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Ritchie's Waterfront housing to take on Slawson, Devlin developments

November 23, 2007

Wichita Business Journal
by Chris Moon

Ritchie Development's long-awaited housing subdivision at the Waterfront officially will get under way next month with plans to compete in Wichita's super-upper-end market.

The Residences at The Waterfront will feature a mix of million-dollar homes and upscale patio homes on the east side of the high-profile office and retail development at 13th Street North and Webb Road. That price range puts it in elite company in Wichita.

Jack Ritchie and Kevin Mullen say they count only Don Slawson's Oak Creek and Tom Devlin's Flint Hills National Golf Course as competitors. But the Ritchie Development partners say their project should stand alone with its connection to The Waterfront.

"The great thing about this development is location and the proximity to services people use all the time," Ritchie says.

Residents will be able to walk to work at The Waterfront's numerous offices via 8-foot connecting sidewalks.

Developers will begin reserving lots Dec. 1 at the gated community. The first basements will be dug in early spring 2008.

Slawson shrugged off the new competition. His Oak Creek project borders The Residences on the north.

"We're ahead of them, which is good. We're not concerned about them," he says. "We feel like we've got the best piece of land out there."

The Residences at The Waterfront is tucked behind a commercial project by Devlin and George Laham along 13th Street, where construction has begun for a new headquarters for Wichita oilman Wink Hartman.

To the west are the upscale office buildings that make up the Waterfront. The attorneys, accountants and bankers that work in the development will be the target customers for Ritchie.

The 60-acre Residences will feature 73 lots. Of those, 45 are designated for "estate homes" priced at $700,000 or more.

The remaining lots are reserved for half-million dollar patio homes. Lot prices are included in those costs, Ritchie says.

The housing development will feature the same design elements as the Waterfront.

"That was part of what went into making the deal happen," says Waterfront's Johnny Stevens, who was among the partners who sold the ground for the Residences to Ritchie.

Both sides wanted to make the most of the momentum Waterfront had gained, Stevens says. And that meant tying the two of them together through design elements and naming.

Unlike the commercial project, The Residences won't surround a lake. Instead, the development will surround a gazebo and patio area with an outdoor fireplace. It will overlook a 6,000-square-foot putting green.

"It's kind of like a social hub for the neighborhood," Ritchie says.

The Competition

Mullen says the development has garnered interest from people living in other Ritchie housing developments, such as Lakepoint.

Those residents are looking to move up but don't want to move farther from the city center. Mullen says that to them, even 21st Street, a hot spot for upper-end housing that largely is controlled by Ritchie Development, is too far away.

"This is a way they can build something new and not really move," Mullen says.

He called The Residences an "infill" development of sorts.

Its competitors in the million-dollar home market are farther out, with Slawson's Oak Creek the closest at 21st Street North and Greenwich.

A home recently sold in that subdivision for $2.5 million. Several others either are built or under construction.

"It's been reasonably good. There's obviously a limit to it," Slawson says of the elite homes market in Wichita. "But we don't know where that limit is."

Oak Creek has pushed for office development in the subdivision. But Slawson says that still is a year away and didn't believe The Residences at The Waterfront had any built-in advantage with offices already nearby.

Slawson says he doesn't think it will help sell houses.

Other competition for the million-dollar buyer includes two 21st Street developments -- Tim Buchanan's Hawthorne and Ritchie's own The Reserve at Reed's Cove -- along with Flint Hill's National Golf Course south of Andover. But Ritchie and Mullen say the Hawthorne nearly is built out.

And Flint Hills is miles outside of Wichita.

"All three of them are a different buyer. And we think this is completely different because of its location," Ritchie says.

Tom Mack, executive vice president of Devlin Enterprises, says it's fair to consider The Residences at The Waterfront as competition with Flint Hills.

"Any time you're in that price range, you have competition," he says. "We think we have some amenities to set us apart, but it will be competition."

The Residences at The Waterfront

Location: 13th Street North and Webb Road, one-half mile east.
Developer: Ritchie Development.
Builders: Approved open builder.
Lots: 45 estate lots, 28 patio homes.
Price range: $700,000 and up for estate homes, $500,000 and up for patio homes.

cmoon@bizjournals.com | 266-6176

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