Ruffin buys office building

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Friday, Dec. 29, 2000 | 10:36 a.m.

WICHITA, Kan. -- Five years after Pizza Hut moved its corporate headquarters to Dallas, Las Vegas New Frontier casino owner Phil Ruffin has bought the vacant Wichita building.

The chief financial officer for Ruffin Cos., Gail Knott, said Ruffin bought the building Thursday for "speculative purposes," and it was too early to announce what options the Wichita businessman might pursue.

Knott said Ruffin, who also owns Wichita Greyhound Park and the Crystal Palace Resort and Casino in the Bahamas, was excited about his purchase.

"It's a beautiful campus and a great building," Knott said. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Pizza Hut began in Wichita in 1958, but moved its headquarters to Dallas in 1995. The last of Pizza Hut's employees left in 1998 when Tricon Global Restaurants Inc., its parent company, transferred workers to Louisville, Ky., and Dallas.

The building's reopening could add a substantial amount of office space to far east Wichita, an area now in a commercial building boom.