Massive expansion plans, reluctant layoffs, large building sales and ground-breaking developments all made business news in Lawrence during 2005.

As the year ended, Berry Plastics Corp., parent company of Packerware Corp. in Lawrence, announced its intention to add equipment and make building upgrades that would pump a $58 million investment – and inject 78 new jobs – into the Lawrence operation within three years.

The prospective project comes with another request: The company wants a 90 percent tax abatement on its investment for 10 years.

Serologicals Corp., which has been approved for an 80 percent tax abatement for 10 years on its $28 million plant in Lawrence, spent much of the year with the plant sitting idle. The company’s Celliance division, which operates the plant in the East Hills Business Park, announced in March that it was laying off 19 of its 26 employees in Lawrence.

Celliance officials said they expect the plant to begin full production by March 31.

Berry Plastics, Packerware's parent company, is looking to make an investment of 8 million in the Lawrence Packerware plant.

Meanwhile, it backed out of plans to relocate its national distribution center to Lawrence from Massachusetts. Celliance had planned to occupy space in the former Davol building at 700 E. 22nd St., but backed out and decided to move the center to the Chicago area instead.

But the former Davol building still received an injection of new life in 2005. The 215,000-square-foot place was purchased in July by an investment group that includes Rand Allen, of Allen Press; Smitty Belcher, owner of Huxtable & Associates Inc.; contractor Joel Fritzel; and an investor from Chicago who remains undisclosed.

The investment group bought the building from Big Industrial LLC, a Prairie Village company that had acquired the property in September 2003. The building formerly housed operations of Davol, which had 130 employees in Lawrence before closing in May 2003. Belcher and Fritzel announced plans to move all or some of their operations into the building.

After selling the former Davol building, Big Industrial turned around and bought an even larger property: the former E and E Specialties building at 910 E. 29th St., which covers 323,000 square feet. The purchase also came in July, and by September, Big Industrial had secured a major tenant: Packerware, which had been looking for space to serve as a warehouse and distribution center, replacing an existing center in Topeka.

In other real estate news, Bo Harris opened Hobbs Taylor Lofts in the 700 block of New Hampshire Street. The $12 million, 125,000-square-foot project combines 32 loft-style condominiums upstairs with offices on the second floor and retail shops at street level.

Another group is looking to add its own version of condos in Lawrence, this time in western Lawrence. Construction started late in 2005 on Bella Sera along the north side of Bob Billings Parkway, just west of the McGrew Nature Preserve that is east of Wakarusa Drive.