2012-05-13 -
City block is a ‘laboratory' for downtown Wichita development - Eagle

2012-11-09 -
Real Development - Downtown developers could face criminal charges - Eagle

2012-12-17 -
Deal gives new life to Exchange Place project in downtown Wichita - Eagle

2013-01-02 -
No new action in securities investigation of downtown developers - Eagle

2013-06-23 -
Downtown Wichita - What happened? - WichitaLiberty.org (Libertarian blog)

2013-12-24 -
Former downtown Wichita developers accused of securities law violations - Eagle

2014-04-01 -
Partners take ownership of most of Real Development's Sutton Place - WBJ

2014-08-08 -
House of Cards - What went wrong with Real Development? - WBJ

2015-02-23 -
Downtown Wichita developers charged with 61 felony counts of securities fraud - WBJ

2015-06-12 -
Exchange Place project welcome news for downtown Wichita - WBJ

2015-06-22 -
Real Development's TIC deal for sale after auction fails - WBJ

The WaterWalk Saga:

In the early 2000's, the City and its developers became infatuated with the fantasy of creating a riverside park attraction on the East Bank of the Arkansas River, between Kellogg and the Century II / Hyatt Hotel complex.

Initially inspired, in part, by the downtown development of San Antonio, Texas, the WaterWalk plan envisioned a similar downtown playground-park, with a canal snaking through the neighborhood, carrying boat passengers through a wonderland of gardens, fountains, waterfalls, and amusements.

WaterWalk was to be a tourist attraction, which would fuel occupancy at new and existing hotels and restaurants, and the Century II Convention Center, bringing outside money to Wichita.

The principal developer would be Jack deBoer -- a legendary local property developer who, at his peak, was the nation's 2nd largest apartment developer, and then "invented" the upscale long-stay motel -- Residence Inn (later Marriott Suites), Candlewood Suites, and Southampton Inns.

It was hoped that an outdoors-outfitters shop chain -- Bass Pro Shops -- would add a large store on the site. Though they did not, eventually another outfitter, Gander Mountain, did build a massive store immediately north of the Kellogg overpass, on the riverbank, next to the new Boathouse (which was hoped to be integral to the water-based entertainments along the riverbank)

The "vision" of a grand waterfront playground and commercial complex continued to be touted.

It never happened.

A string of budget-and-financing busts, scaled-back plans, and commercial failures, crippled and crumbled the grand scheme -- into a tawdry, costly fiasco.

Today, nearly two decades after the planning began, there is no canal, let alone the paradise park that was to surround it. A planned amphitheater is just a flat, empty dirt-and-scrubbrush vacant lot.

The only entertainment that emerged was a "dancing" fountain, that bounced sprays of colorfully illiuminated water to music -- for a couple of hours, a few evenings a week, during warm weather -- if the fountains are working (which they often are not). The audience must sit on the ground.

The new Boathouse -- once envisioned as a substitute for the once-beloved, long-mourned, original recreational boathouse in Riverside Park (demolished in 1968 to make room for an office building parking lot) -- was bounced around from party to party, eventually becoming just an occassional party house for the rich and powerful. It never succeeded in being a truly public recreational site anything like its long-lost namesake.

After several years of modest activity, the Gander Mountain store closed, along with the entire national chain, when they all went bust. It's been vacant, now, for years.

The city built a long, three-story parking garage beside the Kellogg overpass, to accommodate the expected throngs. It's usually empty.

deBoer built a large hotel near the fountains, which became one of the chain of Fairfield Inns. It usually appears mostly empty (to this observer).

deBoer's first long-stay motel, the original "Residence Inn" is just on the other side of the Kellogg overpass, and was envisioned as an element of the WaterWalk ecosystem. It was changed to a regular motel, and foundered during the COVID epidemic, and was then remarketed as costly apartments.

Other developments were stalled for lack of money. And, in March, 2021, the lead developer --
90-year-old Jack deBoer, on whom so much revolved -- died.

Still, the city's downtown-development boosters -- City government (which has sunk a fortune into the projects), the Chamber of Commerce (whose members continue to fantasize about attracting out-of-town money), and developers (who make money building, whether the buildings make money or not), and their allies, dependents and surrogates, along with perpetual optimists -- continue to "envision" a "great" future for this corner of downtown.

But the current vision for "WaterWalk" is certainly nothing so grand as what was originally planned. Now, it seems largely to have drifted, in focus, to efforts to get the City Council to surrender the Century II complex to the wrecking ball, so local developers (the chief financiers of City Council campaigns) can make a fortune, at taxpayer expense, building its replacements, partly around the WaterWalk grounds.

For a partial history of WaterWalk, here, below, are some key WaterWalk news reports (also repeated in the overall downtown news listings at left):