Wichita police have responded 54 times since January to a downtown Broadway property where a therapy practice sits next to a vacant, deteriorating nine-story building.

Thirty of those responses were 911 calls, according to the Wichita Police Department (WPD). Dr. Allyson Bell, owner of New Hope Therapy Services, said she has called police two to three times a week since moving to the location in January. The practice serves primarily children.

Bell's business sits directly beside The Commodore, a 1929 hotel-turned-apartment building that has been empty since 2020. The nine-story structure holds 94 apartments and was designed by Nelle Elizabeth Nichols Peters, who designed thousands of buildings across Kansas, Oklahoma and Kansas City.

"I refused to be run out of my own neighborhood by careless California business owners," Bell told KWCH.

Bell described incidents including a person brandishing a Bowie knife, being trapped in her car and threatened, and a woman urinating on the property and exposing herself to employees. Her parking lot, she said, is used as a walkthrough and a dumping ground.

She said she has tried for months to reach the building's owners by email through their website. She has received no response.

Irvine, California-based Pacific Sands Funds acquired The Commodore in 2021 for $2.25 million, according to the Wichita Business Journal. The building was listed for auction in November 2025, according to KSN, and the current ownership status could not be confirmed from public records.

When KWCH called the number listed for The Commodore, a person said the building was closed and declined to comment further.

The city has now stepped in. Chris Labrum, director of the Metropolitan Area Building and Construction Department (MABCD), said the city performed an emergency board-up and ordered Evergy to disconnect the building's power. Labrum said electricity in the building made it attractive to people sheltering inside.

At a city council workshop Tuesday, Sept. 22, council member Maggie Ballard referenced hundreds of thousands of dollars the building generates from cell phone towers on its roof. The maximum fine MABCD can levy against the property owners is $3,500, MABCD said,.

Greg Hecox, director of operations for Air Capital Rentals at the nearby Murdock Theatre, said he has watched the area decline. KWCH reported Hecox said a vacant building invites more trouble.

In February 2025, pieces of The Commodore's facade fell onto the sidewalk and street, prompting a firefighter response and a temporary street closure, KSN reported.

No future city council vote, court date, or compliance deadline for the property owners has been announced.