Augusta Architects - Shelden Architecture

Oldfather, 33, grew up in Wichita and graduated from Kansas State University with an architecture degree. He spent 10 years working for a firm in Aspen, Colo., that specialized in high-end residential design.

"If we can find that kind of market in Wichita, we’d love it," said Oldfather, who also has experience in commercial design.

Oldfather said he and his wife, Susan, wanted to return to Wichita so that they could raise their 3-year-old daughter around her grandparents.

Shelden Architecture, founded in 2002 and located in Old Town, is known for work on numerous developments, including The Alley and Plazzio, the Barnes & Noble in Bradley Fair and the Hartman Oil Building.

Oldfather figures he’ll fit right in.

"I guess I’ve always just had a love for design and creative stuff like that," he said.

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Chad Paul Glenn
Project manager, Shelden Architecture

Age: 35.

Place of birth: Newton.

Where do you live? College Hill.

Spouse: Crystal Glenn

Children: Addison, 3; Hudson, 3 months.

Hobbies: Music, concerts, cycling, photography, home projects, traveling, swimming and playing at the park with my daughter and lounging around with my beautiful wife.

Last book read: “Love and Logic Early Childhood,” Jim and Charles Fay. “Good to Great,” Jim Collins.

Favorite book: “Mere Christianity,” C.S. Lewis.

Last movie seen: “Finding Nemo,” (over and over.)

Favorite movies: “Memento,” “The Hangover,” “Shawshank Redemption,” “Field of Dreams,” ”Reservoir Dogs.”

Last concert seen: Austin City Limits Music Festival.

Favorite musician: Radiohead, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Crystal Castles, The National, Broken Bells, Cold War Kids, Passion Pit, Monsters of Folk, LCD Soundsystem, and Emiliana Torrini.

Favorite website: Facebook for keeping up with friends and family, Yahoo fantasy sports for my fantasy baseball teams, and Designmeltdown for random great design ideas.

Favorite business lunch spot: Sabor.

Person I would most like to go to lunch with: You. I enjoy hearing people’s stories and life’s passions. Its amazing how much you can learn about your own life and the world by meeting new people.

Mentor: My Grandpa, Paul Glenn. Although I was very young when he passed, lessons he taught me remain ingrained in my everyday life. Sometimes the best gift you receive isn’t necessarily what you wanted; for example, the baseball glove instead of the fancy toy car. Often when I hear people complain about others I quote him: “If you think you can do it better, do it yourself.”

Best business advice for others: Follow your dream, work constantly and diligently trying to achieve it, be patient and never afraid to switch gears as your passion and life changes.

Favorite quote: “If you keep on doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep on getting what you have always got.” — W.L. Bateman

Fantasy job: Professional baseball player.

What is your dream vacation? Use of a private tropical island with staff to wait on my wife and me hand and foot. No phones, no computers, no TVs.

Construction could start any time, although it’s not clear when that will be. Donham’s architect, Stan Shelden, wouldn’t say when work would begin — other than it could.

“There really isn’t any other roadblock that I’m aware of moving forward,” he says.

The approval from the historic board was significant for a couple of reasons.

Foremost, it gives clearance to a project that would fill in a much-criticized hole in the downtown streetscape. But it’s also important because Donham’s first project for that spot ran into such resistance from the historic board.

Four years ago, Donham proposed an upscale hotel for the site. But the board — which is responsible for approving project designs near historic buildings — said the structure would be too modern and incompatible for that block.

After some discussion, the Wichita City Council overruled the board, but Donham shelved the project. This time, the board complimented Donham’s plans. He’s seeking to convert the Caldwell-Murdock building into 11 apartment units and build a one-story structure next to it that would serve as an apartment clubhouse and contain some commercial space. Donham also would build a parking structure, part of it underground, that could hold 62 vehicles.

Design-wise, the project will attempt to restore the Caldwell-Murdock building’s original color — if the paint can be removed from the building’s bricks — and the new one-story structure will have much the same exterior as the Woolf Brothers building to the east.

“I consider this to be a rather elegant design solution between two rather difficult buildings,” said Jim Guy, chairman of the historic board.

Financing in place

Now the wait is for the work to start.

It’s not known what the project will cost, but Shelden says Donham has financing in place to complete the project.

“Everybody wants to see something happen. Come on, who doesn’t? — Kelly most of all,” Shelden says. “We’re glad this project, scaled way back, makes sense from a public perception.”

Tom Johnson, president of Grubb & Ellis | Martens Commercial Group, says the new housing will be welcome in downtown. Several other apartment projects have been announced recently.

And the new parking will be critical.

“Particularly, that project, which has had its ups and downs the last few years, it’s nice to see it come to fruition,” Johnson says.

On a side note, it’s still unclear what will become of the Woolf Brothers building, which Donham bought several years ago.

Ben Walter, of Shelden Architecture, says the new parking will make the Woolf Brothers building more marketable for either apartments or offices. Right now, Walter says, “There’s just no parking down there for it.”

Donham project

Where: 111 E. Douglas, Wichita, Kan., 67202.
Apartments: Eleven units in Caldwell-Murdock building.
Commercial: One-story commercial and clubhouse building between Caldwell-Murdock and Woolf Brothers buildings.
Parking: 62 spaces, about half of them underground.
Architects: Stan Shelden and Ben Walter, Shelden Architecture Inc.

The finalists in Tier 2, for companies with 26 to 100 employees: J.R. Custom Metal Products, Midwest Single Source, ARSI, the Hotel at Old Town and Eric Fisher Salon.

Each of the finalists will be recognized during the Small Business Awards Sunrise Scrambler on April 21 at the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame in the Wichita Boathouse, 515 S. Wichita.

