Parking plan for HERE would require tenants to vacate lot for some KU events
The plan meant to resolve the HERE apartment complex’s parking shortage includes a parking lot that will have to be vacated by HERE tenants on certain game days and other events at the University of Kansas.
Developers with the HERE project are pursuing a plan with the KU Endowment Association to build a 68-space surface parking lot at the corner of Mississippi Street and Fambrough Drive. HERE would then lease the lot from KU Endowment, which would have exclusive right to it approximately 10 days per year. Those days would include home football games as well as three additional events designated by KU, according to a lease agreement.
City planners anticipate that aspect of the agreement will be a discussion point as the plan moves forward.
“You do what you need to when a major event happens at the stadium, but I do think it’s going to be a discussion topic as it proceeds through the Planning Commission and the City Commission — the idea that there will be 10 times a year when the tenants won’t be able to use the space,” said Scott McCullough, the city’s director of planning and development services.
The HERE project is located near Memorial Stadium at 11th and Mississippi streets. Originally, the development was to have a robotic valet parking garage that would have had the capacity for the entire complex. Then, earlier this year, the company responsible for producing that robotic system went bankrupt. The lease with KU Endowment would get the HERE project back into compliance with the city’s parking requirements, McCullough said.
“It’s not maybe a perfect situation, but one that we know exists when KU has the property that’s needed for the parking,” McCullough said.
The site of the parking lot consists of an existing KU Endowment-owned lot and two multifamily properties at 1029 and 1031 Mississippi Street. The plan would require those houses to be bulldozed to expand the lot to 68 spaces. The existing lot is already being used for game-day crowds at Memorial Stadium.
The developer for the project, CA Ventures, has purchased the property at 1029 Mississippi St., and will transfer it to KU Endowment, according to the lease agreement. In addition to the existing lot, KU Endowment owns the property at 1031 Mississippi St.
Some neighbors of the complex are not pleased with the plan. Candice Davis, a member of the Oread Residents Association and chair of the Lawrence Association of Neighborhoods, was one of about 25 residents who met last week with representatives of HERE and KU Endowment. Davis, who lives near 10th and Louisiana Streets, cited the increasing difficulty of finding on-the-street parking in the neighborhood as more high-density housing is built.
“As I look out my window, the spots are totally taken up right now,” Davis said, noting that wasn’t always the case. “That’s a resolution to (HERE’s) parking problem, but that’s not a resolution for the neighborhood.”
The parking plan would need to go through the Planning Commission and the City Commission. If approved, the new parking plan would give the HERE apartment project enough parking spaces to allow for all 624 bedrooms of the project to be occupied. The $75 million luxury apartment complex at 11th and Mississippi streets currently has about 500 bedrooms filled and also includes 13,500 square feet of commercial space.
Meanwhile, some HERE tenants continue to wait for their apartments to be approved for occupancy. The original move-in date of Aug. 7 was pushed back several times. When a date of Aug.17 was set, tenants who arrived ready to move in ended up being housed in hotels after the complex failed to meet city safety codes required for an occupancy permit. The majority of the building’s 500 tenants moved in Aug.19, but two floors remained unfinished, leaving 90 tenants in limbo for almost a week. One of those floors was approved Tuesday, and the other floor — and its tenants — continue to await approvals.
The HERE project has been one of the more anticipated apartment projects in Lawrence in recent years. The previous City Commission provided the project an 85 percent property tax rebate after the Chicago development group touted the multistory, luxury apartment building as being a major boon for the city’s rental market.
The Planning Commission is scheduled to review HERE’s parking proposal on Sept. 26. Once a recommendation is made, the proposal will move to the City Commission for review.