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Chase Koch’s nonprofit Movement Musick is remaking a full block of downtown Wichita around music, housing and community space. The plans have expanded to include a grocery store and a historic landmark purchase.
Here are key takeaways:
- Movement Musick plans to add a 30,000-square-foot urban market grocery store within a two-block radius of the Shirkmere Apartment building at Second and Topeka, partnering with the Queen family of Kansas City, founders of the Price Chopper chain.
- The nonprofit is transforming a downtown block in three ways: renovating the Shirkmere Apartments, building a 3,000-person concert hall and creating an open community gathering space, according to development lead Raffaele Fazio.
- The dilapidated Shirkmere Apartments will be renovated into about 100 units with roughly 40 affordable apartments mixed in with market-rate units, opening in the second half of 2027 with a possible ground-floor cafe.
- A new 3,000-capacity concert hall and event venue will stretch from Topeka to Emporia along First Street, designed as a flexible mid-tier space that can host as few as 500 people, with construction likely starting next year and opening in 2029.
- Movement Musick purchased the historic Scottish Rite Center for $3 million at a sheriff’s sale, adding the 75,903-square-foot building - originally built as a YMCA in 1887-1888 - to its downtown footprint at First and Topeka.
- Leaders acknowledge the grocery store is unlikely to be profitable initially because the downtown population is too small, but they view it as a catalyst to attract more residents and businesses to the area.
The summary points above were compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists. The source reporting referenced above was written and edited entirely by Eagle journalists.
