Wichita will sell Habitat for Humanity its new home at half the appraised value

Wichita Habitat for Humanity will buy a city-owned building in northeast Wichita for just under half of its assessed value.

Sedgwick County Appraiser Mark Clark says the property at 2220 E. 21st Street is worth $1,392,930. The nonprofit housing organization will buy it for $682,500.

Habitat, which has built more than 100 homes in northeast Wichita, will use the building to expand its program offices and provide a construction warehouse space.

The sale was approved 5-1 by the City Council on Tuesday. Council member Brandon Johnson, who is married to Wichita Habitat for Humanity Executive Director Danielle Johnson, recused himself from the vote.

The agenda report erroneously stated that the sale “will place additional value into the tax base.” Habitat is a nonprofit organization, meaning it is exempt from paying property taxes.

“The sale of the property will not add value into the tax base as stated on the agenda. It does, however, relieve the city of continued maintenance costs,” city real estate analyst Gerri Ford said during the meeting.

The former Fundamental Learning Center was most recently converted into an emergency winter shelter between December and March.

The property’s value increased by 53% from $910,100 in 2023 to $1,392,930 in 2024 after the county appraiser noted that the warehouse assembly space had been converted into a gymnasium. That inspection took place in March 2023, before the building was converted into a shelter.

“It reclassified the property and caused the property to go up in value,” Ford said.

At the recommendation of a selection committee made up of city staff and a neighborhood representative, the council picked Habitat over three other contenders, including one that offered to purchase the property for $900,000 as a second option to leasing it for $56,850 a year.

That applicant was McAdams Academy, a nonprofit behavioral program that works with foster children and provides schooling for students who have been expelled from public schools. McAdams was only interested in buying the building if they could also have right of first refusal on four acres of public land along the west side of Opportunity Drive.

The other two nonprofit organizations that submitted bids were not named during the meeting or in supporting documents.

“Is it common practice to not take the highest bid for a property?” asked council member J.V. Johnston, who cast the sole vote against selling to Habitat.

“We’re always looking for the best opportunity and the most amount of money that we can bring in for the taxpayers, yes,” Ford said. “But we’re looking at other things though. We’re looking at the compatibility and the ability to perform, in addition to a purchase price.”

The Opportunity Drive corridor includes a TOP Early Learning Center, a Boys & Girls Clubs of South Central Kansas location and a United Methodist Open Door food pantry. All three organizations offered letters of support for Habitat’s bid, as did Wichita State University, HealthCore Clinic, the Kansas Food Bank and United Way of the Plains.

“This move is supported overwhelmingly by your community — people who care about what happens in Wichita, who care about affordable housing and are aware of the work that we’re doing and want to support us in that work,” Habitat Program Director Laurie Walker told the council.

The nonprofit has earmarked $300,000 to improve and modify the nearly 20,000-square-foot building. It sits on 115,852 square feet of land and was completed in 1996 through a development agreement between the city and Cessna. Cessna’s lease was canceled in 2015, and the Fundamental Learning Center occupied the building through September 2023.

Under the purchasing agreement approved Tuesday, the city will pay “all closing costs and charges, any escrow fees, costs to record the Deed, and costs for the Title Commitment.” That agreement appears to be missing at least one page. The city did not immediately furnish a full copy of the agreement in response to an Eagle inquiry.

‘Win-win’

The purchase agreement was initially listed on the consent agenda, meaning it could have been approved Tuesday without any council debate.

City Manager Robert Layton pulled it off that agenda for discussion to recommend that all proceeds from the sale go to support the city’s planned multi-agency center (MAC) project, which would include a homeless shelter, transitional housing and a resource navigation center for people experiencing housing insecurity.

“I’m so glad that we’re able to have somebody step into this space who’s actually doing great work in the community and also across Wichita, so I applaud [Habitat] for all the work that you’re doing, and we’re also able to put some more funding into the MAC,” council member Mike Hoheisel said.

He said the proposal is “a win-win for everybody” and sharply criticized several online commenters who have questioned the agreement.

“It’s unfortunate when you have some haters on the sideline who just like to kind of poke holes in every single good thing that people try to do,” Hoheisel said. No members of the public spoke against the purchase agreement Tuesday.

“I think my main concern is to make sure that we aren’t selling assets and never getting it back on the tax [roll] to provide revenue,” Vice Mayor Maggie Ballard said. “That’s my only main concern but I will be supportive of this. I think it’s awesome. It’s just something that we need to think about.”

Johnston, who said he volunteers with Habitat at least every other year, indicated that he would have rather supported the McAdams Academy proposal.

“I love [Habitat for Humanity]. I just have a problem with leaving $217,000 on the table,” Johnston said. “You don’t say you’re going to pay $900,000 for it and not be able to do it, so I have a problem with that.”

Chuck Knowles is the executive director of McAdams Academy, which has been operating its programs out of a gym on McCormick since pipes froze and flooded the space they were leasing at the Urban Preparatory Academy. He said the academy has had a waiting list of 20 to 30 students since the beginning of the pandemic and needs space to expand. That’s why he wanted right of first refusal to additional land on Opportunity Drive.

“With the property to build on, we would have worked on raising funds to build a K-12 school and counseling center working with parents and families, and we would have then remodeled the existing building as a center for job learning and training,” Knowles said.

Ford told council members there are no immediate plans for those four acres but indicated that giving McAdams the first right of refusal could tie the city’s hands.