Downtown Topeka’s revival is not a secret — looking at a picture of its strip shows businesses, restaurants and residences where none existed previously. But Morse, a real estate broker at Kansas Commercial, said one of the key building blocks in bringing back the area is less well known: the state of Kansas. Before Docking State Office Building was vacated, workers would carry lunch pails to and from their cars, not wanting to spend time walking over to S. Kansas Avenue. As the state gravitated toward private leases throughout downtown, that opened up more possibilities for state employees to eat, shop and even live in the area. ‘They’ve sustained a lot of businesses and they sustain our growth downtown on Kansas Avenue and changing who we are,’ Morse said.
Source: Salina Journal
