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Originally Posted by Shakespeare2016
Well this project is back! It may not be as big as I would like it to be but there is going to be a rooftop restaurant and a huge ferris wheel probably around 400 feet tall.. The spire on the spider will very like exceed 500 feet. https://www.penumbrariverwalk.com/ |
The website is dead. So is the project. From January of last year...
https://www.ksn.com/news/local/is-ti...ntury-ii-deal/
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WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – It’s been more than a year since a private group announced big plans for a $1.5 billion investment in the Century II area.
That deal never happened, and now some Wichita City Council members say it’s time to move forward.
That could mean a new convention space to go next to Century II.
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For what it's worth, I don't think anyone locally ever took either proposal from Penumbra terribly seriously throughout any point in it's life.
Even the developers made the pivot to something else a couple of years back. Whether or not it's more realistic, YMMV, but I think that was slightly more dead in the water - given that their venue of choice for the air and space museum, Century II, just received roof improvements and is in no danger of being changed from a performing-arts venue into anything else.
The new "hotel" also makes no sense. The existing riverfront hotel, the Hyatt Regency, was slated to get a new wing to be added on pre-pandemic, but that's been shelved for fairly understandable reasons.
This blurb from a
February 2022 Wichita Eagle article sums it up.
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Penumbra’s current plan for a Century II district includes an air and space museum, an aquarium, a new convention center, a performing arts center, a Legoland and a 700-room hotel, as well as a rollercoaster and open-air gondola rides over the Arkansas River.
The group’s interest in the east bank of the Arkansas River first surfaced publicly at a February 2020 news conference.
Penumbra didn’t attract much serious attention at the time due to the vagueness of its plans, unanswered questions about the funding, and project drawings that were more perplexing than illuminating.
“The Penumbra plan was never taken seriously from the beginning, both because it seemed amateurish and unappealing to most people, and because it posed a challenge to the Riverfront Legacy Master Plan, which was backed by some of the city’s most powerful players,” said Chase Billingham, a Wichita State University professor of sociology who closely follows development in the city.
The plan arrived during a heated battle between the Riverfront Legacy supporters, who represent many of the city’s major business interest groups, and members of Save Century II, a grassroots group that had started a petition drive seeking to tie City Hall’s hands when it came to tearing down Century II and the former Central Library.
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