NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Hutchinson/Reno County Chamber of Commerce CEO Debra Teufel told Hutch Post that she's beginning to see the corner turn with the potential for more large retail activity in the area.
"Recently, we were contacted by a national retailer that currently has only two locations in Kansas and they're corporate-owned stores, but they're looking for a franchisee for a project in Hutchinson to be their next retail location," Teufel said. "They're in states kind of in the Midwest, mostly to the north and east of us. When we got that call, I thought, okay, this is a good positive economic indicator that we're on the radar of a national retailer again and they see the demand here and they see this as a promising market. I am seeing the light when it comes to that project."
Teufel has not found that franchisee yet.
Franchise agreements can be expensive and there's gonna be some investment, but their desire was to look for a facility that's 25 to 35,000 square feet. So that's a sizable retail footprint. A few years ago, we had a plethora of that on the market and right now we don't have a lot of retail vacant space, but we did backfill the Kmart building with Atwoods. The former Target building is full right now with Bold 3PL. They also own what was the OfficeMax property."
This doesn't leave a lot of that large retail space product on the shelf.
"Then you look to, there is a little bit of vacant space in the mall. It's not entirely vacant, but we certainly will be working with the mall owners on their interest in it. A 25,000 square foot footprint in downtown, it would be hard pressed to find. We want to also look at downtown options, but for this case, it's probably gonna be on one of the more commercial corridors and maybe this can turn into a new construction deal, too."
Until a franchisee is found, Teufel obviously can't disclose what the interested brand might be.
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