thus, if you don’t subscribe, you cannot read the articles. We apologize for the inconvenience. We keep a copy of the Wichita Eagle and the Wichita Business Journal in the kitchenette for anyone who wants to read the print edition. The digital edition is available here.

Former downtown hotel, along with another well-known building, may become one again

By Carrie Rengers

Developers have plans to convert two well-known downtown Wichita properties to a hotel, which would return one of the buildings to its original use and take advantage of tax increment financing and historic tax credits in the process. Developer Marv Schellenberg and apartment specialist Graham Crain want to convert the Petroleum Building and the former McClellan Hotel, better known more recently as the O’Rourke Title Building, to a hotel. The properties sit near each other along South Broadway between William and English and are separated by a parking lot.

That lot would connect the buildings by a porte-cochere or some other kind of awning or covered area for the hotel. According to planning documents at the city, the buildings would comprise one full-service hotel with about 110 rooms along with 4,000 square feet of retail space. There would be parking improvements as well. Key to the plans, of course, is the proximity of the buildings to the Wichita Biomedical Campus, under construction directly across the street. The area is part of the Center City South Redevelopment District, and that’s how TIF money is available. Documents show that the entire cost of the hotel project is just over $41 million, and future TIF revenues should be more than $16 million over a 20-year term.

Plans unveiled for new $40 million hotel in downtown Wichita

By Audrey Jensen

A couple of years after acquiring three prominent historic buildings in downtown, a local development team has figured out what they want to do with them.

Longtime Wichita developers Schellenberg Development Co. and Crain Co. are working together on early plans for a new boutique hotel inside the historic Petroleum Building at 221 S. Broadway and the McClellan Hotel Building, or the O'Rourke Title Building, at 229 E. William.

It's part of their bigger plans to invest in downtown and restore a piece of Wichita's skyline, despite the complexities that come along with converting historic buildings.

"It's a lot easier to take it from a bare piece of ground to a finished product than to take a 100-year-old building and keeping the historic side of it," said Marv Schellenberg, founder and president of Schellenberg Development Co. "It's just a totally different animal."

The project, representing an investment of more than $40 million, is expected to bring the first hotel by IHG Hotel & Resorts to downtown Wichita under the Hotel Indigo flag, a lifestyle hotel designed around the market it's located in.