This composite image from promotional materials shows a logo and rendering of Lawrence Venture Park.

Lawrence may be set to become a Menards town.

Just weeks after the home improvement retailer built a large store near 31st and Iowa streets, a division of Menard Inc. wants to build a $25 million production plant and warehouse that would add 100 jobs to Lawrence.

The Lawrence chamber of commerce on Monday morning announced Midwest Manufacturing, a division of Menard Inc., has reached a preliminary deal to buy 90 acres of property in Lawrence VenturePark, the new business park on the east edge of Lawrence that previously housed Farmland Industries. If the deal is finalized, Menards would become the first tenant of the new business park.

“It is an exciting opportunity,” said Brady Pollington, vice president of the Economic Development Corporation of Lawrence and Douglas County, which helped broker the deal. “The community will get 100 jobs, and people in Lawrence won’t have to drive 30 or 40 minutes to find a good job that pays a living wage.”

The project still must win City Commission approval, including a request for a 50 percent, 10-year tax abatement.

Menard Inc. plans to invest $25 million to build the project, which will include multiple buildings and 170,000 to 200,000 square feet of production and distribution space. Pollington said plans call for the plant to build exterior stone products, roof trusses and possibly other types of building products that are sold in Menards stores across the country.

City and county officials expressed preliminary support for the project on Monday. Officials with Menard Inc. haven’t yet commented on the deal.

Mayor Mike Amyx said the city is “committed to the project’s success.”

“We are talking 90 acres, 100 jobs and $25 million in investment” Amyx said. “This is a huge commitment to Lawrence. We should all be excited about this.”

Douglas County officials also signaled support.

“This project will greatly benefit Douglas County and its residents,” Jim Flory, chair of the Douglas County Commission, said. “Menard Inc. is a a growing company, and we’re thankful they prefer to make a large investment here.”

Pollington said jobs at the center will include production and assembly workers, technical positions to maintain the plant’s production equipment, and truck drivers to be part of the Menards fleet.

Pollington said all the jobs at the plant will meet the city’s living wage standards, which currently stand at $12.56 per hour plus benefits. The living wage level rises each year because it is pegged to the federal poverty level for a family of three. The city’s living wage ordinance requires that firms that receive a property tax abatement must pay a wage that is at least 130 percent of the federal poverty level.

Menard Inc. will seek a tax abatement for the project. The company will seek a 10-year, 50 percent tax abatement for the development, Pollington said. The total value of the incentive package is about $2.1 million, with some of the money coming from the state of Kansas for workforce training assistance, Pollington said.

A key part of the deal, though, is that Menard Inc. is agreeing to pay for the land and the special assessments that are attached to the property. Pollington said the purchase price of the land and the payment of the special assessments — which were used to fund utility and road improvements at the park — will equal about $2.1 million.

Pollington said chamber officials are pleased with the incentives package that has been negotiated for the deal. Pollington said the 50 percent, 10-year abatement is less than what has been given to some other manufacturing projects in the area, and he said the Menard project will rehabilitate a rail spur that travels through VenturePark. The rail spur will be available for use by other companies that may locate in the park in the future. Once the Menards deal is finalized, there still will be about 130 acres of property available for industrial development in the park.

“This would be the perfect first tenant for the park,” Pollington said.

The City Commission is expected to receive the tax abatement request in early December, and it likely will take several weeks for the proposed deal to be debated at City Hall.

Local economic development leaders have been working on landing the Menards deal for more than a year. Pollington said the VenturePark property gave Lawrence an advantage in landing the project. VenturePark is near the northeast corner of 23rd Street and O’Connell Road. The park — which was home to the former Farmland nitrogen fertilizer plant before that company went bankrupt in the early 2000s — is near the eastern end of the South Lawrence Trafficway bypass project, which is scheduled to open late next year.

“The SLT was huge in this deal,” Pollington said. “We’re in a great location, especially with the rail service at the site.”

Pollington, though, stressed the deal isn’t yet done. He said navigating the project through the incentive process and other needed approvals from City Hall will be important. Pollington said city officials, thus far, have been very supportive of the project.

“It has been awhile since we have had an announcement like this,” Pollington said. “Lawrence still needs to demonstrate that it can pull off a deal like this. The region will be watching what we do. It could create some momentum for us.”

City Commissioner Leslie Soden — who has been critical of some economic development incentives — said the proposed incentive package for Menard Inc. appeared to be a good one.

“I’m absolutely excited about this project,” Soden said. “During the campaign I talked about how incentives should be used for permanent, full-time jobs, and this is a great example of that.”

Amyx also said he currently was viewing the incentive package favorably.

“When we look at public incentives and how they should be used, I think this is an example of how we ought to use them,” Amyx said.

Community leaders are hoping for additional companies to locate at VenturePark, which officially was opened by the city in October of 2014. The city and county, though, spent more than a decade working on plans to take over ownership of the former fertilizer plant that had several environmental violations related to years of nitrogen fertilizer spills on the property.

Eventually, the city received ownership of the property as part of Farmland Industries bankruptcy proceedings. The city did not pay any money for the property, but rather agreed to assume responsibility for the environmental cleanup of the property. As part of the deal, the city received about $8.5 million in trust fund money from the Farmland bankruptcy to care for the property. The city also issued about $8.5 million in debt to build roads and other necessary infrastructure for the park. It is seeking to repay that debt through special assessments that have been placed on the property’s tax bills.

“That’s the best part about this project,” Pollington said. “We had a failing piece of property, and the community made an investment in it to bring it back to life. Now we are really getting close to the payoff.”