A familiar face is making its mark on downtown Wichita this summer. Cocoa Dolce will relocate its headquarters and production facility to the former Coleman Factory Outlet and Museum downtown on Saint Francis.

Opening this summer, the 21,000-square foot facility will include a Cocoa Dolce store, lounge and a glass wall that will allow customers to get a sneak peek behind the scenes into the production facility and see how the sweet treats are made.

The shop will be the third to open in Wichita, with locations in Bradley Fair and NewMarket Square. By opening a location downtown, Cocoa Dolce will be open to a brand new market of consumers in the center of our community, one company official said.

“I know when we opened on the west side, we made the west-siders happy,” Cocoa Dolce director of operations Amber Travis said. “But there is still a market downtown that we’re hoping to tap into.”

Not only will the new facility expand its brand to a new market, but it will also help in the renewal of downtown.

“We’ve had so much new growth lately, and it’s really nice seeing strong local businesses invest so much money into our core,” said Krista Racine, an agent at J.P. Weigand & Sons. Racine helped in the deal for the selling of the building.

“There’s plenty of parking and it’s close to Douglas, so we should be able to get the walkability of coming from Douglas to the Cocoa Dolce site,” Racine said.

Downtown is already filled with numerous coffee shops and cafes, but the new Cocoa Dolce facility has hopes of standing out in the industry.

“I know there’s a lot of espresso stores down there, but we offer a nice chocolate lounge and that interactive feel,” Travis said. “I think where we’re at right now as a company and where downtown is at right now, I think we’re just kind of on the start of some good things happening down there.”

Cocoa Dolce has grown quickly since being established. With only being founded in 2005, they have already outgrown their current facilities and were looking for an upgrade.

“In order to grow for the company, we needed to look at a different location.” Travis said. “The Coleman building just happened to be the perfect setting and the right amount of space.”

Cocoa Dolce’s New Market location is a popular hangout spot for people on the west side, but that doesn’t mean that the new location is limited to just the downtown community.

“I would go because that kind of thing fascinates me, baking and confectionery.” English teacher Sherry Pfeifer said. “I just think it’s kind of fun. Hopefully they’ll have little a little taste tester station, freebies and more gift opportunities because I think, who doesn’t love chocolate?”

Travis said she’s very thankful for the support that Cocoa Dolce has received from Wichita.

“The community is our biggest supporter,” Travis said. “When we originally started Cocoa Dolce, we were and still are firm believers of giving back to the community and being involved as much as we can.”