A strip mall along a busy section of 23rd Street that was slotted for a shooting range and gun shop won’t house the business after all.

Instead, the businessman behind the shooting range is pursuing plans to locate it in eastern Lawrence. Lawrence businessman Rick Sells said he decided against the location, within The Malls near the intersection of 23rd and Louisiana streets, because of public concern regarding its proximity to several schools.

“It’s just the thought or the image of the fact that kids are going to be walking by there and riding their bikes by there, and I had a lot of people tell me that they didn’t think that was the best place for me to be,” Sells said, though he noted he thought the facility would have been safe for the area.

The Malls shopping center where the range was to be located is about half a mile from Lawrence High School, South Middle School and Broken Arrow Elementary. The former Centennial school, which houses the school district’s GED program, is also nearby.

Sells said the new location for the range is a portion of the building that housed the former Bargain Depot, 1547 E. 23rd St., just west of Harper Street. As far as the offerings of the range, Sells said the plans are still the same, and that the facility will offer a range, training courses, and a gun sale and repair shop. The building will allow for 18 shooting lanes, and Sells said he plans to offer 10 lanes to start.

Sells said he thinks the educational component is important, especially under the new state laws that allow Kansans to carry concealed handguns without a permit.

“This biggest part of it is safety, and knowing how to handle a gun,” Sells said of the training center.

The East 23rd Street location is actually the third Sells has considered for the gun range. Sells originally proposed to open the business near 31st Street and Haskell Avenue, but that location was near the school district’s College and Career Center and the future site of the Boys and Girls Club Teen Center, and school district and club leaders strongly opposed it.

The Lawrence City Commission ultimately voted against that location, and Sells told commissioners that as a result he would be going forward with The Malls location. The Malls didn’t require city approval because its zoning already allowed for such a business.

As a result of conversations surrounding Sells’ proposal, city leaders realized a gun range that had operated for decades in the basement of the Community Building violated the Gun-Free School Zones Act. The range was closed as a result, and subsequent tests found significant levels of lead contamination that will now have to be professionally cleaned.

Sells said a HEPA air filtration system, costing more than $40,000, will be used to keep his planned facility clear of lead particles.

“What this does is it has two sets of filters; the ones in the front, you have to change them every 30 days, and the others you change every 90 days,” he said.

Sells said final arrangements for the facility are wrapping up, and he will submit the building permit to the city within the next two weeks. He said he plans to have the range open in early spring.