Car lot on the move to Sixth Street

Posted by Chad Lawhorn March 24, 2009 at 8:56 a.m.

A used car lot is packing up from its South Iowa Street location to move to a higher profile spot on West Sixth Street.

Academy Cars will move into the vacant Custom Highline space at 1527 W. Sixth St., which used to be the home of Quick’s Barbecue before it was converted into an upscale auto lot.

Lonnie Blackburn, an owner of Academy Cars, said his business will move from it smaller lot on Four Wheel Drive to the larger lot by April 1.

“It definitely will increase our visibility,” Blackburn said. “And really, it was time for us to expand about seven years ago.”

Blackburn said Academy will continue to both lease and sell cars out of the new location, but will begin operating a service department.

In other real estate news:

• A buyer has been found for the building that housed the longtime downtown business Arensberg’s Shoes. Jeff Arensberg, a member of the shoe-selling family and a Lawrence real estate agent, said a local investor has signed a contract to purchase the 20,000-square-foot building that stretches over two downtown lots at 825 and 827 Mass. St.

Arensberg said he could not reveal the identity of the buyer, other than to say the ownership of the building would remain in local hands. Arensberg said the buyer didn’t have a tenant for the building, but had received interest from both retailers and restaurants.

“The buyer of the building is looking to keep the use of the building so that it continues to enhance downtown,” Arensberg said.

Arensberg also said the building’s large enough — it has three stories, counting the finished basement — that it could house multiple uses.

• A wireless phone store will set up shop in the former Flowerama location at 1700 W. 23rd St. Lawrence-based Simply Wireless plans to open a store in the space, said real estate agent Doug Brown of McGrew Commercial.