A business collective is coming to Derby along with several new restaurants

In addition to having a soft opening this week for his new Wichita co-working space called the Colony, Brant Dumford has a lot of other news to share, this time in his adopted hometown of Derby.

“I’ve been here about 10 years now,” said the former Wichitan, who perhaps is best known for his family’s Delano Bakery.

Dumford said he’s noticed that developers “kind of ignore the south end of town.”

“So I’ve been investing in the K-15 corridor for about seven or eight years now.”

He said the part of the corridor he’s interested in is from about Greenway to Kay Street.

In one part of that stretch, he has a new Mediterranean restaurant that is within a couple of months of opening. In another area, he’s planning a business cooperative for several new restaurants, and he’s open to other businesses as well.

“It’s going to be kind of like a Clifton Square-type concept,” Dumford said.

That’s the longtime College Hill development in Wichita that is a collection of older houses with a variety of businesses in them.

The Derby development, which Dumford tentatively is calling Downtown Derby Square, will be just north of 104 N. Baltimore where he has a bakery cooperative and coffee house called the Coop.

Dumford has four buildings under contract there, including the former Little Firehouse Cafe, a one-time Derby Informer building, a space where a sign company once was and a storage building he plans to tear down to make room for a new building.

“Essentially, we’re going to create an indoor-outdoor space where people can congregate and go from store to store,” he said.

So far, that includes several restaurants.

“We’re going to introduce Derby’s first pho restaurant,” Dumford said.

Another concept will be similar to Smashburger, a national chain that once was in Derby and Wichita. Unlike Smashburger, this restaurant also will serve brunch.

There also will be a creamery, which is what ice cream parlors are known as these days.

“They’re all going to be under my umbrella,” Dumford said.

The businesses, which others will run, should open in the next six to eight months, he said.

There’s about a half block where Dumford said he could expand with other businesses, including retail.

As he said with the Colony, “I have partners . . . that handle most of the heavy lifting.”

He said he likes to think of new ideas and partner with others on the execution.

“I have a great team. I basically create opportunity for people who are looking for entrepreneurship.”

One of those ideas he has is a high-end restaurant called Layali, which he said means nights in Arabic, that Dumford is opening at 236 W. Greenway.

Dumford said he is of a mixed-race heritage, but his business partner, Roni Attari, is from Lebanon. Attari’s family owns La Galette French Bakery and TJ’s Burger House in Wichita.

“I’ve loved the idea of owning a high-end restaurant my entire life,” Dumford said.

They are remodeling the Greenway space, where there have been a number of restaurants previously.

“We’ve had some hiccups, but other than that we’re moving forward,” Dumford said.

He said the fusion restaurant will pair American culture with Lebanese and Middle Eastern culture. The restaurant will have a full bar with indoor and outdoor service.

Dumford said he’d hoped it would open in late April, but late May now is looking more likely.

Just north of the restaurant, Dumford also has the 100,000-square-foot Derby Towne Centre under contract and is remodeling it to attract new tenants — along with the financing to then also purchase the center.

He said seeking new tenants first to then attract the financing is doing things in a bit of a reverse order, but Dumford called it “a very strategic play.”

“That pretty much wraps it up,” he said of his Derby plans.

For now, anyway?

“For right now, yes.”