Store with an almost 30-year presence at Towne West Square has closed

As most Wichitans are aware, Towne West Square has lost a number of businesses in recent years, but one of the latest feels a little different.

The mainstay Bath & Body Works — a presence at the mall since early 1997 — has closed.

“I don’t really have much information about it,” said Towne West general manager Tammi Moran, who answered the main phone number at the mall.

She said there are about 30 businesses that are open there, but said she’s not sure of the number of vacancies off the top of her head.

“I couldn’t say.”

She and a manager at another Bath & Body Works said they are unaware of any other of the chain’s stores in the Wichita area that plan to close.

There are Bath & Body Works stores at Towne East Square, NewMarket Square, Bradley Fair and in Derby.

No one with the company returned a call to comment. Nor did Towne West owner Mike Kohan.

Larry Brooks, who previously handled leasing for New York-based Kohan Retail Investment Group , said he’s no longer involved with the company.

He is with Florida-based 4th Dimension Properties , which, in partnership with Kohan, purchased Towne West Square in July 2019 for $14.1 million.

In 2022, Brooks and then-Towne West general manager Charley Cooper extolled the changes and progress coming to the mall and said it was starting to grow again.

Cooper also is no longer there, and some of the stores she touted aren’t either.

The mall has a recent history of unpaid taxes, employee checks bouncing and trouble keeping its electricity on due to nonpayment.