A long-anticipated conversion of an East Lawrence industrial area is starting to take shape, with plans for a new law office and an eclectic catering center leading the way.

Two buildings northeast of Ninth and Pennsylvania streets are scheduled for use as office and entertainment spaces in the coming months.

The projects are part of a larger effort to convert nine buildings along Pennsylvania and just to the east, between Eighth and Ninth streets, into office, retail and residential uses, where businesses one day could employ 327 people.

“It’s gaining the momentum we hoped it would,” said Bo Harris, who is leading the overall project he launched three years ago. “Part of that was simply getting the (property) acquisitions. We’ve got that together.

“Now it’s getting to work so we can support the purchases.”

First on the list: turning half of a former chicken-processing building, at 830-832 Pa., into offices for Fairchild & Buck, a Topeka-based law firm.

The project – expected to be finished within three months and cost more than $250,000 – will restore the building’s red-brick exterior and remodel the open interior to make way for the offices of five attorneys, Harris said.

Half of this building at 830-832 Pa. is set to become offices for Fairchild & Buck, a Topeka-based law firm, within the next three months. The project is part of a larger redevelopment in East Lawrence.

One of the attorneys will be Mark Buck, who is among several other investors – including Lawrence attorneys Mike Riling and John Nitcher – involved in the overall redevelopment of the area.

All of the project’s investors are committed to respecting the area’s transportation- and agriculture-related roots in formulating an “urban conservation area district” for the properties, Harris said.

“Our architecture will reflect those themes,” Harris said. “We’re still looking at having a mixed-use, a live-work-and-play atmosphere: the residential, the professional, the retail. We’ll be at it two or three years before we’re completely done.”

Robert Krause, a Lawrence caterer, is among those drawn to the area’s historic fabric and business promise.

Just last month, Krause was told by city inspectors to stop serving his signature six-course meals and wine tastings at his home at 917 Del., citing him for violating the city’s zoning code.

But he won’t be out of business for long. A week from today he’ll start serving meals and conducting special events at 805 N.H. – a Harris-renovated space that formerly had been home to The Meat Market – as part of a one-year lease.

• 6News video: Caterer to lease ‘Meat Market’ space for business (07-08-05)

But the downtown move won’t endure. Within a year, Krause plans to open a permanent home for Krause Dining in a former oil-storage building adjacent to the new Fairchild & Buck law offices.

The 1,000-square-foot building will be expanded to about 4,000 square feet, with a courtyard, swimming pool, tropical landscaping and plenty of room to entertain, Krause said. He hopes to be able to seat 50 people for dinner, or handle 200 or so for stand-up events.

“We’ll come back to the neighborhood,” said Krause, who is still working on details with Harris for the new place, after signing a lease for the temporary space downtown. “I couldn’t have asked for a better situation.”