By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Last week, the Hutchinson Chamber got a chance to show off the usage of its downtown above business spaces.
"I feel like Hutchinson is way down the road in their experience in developing upstairs," said CEO Debra Teufel. "We have many, many people, over a dozen, who have converted their upstairs to loft living, to new business spaces."
On Monday, August 16, those who attended were part of a loft crawl through Hutchinson.
"We rotated around to five different locations," Teufel said. "Brian Davis and Anne Lauer have the upstairs above Serenity Healthcare. They have actually converted a few buildings here in Hutchinson. They started with the Emerson Carey building and then later they did the Catalyst Lofts. Barry and Gale Wall have the Catalyst Lofts now. We got to visit one of their units. Susan and Kevin Rule have the upstairs, what was first done by Alice Jane Hayes. We got to tour that space. Gwen and Wes Bartlett with the European Apartments are right next to Bookends. We toured that space."
The group also got to tour AgTrax to see an upstairs business renovation and The Furniture & Mattress Clearance Center hosted the reception at the end of the tour.
"It's all about creating that density and creating foot traffic, certainly, because the more people that you have living downtown, the more prosperous, typically, your businesses are going to be in that area," Teufel said. "It's also really smart growth, because it's putting more people in less square footage, so cities have less infrastructure to deliver."
Teufel said they're getting more calls at the chamber about parking issues downtown, but as Teufel puts it, you'd rather have that problem than empty parking because no one is downtown.