It may not look like much now, but Robert Krause likes cooking downtown so much that he’s ready to buy a former auto showroom and convert it into an intimate restaurant – along with a photo studio, florist, coffee roasterie and, if everything works out, a high-end shoe boutique.

And more.

Krause also plans to add a residential loft or two or three, allowing him to live and work in the same building – a format he previously made work in east Lawrence and intends to expand upon near the corner of 11th and Vermont streets.

“We’re moving ahead on it. We’ll make it happen. We’re determined to make it happen,” Krause said this week, on his way to cater a meal for Gov. Kathleen Sebelius at Cedar Crest in Topeka. “We’re going to go all out on this thing. This will be our permanent home.”

Krause, whose Krause Dining restaurant has been operating for five months out of leased space in the Kansas Seed House, 811 N.H., is making plans to buy an 11,000-square-foot building at 1040 Vt. He intends to close the deal by the end of the month.

The building, available for $1.1 million, appears made to order for a chef whose catered meals have been popular for years among corporate clients throughout the country, and are becoming more accessible to diners in Lawrence.

Krause Dining offers dinner seating for 50 Tuesdays through Saturdays, with his signature six-course meals – often featuring fresh seafood, foie gras, squab and aged beef tenderloin – regularly drawing customers from Topeka and the Kansas City metro areas.

Robert Krause, owner of Krause Dining, plans to move his restaurant into a vacant building at 1040 Vt. by summer. He also hopes to add residential lofts and several high-end retail shops.

Krause hopes to have the new place open by summer, when his lease runs out at 811 N.H.

“It’s going to be so cool,” Krause said.

While the new restaurant will be smaller, with seating for about 30, Krause plans to use the building to establish a one-of-a-kind destination for other high-end products and services: photography, flowers, coffee and footwear.

“We’ve got a few like-minded businesses that would like to be associated with our business,” Krause said. “We’ll all work off each other.”

Krause has been looking for a permanent home for his business since June, when city inspectors ordered him to stop serving meals out of his family home, which is next door to a Lawrence Bus Co. bus barn on Delaware Street in east Lawrence.

The home at 917 Del. is not zoned for commercial uses, rendering his residential restaurant illegal.

In July, Krause announced plans for establishing a new restaurant nearby, inside a former oil-storage building at Ninth and Pennsylvania streets. But that project – which would have expanded the building, added a courtyard and swimming pool and accommodated up to 200 people for stand-up events – was dropped when zoning and other details could not be worked out in time to meet his needs.

That led Krause to 1040 Vt., a building that once served as a showroom for Dale Willey Pontiac and, in the 1990s, was occupied by Wild Oats, a natural foods grocery. The property includes nine private parking spaces to the north, and is adjacent to a 65-space city parking lot that accommodates the Lawrence Farmers Market.

“It’s a good location,” said Bob Schulte, sales manager for Fall Creek Realty, which is marketing the property. “I thinks it’s an excellent building, because very few buildings in downtown Lawrence have a parking lot right next door.”