Who is Sudha Tokala?

Before she called Wichita her home, India native Sudha Tokala grew up in South Africa as Sudha Kolli and traveled the world with her father, who worked for the United Nations. She ventured to places such as Rome, Sydney and New York and said she kept having the same thought as she looked up at buildings that reached into the sky.

“I would look at high-rise buildings thinking, ‘Oh, who owns those?’ ”

Now Tokala, a 50-year-old pharmacist-turned-developer, owns five large commercial buildings of her own in downtown Wichita. They’re all clustered in the same area where she’s putting her new nonprofit Kansas Health Science Center and its Kansas College of Osteopathic Medicine, which opens to students in August.

“Sometimes destiny, I guess . . . has its way.”

Tokala said she’s discovered that business and real estate are “probably my passion.”

“Back in India, parents kind of direct you into what you’re doing,” she said of her father choosing her medical career. Tokala said she has some skills that align better with business.

“I grasp things quickly,” she said. “I’m a numbers person. I feel like I can see the big picture. . . . I feel like it’s my calling probably more than pharmacy.”

Her father wanted all of his children educated in America. Tokala’s brother eventually attended the University of Kansas. She had graduated from pharmacy school in India then followed her brother to KU, first to study health sciences, “just like what I’m trying to start.”

Tokala graduated with a master’s in pharmaceutical chemistry, married Chandra Tokala — another transplant from India — and accompanied him to his residency and fellowship at Harvard University.

“At that time, it felt like we were missing home,” she said of Kansas. By then, they had two children, and they knew they wanted to return to the state. Chandra Tokala applied for medical positions at a few places.

“The first offer came from Wichita, so we moved here,” Sudha Tokala said. She said she finds the city quaint.

“It’s the perfect place to raise two kids,” she said. “Wichita has been good to us, truthfully.”

Tokala got out of pharmacy in 2008 and first became involved with business ventures in 2010. She bought land on the east side for a Hampton Inn, though she ended up putting it at the airport. She’s now a partner in SpringHill Suites by Marriott there as well. Tokala’s role was from an investment side — not the development side, meaning she didn’t build the hotels.

She also purchased land in Andover, where she had duplexes in the works, and in Derby, she planned some single-family homes. All of that is on the back burner now, though.

“Right now my passion is in downtown Wichita.”

Tokala first became interested in downtown when the city asked for bids on the former Finney State Office Building, which some longtime Wichitans know better as the one-time Innes Department Store. The property actually is a 1927 building at 230 E. William and a 1947 building at 130 S. Market.

“I had no idea what I was going to do with it,” Tokala said.

She said with all the renovations that previously were put into the building, it struck her that “it would be really good for educational purposes.”

“I’m into health care, so I thought pharmacy first.”

She began expanding on the idea.

“You have to have a vision that you’re going to open something that’s actually going to grow,” Tokala said.

She began thinking about advanced medical, dental, optometry, podiatry and nurse anesthetist programs. Tokala said she saw that the state did a feasibility study that showed Kansas needs another medical college to produce more physicians, and she contacted the consultant who did the study.

“The need in rural Kansas is great,” she said.

At that point, Tokala said she realized, “Well, this can’t just be a one building and done.”

She bought the adjacent Sutton Place at the southeast corner of William and Market for student apartments. She bought the Henry’s building at the northeast corner of William and Broadway where she’s putting a food hall and event center to go with WSU Tech’s new culinary school, which also opens in August.

Tokala also is converting the former Broadway Plaza office building at the southwest corner of Douglas and Broadway for an AC Hotel by Marriott.

She said an educational facility will help attract people, including residents, who in turn will make it attractive for more businesses to locate downtown.

City officials and others who have worked with Tokala on these projects describe her as a driven visionary.

During the last three years of the massive redevelopment, Tokala’s days usually run at least 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Though she said she’s not a morning person, Tokala said the long hours are necessary to see her ideas through.

“It’s what gets me out of bed.”

Contributing: Eagle archives