Kansas University is inching closer to having a major research park on prime real estate in Johnson County.

The university is set to receive 300 acres from the former Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant as part of redevelopment of the 9,065-acre site 12 miles east of Lawrence near K-10 Highway.

The land will be in addition to 200 acres KU already owns in the northwest corner of the property, and if all goes as planned, it could be developed into a bioscience research park starting in around three years.

“It would be dedicated to fulfilling the university’s mission – that is, education – and to the development of cutting-edge technology and job creation,” said KU general counsel Jim Pottorff, who’s overseeing the university’s stake in the public and private efforts to develop the site.

Officials announced in late July that an agreement had been reached for transferring the site from the U.S. government to a private developer, Sunflower Redevelopment LLC. As part of that agreement:

¢ Over 6,000 acres will be used for private development.

¢ 250 acres will be set aside for a private research park near the KU land.

¢ Kansas State University will receive 342 acres for research and horticulture test fields.

¢ 2,000 acres will be set aside for parks, including trails to connect the site with Kill Creek Park near Gardner.

¢ The De Soto school district will receive 30 acres to build elementary schools.

¢ The city of De Soto will receive 12 acres for its water treatment facility.

The transfer ends more than three years of negotiations over the plant site. The U.S. General Services Administration in 1995 announced its willingness to return the property to the public.

The plant was built to produce ammunition during World War II and later manufactured nitric and sulfuric acids. Most of the plant has been inactive since 1971, with final production in 1989.

But development of the land can’t happen until chemicals left behind are cleaned up. That’s a process that could take seven years and cost tens of millions of dollars – to be borne by Sunflower Redevelopment and the federal government.

But John Petersen, an attorney representing Sunflower Redevelopment, said cleanup of the KU land could take less time, perhaps as little as three years.

David Shulenburger, provost and executive vice chancellor at KU, said the sooner the better.

“We’d love to have it going as soon as possible,” Shulenburger said.

He said the land will be necessary as KU’s research ventures continue to grow. The location is ideal, he said, because it will allow collaboration with private businesses in the same area.

“The difficulty is that while we know for certain the land will be coming to us, there’s not a firm schedule for when it will be cleaned up,” he said. “Until there’s a firm schedule for cleaning it up, it’s hard to make plans.”