The winners will be announced May 11 during a luncheon at the Hyatt Regency Wichita, 400 W. Waterman. George Laham, president of Laham Development, will be the guest speaker.

The clinic, which also has locations in Hutchinson and Leawood, is building a 9,300-square-foot structure at 1921 N. Webb. ARCK will leave its existing facility at 2450 N. Woodlawn. That building is about 6,000 square feet.

It doesn’t take more than one look to see it’s crowded. Bob Kozicki, ARCK’s practice manager, has file boxes piled in his office.

“We’re continuing to grow. We’ve just outgrown this building,” he says.
The clinic was started in 2001 by two physicians and will have eight by the end of the year. The clinic’s patient count has increased 284 percent since 2003. The practice employs 22.

It’s a reflection, Kozicki says, of the continued growth in demand for rheumatology services nationwide. Patients during a down economy may hold off visiting doctors for some ailments, but not for arthritis treatments. It can be too painful to wait, he says.

The trickle-down effect is keeping real estate developments like Wilson Estates Medical Park creeping closer to full occupancy.

The upscale medical development launched in 2003 with 13 lots. Eleven of them are filled.

Laham says he is close to a commitment for a 12th user that’s been said to be a large one, possibly with a construction budget of $15 million. Laham wouldn’t offer specifics.
“We are very close to making an announcement,” he says. “It is a major facility.”

The remaining lots can accommodate buildings of 8,000 square feet and 30,000 square feet.

The largest user at the medical park is Green Vision Group, which operates out of a roughly 30,000-square-foot building. Laham says lot prices are negotiable.

Big absorption

Laham says the eastside medical market has seen a “huge amount of absorption” during the last five years as space at the Cypress Medical Park and at the Kansas Medical Center in Andover have filled up.

“To see activity like we’re seeing today with ARCK and the other group potentially coming, I would say medical has fared quite well,” Laham says.

Laham says the medical park is the final phase of the 320-acre Wilson Estates development, which includes Bradley Fair, 200 homes by Ritchie Development and 450,000 square feet of office space.

The ARCK deal was brokered by J.P. Weigand & Sons Inc.’s Christi Royse and Doug Malone.

Dr. Shadi Shahouri says the clinic has been looking for new space for two years but settled on Wilson Estates because it was “established and well-organized.”
“Mainly, it’s the location, and everyone knows where Wilson Medical is,” he says.

Medical has been a relative mainstay in a “quiet” construction environment, says Steve Martens, broker of Grubb & Ellis | Martens Commercial Group. He says he’s had interest from two potential medical users at the Summit Crossing development that he is marketing at 127th Street East and 21st Street North.

He says low interest rates and construction costs continue to be a draw.

As for Wilson Estates Medical Park, “George has been able to maintain a level of quality from start to finish. ... A project like that, to be able to finish it out within a 10-year time frame, looking at the challenges we have the past 36 months, that’s phenomenal.”

Bob Kozicki, practice manager for ARCK, says the new clinic will allow the group to expand out of its existing facility at 2450 N. Woodlawn. That building is about 6,000 square feet.

“The growth of the field, due to our aging population and an increase in pediatric rheumatology, requires advanced services for our patients,” says Bob Kozicki, practice manager for ARCK.

“This expansion will not only allow us to add physicians, it will provide the space needed for additional services.”

ARCK started in 2001 by Drs. James D. Anderson and Timothy S. Shaver. It currently has seven doctors operating out of three clinics in Kansas. The practice employs a total of 22 people.

Kozicki says ARCK hopes to be into its new facility by May 2011.

Commerce Construction Services Inc. is the general contractor. Shelden Architecture Inc. designed the building.

Other physicians at ARCK are Drs. David Weidensaul, Shadi Shahouri, Shirley Wang, Vivian Illera and Aruna Baratham. Dr. Nancy Olson will join the group in November.

“There is a lot of excitement throughout our church and the Westlink neighborhood as the remodel is starting. What has been a dilapidated building is soon to become a first-class facility” said Bryson Butts, the church’s lead pastor, in a news release.

The remodeling project is expected to last five months. Rose Hill Bank is financing the work at 9035 W. Central. The former theater is in the Westlink Shopping Center.

GracePoint says it sees average attendance of more than 700 at its two Sunday morning services.

The church says it will break ground on the work on Wednesday.

Healing Waters moved from Douglas and Oliver to space on the north side of the Bradley Fair plaza.

The spa has close to 8,000 square feet there, Gorecki said — more than 2,000 square feet more than it had at the other location. The extra room provides more retail space and large locker rooms for men and women, she said.

Remodeling included adding large windows on the back of the space, overlooking the lake, and creating a private entrance for medical clients.

Key Construction did the work; the project architect was Shelden Architecture.

Gorecki said the new spa combines "the elements of the earth with a little bit of bling bling," using wood, botanicals and crystal.

Christi Royse of J.P. Weigand & Sons handled the transaction.

NEWS

FEATURED BUSINESS PERSON: JASON OLDFATHER.

SHELDEN ARCHITECTURE’S WITTMAN SELECTED FOR INAUGURAL KANSAS AIA BLOX CLASS.

ONE OF SHELDEN ARCHITECTURES' OWN IS NAMED 2011 40 UNDER 40 HONOREE.

DONHAM’S APARTMENT PROJECT GETS OK FROM HISTORIC PRESERVATION BOARD.

CHAMBER NAMES 10 SMALL-BUSINESS FINALISTS.

ARCK CLINIC RELOCATION GIVES BOOST TO LAHAM’S WILSON ESTATES MEDICAL PARK.

ARTHRITIS CLINIC BUILDING NEW OFFICE AT WILSON ESTATES.

GRACEPOINT CHURCH TO BEGIN WORK AT CINEMAS WEST.

8,000 SF SPA OPENING IN BRADLEY FAIR.