The city hasn’t yet begun marketing the former Farmland Industries property as a new business park, but that hasn’t stopped a local business from trying to expand onto the site.

City leaders are negotiating a deal with Lawrence-based SurePoint Medical to lease and then ultimately purchase up to two acres of city-owned ground that used to be part of the former fertilizer plant in eastern Lawrence.

SurePoint is a mail-order pharmacy that currently specializes in supplies for diabetics. The company has its headquarters in leased space at 1918 E. 23rd St., but it is quickly outgrowing that space. The company has grown from two employees when it was started six years ago to 82 currently.

“In the next two years, we’ll have 150 employees,” said Gordon Roll, the company’s president. “We like being in Lawrence, and it has been a good place for us to grow.”

SurePoint will be expanding next month into nearby space at 2004 E. 23rd, which is owned by the company’s current landlord, Lawrence businessman Mike Hultine.

But even with that new space, the company won’t have enough parking for all its employees, which include everybody from medical insurance specialists to order processors.

That’s where the city and its Farmland Industries site comes into the picture. The Farmland property is a sprawling one. In addition to the old plant area that can be seen from Kansas Highway 10, the property also includes “buffer ground” that stretches toward the Douglas County Fairgrounds and goes behind the building at 2004 E. 23rd St.

Hultine and SurePoint want to lease about 0.5 acre to construct a temporary parking lot, and they also want the option to purchase another 1.5 acres so that they can eventually build a 20,000-square-foot office building.

City commissioners said they’re interested in working out a lease and an option for SurePoint to purchase the two-acre site. Commissioners have directed staff to create an agreement using market rates for the property. The city has a recent appraisal that estimates the 1.5-acre site is worth about $130,000.

Commissioners said they weren’t concerned about allowing the project to move forward before planning for the new business park is complete because this particular site is tucked away in a corner of the property. City officials are interviewing consultants to complete plans for the overall park. That work is expected to begin early next year.

“We’re not sacrificing the overall concept of what we’re trying to do with the property,” said Mayor Aron Cromwell. “And this is the type of company we want to keep in Lawrence.”

Commissioners are expected to finalize an agreement with SurePoint and Hultine in the next few weeks.