Downtown retailer of 33 years to close shop; Chamber stoking speculation that major job announcement coming; update on large apartment project

With this being Lawrence, we obviously all have special wings of our homes to house our collections of Jayhawk apparel, but soon we’ll no longer have one longtime Jayhawk retailer to help us fill those aircraft hangar-like rooms. The owners of Jayhawk Spirit, 935 Massachusetts St., have announced they have put the business up for sale and likely will close the shop in early 2015 if a buyer isn’t found.

“We have the store up for sale, but if we don’t find a buyer, we’re not going to let that stop us from retiring,” said Tom Wilkerson, who has co-owned the store with his wife, Rosann, since 1981.

Wilkerson said a closing date of the store is dependent on how quickly inventory is depleted, but he said it could come sometime in January or February.

The closing will continue a bit of a trend. As we previously reported, the GameDay Superstore that was operated by GTM Sportswear on 23rd Street closed in the last few weeks, and Wilkerson said he thinks there are probably fewer KU apparel shops in downtown Lawrence than there have been in quite some time. LIDS, Campus Cloth and SportsDome all have closed their downtown operations in the not-too-distant past. Longtime retailer Francis Sporting Goods, which is more sporting goods than KU apparel, also is closing its retail operations and focusing more on its wholesale business to teams.

In the case of Francis’, the owner there said the opening of the new Dick’s Sporting Goods store on south Iowa Street certainly was a factor in his decision. Wilkerson, 68, didn’t indicate that was much of a factor. Instead, it was just time to retire, though he said the small apparel shops have suffered if they haven’t diversified.

“If there was a downfall for us, it is just that we didn’t evolve with the Chiefs and the Royals and the KC Sporting merchandise,” Wilkerson said. “Over the last 10 years, there has been quite an influx of KU merchandise on the market. But if a customer can go somewhere else and get KU items and also some Royals and Chiefs gear at the same time, we’re probably going to lose that customer.”

Wilkerson owns the building at 935 Massachusetts St., and he said he’s not going to sell it. He said if a buyer doesn’t emerge for the business, he said he won’t have difficulty finding a tenant for the space.

“I’ve had a lot of people interested in the space,” he said.

Wilkerson said he’ll end up missing his loyal customers and will miss the happy environment around the store.

“But you just have to decide whether you want to die here punching numbers into the cash register, or whether you want to go and do some other things,” he said.


In other news and notes from around town:

Local economic development leaders aren’t doing anything to lower expectations that a major employer will soon locate at VenturePark, the new business park the city has developed on the former Farmland Industries fertilizer site in eastern Lawrence. In fact, they seem to be ramping up the expectations.

“We have had a significant amount of interest in VenturePark. I’ll put it that way,” Brady Pollington, the economic development project manager for The Chamber, said this morning at a meeting of the community’s Joint Economic Development Council. “We’re not ready to make an announcement yet, but we’re getting close.”

Later in the meeting, Pollington clarified that VenturePark definitely was on the “short list” for a significant project.

“I’m very encouraged, very encouraged,” he said.

In October, we reported that Chamber CEO Larry McElwain said that VenturePark was in the running to land a large manufacturer that would employ an estimated 125 people over the next five years. The business likely would occupy about 120 acres of property at the business park, which would be more than a quarter of all the available property at the new park. McElwain said the company also is projecting that it would make about $20 million in capital investments at the site over a five-year period.

That seems to be the company that we’re still talking about. A deal isn’t a deal until it is done, but it is a good sign that Chamber officials are sending out increasingly positive signals.

This morning’s meeting also highlighted that there is some behind-the-scenes activity going on at the future site for the Peaslee Center, the technical education center that is expected to open in August. As we reported Thursday, the center received a $20,000 donation to help establish a program that trains people who want to enter the construction industry.

But McElwain said a deal is also in the works to land a major tenant to take space in the center, which is the former Honeywell Aviation building just north and east of 31st and Haskell. McElwain said The Chamber has responded to a request for proposals from a training-oriented firm that would make sense being located next to a technical education center. If the deal is completed, the business could provide upwards of $100,000 a year in rental revenue to help with the operations of the Peaslee Center.

“It would create a campus feel out there,” McElwain said of the training firm, which would be in addition to the Peaslee Center and also the Lawrence school district’s College & Career Center that is being constructed next to the Peaslee Center.

While we’re reading signs today, there is one more about a big project in Lawrence. We’ve all been wondering whether the Chicago-based development firm that is proposing a $75 million apartment project across the street from KU’s Memorial Stadium is really going to begin work on the project.

Well, there is a new sign that suggests it will. The company has completed its purchase of the property at 1115 Indiana St., which is one of the two properties that would house the multistory apartment building. If you remember, the property at 1115 Indiana is a home owned by Georgia Bell, a 91-year old woman who has lived next to the Berkeley Flats apartment complex, which would be torn down to make way for this new development. For a time, the Chicago development firm planned to build the new apartment complex along three sides of her property because it could not reach a deal to buy the modest home. But a deal was struck, and the latest land transfer listings from the county show the property is now owned by the development firm HERE Lawrence Property, LLC.

That would seem to be a good sign that the company is going to move forward with the project, but perhaps not a sure-fire sign. Even if the project doesn’t move forward, it still is a good piece of real estate to own because it obviously is ripe for redevelopment. The apartment project has the necessary approval from City Hall, but there has been questions about whether it will move forward. The project has received an 85 percent property tax rebate from City Hall, but it sought a 95 percent rebate. It also unsuccessfully sought approval for a reduction in the number of parking spaces it would be required to provide on the property. The developers have said finding financing for the project has been difficult with the city’s current parking standards.

So, we’ll now keep our eyes open for further signs of development at the site, such as a building permit. If the project does move forward, it will be interesting to watch. Developers have consistently called the project a $75 million venture. That’s huge. To put it in perspective, the recreation center at Rock Chalk Park is $10.5 million, the infrastructure is about $12 million and the track, soccer and other facilities being leased by KU have been estimated to be about $40 million. That totals to a little more than $62 million. This one 624-bedroom apartment complex with an automated parking garage will be more than $10 million larger than the entire Rock Chalk Park sports complex. Developers have said the project, which includes about 13,000 square feet of commercial space, will be unlike anything else in the Lawrence market.