Town Talk: Speculation on Trader Joe’s, Barnes & Noble and others for Borders; city to discuss environmental regulations, land use plan for area around airport

News and notes from around town:

• Since Borders announced last month that it was closing its store in downtown, I’ve been asking around what may go into its large space at Seventh and New Hampshire.

Recently I talked to a couple of commercial real estate agents in the community, and I found it interesting how the opinions vary between two professionals who both have had a lot of successful deals in the community.

One told me that it would be surprising if Barnes & Noble doesn’t strike a deal to occupy the space.

“Barnes and Noble loves college towns,” the agent said. “They do a lot of text book sales in other communities.”

The Borders store is a bit smaller than most Barnes & Noble locations, but as the agent said, the Lawrence market is a bit smaller than Barnes & Noble looks for.

“So maybe it will be a perfect fit,” the agent said.

Barnes & Noble has at least mildly pursued some locations in Lawrence in the past, folks in the commercial real estate business have confirmed.

But if Barnes & Noble isn’t interested in the site, figuring out how to fill the large space may get tricky. One business that this agent says Lawrence residents shouldn’t expect is a Trader Joe’s.

“I’m really surprised that they are going into the Kansas City market,” the agent said. “They like really big markets, or else they like markets with per capita income of about $80,000. I think hell will freeze over before Trader Joe’s comes in here.”

In case you’re wondering, here’s a list of Trader Joe’s locations in the Midwest. There are a few that don’t quite fit the profile mentioned above, but most do.

A Wild Oats would probably be a more likely candidate, but the location is a bit smaller than Wild Oats usually insists upon for its stores, the agent said.

A different agent told me that it is hard to think of many large tenants that would want to take that much downtown space.

“You never know, but those aren’t the type of people I’ve been seeing lately,” the agent said.

Instead, this agent said it could be that the space will be divided into smaller spaces — perhaps up to three spaces.

One piece of information I don’t have, and that this agent didn’t have either, is how much time is left on Borders’ lease. An out-of-state real estate group owns the property, and it is not uncommon for a company to simply let a space sit empty if it is still getting a lease payment. That was a major factor in why the former Food-4-Less building on south Iowa Street sat empty for so long before Discovery Furniture recently took it over. Of course, that might be a risky strategy with this spot, because Borders is in the process of filing for bankruptcy.

“I’ve had a building sit vacant for three or four years because of a situation like that,” the agent said. “It would be a real shame if that happens downtown.”

But it might not. As the agent said, the property has a unique selling point.

“The thing they have going for them is parking,” the agent said. “That is really good parking for downtown.”

There are a couple of other agents I’m interested in hearing from. If they’re willing to play the what-if game, I’ll report back.

• City commissioners and county commissioners will get together this afternoon for a study session that originally was scheduled for January but got snowed out.

The topic will be a pair of planning items — proposed environmental regulations for Horizon 2020, and a land use plan for the area near the Lawrence Municipal Airport. It doesn’t sound too exciting, but the issues have the potential to be contentious. Both the Lawrence Board of Realtors and the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce have written letters opposing the current version of the environmental chapter. Both expressed concerns that the new chapter may add so many environmental regulations that it will be difficult for future economic development projects to move forward.

But the plans also have drawn criticism from others who believe they do not quite go far enough to protect prime farmland, especially in the Kansas River valley, from future development. The study session is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, Sixth and Massachusetts streets.