Developer Tony Krsnich plans to turn the old Poehler building in east Lawrence into about 50 apartments.

photo by: Richard Gwin

Developer Tony Krsnich, a Kansas University graduate, is getting ready to take on one of his biggest projects, a redevelopment of the old Poehler building at Eighth and Delaware streets in east Lawrence. Krsnich wants to turn the building into modern, rent-controlled apartments.

photo by: Richard Gwin

Developer Tony Krsnich shows off the inside of the Poehler building in east Lawrence, which he plans to convert into about 50 apartments.

photo by: Richard Gwin

Developer Tony Krsnich, a Kansas University graduate, walks around the old Poehler building, which he hopes to turn into apartments.

photo by: Richard Gwin

Windows boarded up at the Poehler building.

photo by: Richard Gwin

Walls in the Poehler building will being sandblasted.

photo by: Richard Gwin

The Poehler building at Eighth and Delaware streets in east Lawrence once was a beacon of prosperity; now it sits vacant. Developer Tony Krsnich wants to make it into about 50 affordable apartments.

photo by: Richard Gwin

Some of the products once shipped from the Poehler building are shown.

photo by: Richard Gwin

An old photo shows some of the people who worked for Theodore Poehler, the great-great-grandfather of John Pendleton, Lawrence, who came to the Midwest and started the Poehler Wholesale Warehouse on East Eighth Street, where products were shipped all over Kansas in the late 1800s and early 1900s.