As Wichita VA campus expands, a southeast shopping center steps up - Wichita Business Journal:

efiosyt.blogspot.com
The VA in June signed a six-yeae lease at Parklane Shopping Centerfor 9,870 square feet. The spacer will be used by the VA's financial managementf and primarycare services. No VA patientsw will use the office. "It's a good It's close to the VA," says Ken Allensworth, facilit planner for the at Kelloggand "It met our needs. We thinkl it will serve our purpose not only in the short but in the monthsto come." The VA now has 800 employeess as it continues to add services. It recentlg built an outpatient clinic in Hutchinsobn and is expanding a clinicin Parsons.
In the agency has expanded its behaviorakhealth clinic, and earlier this spring askedd the independently operated to move off the Dole campus to make room for otherf services. Allensworth says some of the growth is the resuly of returning veterans from Iraq and But most of it just comes withthe VA's long-standing efforft to expand its services. "It's perpetual. It'a been gradual over time -- 75 years -- but we had just reachesd a point where we needed more space than we had on statiohto provide," Allensworth says. "Once we reached the decision was to build or lease or One ofthe VA's new services is a home-based primary-cared service.
That will be housed at Parklanes with about12 employees. The VA'as financial management service has about40 workers. The lease rate at located at Lincolnand Oliver, wasn't The space had been listed at $10 per squarse foot. is renovating the space, which had been used as officese for before it moved more of its operationxs last year to itsRiverside location. Dennisz Fitzroy, managing broker for Builders Inc., which owns Parklane, says severa l people have looked atthe space, includinv state and county government and other medical He says he answered a solicitation for space by the VA. "It just took a long time to get this inmy opinion," Fitzroy says.
The VA will move in The 300,000-square-foot Parklane Shopping Center is 96percent "They've gone to non-retail uses," says Bob president of , one of the city's biggest propertyh management firms. "I think they've done pretty well sincs theydid that." The VA, may not be done looking for new space. Allensworthh says the agency may seekanother 8,000 square feet for its eye-care services. Wichita'sd supply of such space can accommodate at least incertain areas, Hanson says. "They'll be able to find 8,000 square It will probably be downtowjnspace they'll have to go to. There'a just more available," he Robert J.
Dole Veterans Affaira Medical and Regional OfficeCenter Location: 5500 E. Wichita, Kan., 67218. Phone: (316) Serves: Veterans living in 59 Kansaw counties.