Farmland officials hope to complete the sale of their seven nitrogen fertilizer plants by March, a top company official said last week.

“Right now we are working on a timeline that would probably result on a close of the sale in March of 2003,” Kevan Vick, a Lawrence resident who is general manager of Farmland’s nitrogen fertilizer operations, said. “The future of the Lawrence plant is still a little difficult to say, but I expect we’ll know something before then.”

Vick has said it was possible a fertilizer buyer may not be able to be found for the Lawrence plant. If that’s the case, Vick said the company would consider clearing the land of the plant and its buildings and marketing the 467 acres as available industrial land.

Lynn Parman, vice president of economic development for the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce, said the availability of the land for future industrial development could be positive for the area.

“What I can tell you is that we have a very limited shelf life of industrial property,” Parman said. “With the recent announcement of Serologicals coming to town that’s one more tract of land that is off our shelf. The possibility of having over 400 acres of land available for industrial development could be a tremendous asset.”

The Farmland property is immediately west of the East Hills Business Park. Parman said she was uncertain whether the park’s nonprofit management group, Douglas County Development Inc., would express an interest in buying the property to expand the business park.

“We have not approached that as of yet,” Parman said. “I think anything is possible, but I don’t know of any direct strategy or initiative that is under way.”