From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Feb. 21, 1987:

In a recent three-hour meeting with Lawrence’s Urban Renewal Agency, developers further explained their proposal to build a downtown mall. The firm Jacobs, Visconsi & Jacobs, Cleveland, was working with local Town Center Venture Corp. to develop a 360,000-square-foot mall in the 600 block of downtown. Don Jones, JVJ vice president for real estate, said that although JVJ was committed to pursuing the downtown project, the firm would consider building a suburban mall if the downtown plan fell through. “When the dust clears, there will be either a mall downtown or in some reasonable period of time, there’ll be a mall in the suburbs,” he said. At the meeting, which was attended by several mall opponents as well as supporters, tempers occasionally flared and comments flew. “For those who don’t want to see anything change, there’s nothing we can provide that’s going to change their minds,” Jones said. “No change isn’t an option anymore.”