Beating a Path to Old Town
It’s a cool Saturday morning in October, and soft music is trickling up to Anne Smith’s balcony in Old Town. Smith starts the day with coffee and a sunrise on her 1,000-square-foot-balcony alongside her Labrador, but now the pair is headed to their favorite stand at the Old Town Farm & Art Market for dog treats, just steps away from their front door.
It’s a morning Smith has curated before from her downtown Wichita loft, along with walks to nearby Cocoa Dolce for coffee, happy hours at Lottē and short walks to Naftzger Park for local events. Living downtown has become part of Smith’s personality, but mid-January that chapter will start to close when Smith puts her 4,000-square-foot loft on the market.
“I think this loft, in a lot of ways, has been a cornerstone of my life here in Wichita,” Smith said.
It’s a poignant goodbye for Smith, who is moving to Houston, Texas for her job as a vice president of a renewable energy company. In fact, her work has taken her to major cities across the country and brought people from across the country to Wichita. Both Smith and her colleagues agree there’s no place quite like downtown Wichita.
“There’s a lot of versatility that makes it feel like there’s no city where you could have a space quite as cool as this, and also be able to enjoy it,” Smith said.
“On a nice fall evening it’s easy to start on one side of Old Town and walk or bar hop to the other side.” — Alex Thomas, owner Lucky’s Everyday
The building itself was built in 1923 as a warehouse for the Grant-Billingsley Fruit Company. It’s one of four downtown buildings that the wholesale fruit distributor built and occupied in the early 20th century, as the company and its founders played a key role in developing Wichita’s retail and wholesale scene. The exposed brick, wide-plank wood floors and industrial beams of the apartment are a nod to the authenticity and history of the building.
“I love the idea of blending unique finds from our incredible local shops with standout designer pieces from more well-known national brands,” Smith said. “Bringing them together in one space creates such a distinct look that feels both curated and effortless.”
Smith’s loft is located in the heart of Oldtown above Jajo just off of Rock Island. It’s near one of Smith’s favorite restaurants, Public at the Brickyard, and on the other side a popular gathering space in front of the Museum of World Treasures. The loft has three bedrooms and four bathrooms, a private garage with five spaces, a balcony with a covered kitchen and an unsuspected additional entryway from the alleyway that runs next to her building.
“I will have girlfriends over for coffee in the morning and we’ll have a rooftop conversation here, and I’ve also hosted parties for up to 100 people and it allows for both of those,” Smith said.
City Canines
The loft and location are also incredibly dog friendly, with an astroturf run for nighttime bathroom breaks, local restaurants nearby that welcome dogs, and even that charming dog treat stand at the farmer’s market: Happy Tails Pet Bakery.
“To be able to take the dog with me and go sit on a patio in downtown Wichita is one of my favorite things to do,” Smith said. “It’s absolutely ideal in terms of downtown living.”
The loft itself is full of history with a modern twist, and the location is extremely convenient. Smith says she can leave her loft and get to the other side of TSA at Eisenhower Airport in about 12 minutes. She can walk to restaurants, bars, coffee shops, local events and attractions with ease. In fact, Smith says she only fills up her car with gas once every six weeks since she walks almost everywhere.
“It’s like you’ve got that fun in the air and there’s so much connection with downtown; it’s so cool,” Smith said. “It’s hard for me to stop when I start thinking about all of the places that are special and unique in downtown.”
Next door to Smith’s building on Mead Street is Tobie Andrews Photography, a location that owner Tobie Andrews enjoys both because of the community and the aesthetic.
“You can get so many different textures in one shot and the juxtaposition of a very tailored modern building next to an all-brick building from the 1900s — you can get a lot of different looks in one space,” Andrews said.
The City of Wichita and private investors have poured $1.7 billion into developing downtown Wichita since 2010, with more than 100 projects completed, including the revitalization of Naftzger Park, Riverfront Stadium, the Kansas Leadership Center, and the new Biomedical Campus currently in progress.
The area has grown tremendously for residents of downtown, with a projection of 5,300 residential units in downtown Wichita over the next five to seven years, according to Project Downtown 2035. Over the last decade, beautification efforts, improved parking, additional bike lanes, walkability improvements, increased police patrols and other improvements to downtown safety have made the area an attractive living and working destination.
Thriving Ground for Unique Local Businesses
Adelitas Coffee Co., formerly known as Las Adelitas, opened in 2023 in the Lux building at First and Market streets, appealing to people living in the Lux apartments, those attending an event at the nearby Orpheum, or people who commute downtown for work.
“We do have a lot of regulars — we’ve built what we call an extended family,” said Oscar Pineda, the co-owner of the coffee shop. “There’s a lot of warm relationships between our customers and it makes us feel good, and I think we make them feel good, too. We make sure our customers feel at home.”
The coffee shop draws in customers with a unique offering of Latin-inspired coffee drinks and pastries.
“We want to show our culture through coffee, create different drinks, create memories through coffee with our specialty Latin drinks,” Pineda said. “But we also have the other side, the specialty coffee side, where we want to teach and help our customers learn about coffee — where does it come from, what’s behind the coffee, what are the flavors you see on the coffee bags.”
It’s one of many unique local businesses thriving in downtown Wichita. Left on Read, a bookstore focused on showcasing work from Black artists and authors, authors of color and independent authors, opened its doors in late November. The bookstore is located in Gallery Alley, across Douglas from Naftzger Park. The owner, Dr. Latasha Eley Kelly, says the community support has been unwavering, especially that of neighboring businesses.
“The other business owners in the area have been super supportive — my neighbors in the building have reached out and have been super helpful. That’s just the vibe I get from the downtown area,” Kelly said.
Many downtown Wichita business owners credit downtown residents for helping their businesses grow. Adelitas Coffee Company has regular customers who live in the same building, many of the first customers through the doors at Left on Read were people curiously walking by. The accessibility is another major benefit for downtown living, particularly with the Old Town area being home to much of the city’s popular nightlife.
“On a nice fall evening it’s easy to start on one side of Old Town and walk or bar hop to the other side,” said Alex Thomas, owner of Lucky’s Everyday, a bar located just east of Douglas and Washington. “It’s a tremendous opportunity to go have dinner and see a live band or a baseball game.”
Thomas says that in his ten years as a downtown Wichita business owner, he has seen the allure of downtown grow tremendously.
“I think it’s frequented by people who want more of a city feeling to where they live instead of the suburbs, and downtown lends itself to that,” Thomas said. “Downtown is getting more pedestrian and bicycle friendly, there’s programming downtown, so all of those things are good signs for a strong community downtown. People want to see art, want to hear music, like to shop local, and that’s where they’re going to find it.”
As for Smith, while she looks ahead to her next opportunity, saying goodbye to downtown Wichita will not be easy.
“Leaving here is going to be so bittersweet — this is a place where I’ve really been able to navigate challenges and celebrate life,” Smith said. “There’s just a community here that not only I have built, but a lot of people have put energy into making it special. You can just enjoy downtown.”