Farmland selling buffer ground

Bankrupt Farmland Industries has put up for sale 180 acres of east Lawrence ground that is drawing heavy interest from commercial developers.

Kansas City, Mo.-based Farmland recently began marketing the 180 acres of “buffer ground” that is south of its fertilizer plant along Kansas Highway 10, just east of the Lawrence city limits. The plant has been shut down since May 2001.

Doug Young, an agent with Farmland’s Ceres Realty Corp., said the company hoped to complete a deal for the property in the first quarter of 2003. Young said there had been a “large number” of interested buyers.

“There’s definitely a lot of interest in it,” Young said. “Most of the interest has been from commercial developers, but we’ve talked to people who have been interested in everything from farming it to building a shopping center on it.”

Young says most of the interest has come from developers who are interested in purchasing all the property and creating an “all-encompassing” development.

Bryan Dyer, long-range planner for the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Department, said the city’s existing comprehensive plan would allow for a mix of single family, multifamily and office development on the property.

The comprehensive plan currently doesn’t call for any commercial development on the property, but Dyer said planning commissioners were rewriting parts of the plan that could allow for a “neighborhood commercial center” to be built somewhere near K-10 and O’Connell Road.

Such a center could be similar in size to the Hy-Vee Food & Drug Store development near Clinton Parkway and Kasold Drive, Dyer said.

“We’re certainly assuming there will be a lot of pressure for commercial development there,” Dyer said. “On the east side, there always seems to be the possibility for another grocery store, and this could be another site for one.”

All the property, which includes 55 acres on the southwest corner of K-10 and O’Connell Road and 125 acres on the southeast corner of the intersection, is outside the city limits.

If annexed, it would be one of the largest pieces of property brought into the city all at once. At 180 acres, the property is similar in size to the Getto property along Clinton Parkway between Inverness and Crossgate drives. Plans for that property include 300 homes and 200 apartment units.

Interest is high from commercial and residential developers for purchasing 180 acres of land owned by Farmland Industries near Kansas Highway 10 and O'Connell Road. Farmland recently decided to sell the property just east of town, which has remained an undeveloped buffer

City officials resisted pressure to put retail development on the Getto property, but they may face even more pressure from potential developers of the Farmland property.

“It is definitely a major gateway for the city,” Dyer said. “There are huge volumes of traffic that go by that property every day.”

Dyer, though, says city planners do not view the property as a candidate for a “big box” retailer, because the city already is well served by discount retailers on South Iowa Street and developers are proposing “big box” developments along West Sixth Street.

Young said the company didn’t have an asking price for the property, but rather would accept offers for the land.

The decision to put the 180 acres up for sale is a reversal of an earlier decision by Farmland. Previously the company had said it wasn’t interested in selling the buffer ground unless it was to a buyer interested in purchasing the entire fertilizer plant.

Kevan Vick, general manager of Farmland’s nitrogen fertilizer division, said the decision to sell the buffer ground didn’t mean Farmland has given up on trying to find a company to buy and operate the fertilizer plant.

But he did acknowledge the company has begun thinking about what to do if an operator can’t be found for the plant, which is one of seven plants Farmland is trying to sell to pay down debt.

“In the absence of interest from a buyer, our interest would be to remove the plant, disassemble the equipment,” Vick said. “We would clear the ground to make it available for someone to redevelop it.”

None of the property listed by Young includes the plant or the roughly 160 acres of buffer ground north of K-10. Vick said Farmland officials are still reviewing bids received for the company’s fertilizer operations.

He declined to say how many bids the company received or whether any of the bids included an offer for the Lawrence plant.

Industry analysts have been skeptical a fertilizer buyer could be found for the plant because it is the oldest of the seven plants Farmland has put up for sale.