photo by: Nick Gerik

The HERE Kansas apartment and retail project at 1111 Indiana St. is pictured on March 20, 2016.

HERE Kansas, a residential and retail development near Kansas University, is 67 parking spaces short of being allowed to fill its luxury apartments to capacity.

While a developer with the project said in early April he was “days away” from announcing a solution to get at least 69 spaces, a plan has yet to be released two months later. James Letchinger, president of JDL Development — the group behind HERE –said again Thursday it would be just days before he could offer more details.

“I’m hoping three to five days,” Letchinger said.

When the company hired to operate the development’s robotic parking system went bankrupt last fall, parking for the 624-bedroom structure was thrown into uncertainty.

The City Commission voted in April to approve a valet parking garage, which would provide 510 spaces. Those spaces, plus 108 on-street spaces, would allow the building to have 88 percent occupancy.

With the commission’s approval, developers are permitted to fill all 13,500 square feet of restaurant and retail space, plus 548 bedrooms this August.

Commissioners stipulated that developers would not receive tax rebates from the city until they secure the total number of parking spaces required to fill the entire development. Through an agreement with Lawrence, developers are subject to an 85 percent, 10-year tax abatement.

“We understand that HERE is working on a solution and that they still intend to pursue the parking necessary to fully occupy the building, but they have not presented an application to the city to date,” said Lawrence Planning Director Scott McCullough via email Thursday.

City Manager Tom Markus said at the City Commission meeting in April that KU was part of the solution Letchinger was pursuing.

“The university reached out to me and said that’s moving forward, and they had every confidence it would be taken care of,” Markus said at the time.

Letchinger said at that meeting the plan would likely be subject to a vote by the City Commission.