Retiree housing proposed for 23rd and O’Connell; Lawrence ranked No. 2 in nation for local holiday shopping
Here’s another reason to keep an eye on the intersection of 23rd and O’Connell: A Johnson County development group wants to build a new retirement housing community near the intersection.
The Olathe-based firm Wheatland Investments wants to build 90 units of senior housing on about nine acres of property at the northwest corner of 25th Terrace and O’Connell Road. The $16 million project would be limited to residents 55 years and older.
The property is just south of the 23rd and O’Connell intersection and is basically across the street from the new Lawrence VenturePark, the business/industrial park the city is developing. That, of course, is the other reason to keep an eye on the intersection.
The project is billed as an affordable housing project. As this holiday shopping season so often proves at my house, we all have different definitions of affordable. (One particular shopper in my house believes if it fits in the U-Haul she takes to the mall, it is affordable.) I don’t know what rent rates will be at the proposed project, but the developers are seeking state tax credits, which will mean that rents will have to be controlled and pegged to certain income guidelines.
Whether this project goes forward probably will have a lot to do with whether it wins those state tax credits. City commissioners also will play a role. The development group is seeking industrial revenue bonds for the project, which means the housing development would be exempt from paying local property taxes. City commissioners will have to decide whether a rent-controlled retirement complex is worth a property tax abatement. In a letter to commissioners, the development group said the project likely won’t be feasible if it has to pay local property taxes.
City commissioners already kind of have been down this road. Commissioners have granted large property tax rebates for affordable housing projects in the Warehouse Arts District, and commissioners granted an 85 percent tax rebate for a proposed luxury apartment building near KU’s Memorial Stadium. This project would be a little different because it is asking for a full property tax exemption instead of a large rebate.
If this project sounds familiar, it probably is because you remember a previous proposal for this site. This same company proposed the same project back in January, although the deal never materialized. But the group believes it now has a better chance to pull the project together.
As proposed, the project would be built in phases, with 16 one-bedroom and 32 two-bedroom units constructed in phase one. The first phase also would include a community center for residents. The remainder of the 90 units would be built in a second phase. Developers have told the city the project will be designed to look like single family homes or town homes, rather than multistory apartment complexes.
The development group for the project is led by Johnson County apartment developers David and Suzanne Rhodes. They currently own five other affordable “garden/ranch style apartment” developments in Kansas and also own or manage about 350 conventional apartment units.
City commissioners at their meeting tonight will receive the request for industrial revenue bonds but aren’t scheduled to take any action on the request other than to direct staff members to study the proposal.
In other news and notes from around town:
• While we’re talking about apartment projects in town, I’m hearing that city commissioners will be presented with another plan to reduced the amount of parking required for a proposed $75 million luxury apartment building near KU’s Memorial Stadium. The Chicago-based development group previously was unsuccessful in lobbying for a parking reduction on the project, but City Manager David Corliss recently told commissioners he’s received another proposal from the developers on that subject. I don’t have all the details on how this most recent proposal is different from what the group previously requested. But I’ll keep an eye out for the proposal to show up on a City Commission agenda in the near future. As we previously reported, the development group has kept the building permit application for the project active, even after commissioners rejected the idea of reduced parking for the development. But the development group — HERE, LLC — has said they may have to abandon the project if it doesn’t win the parking reduction, which has been hotly opposed by residents of the adjacent Oread neighborhood.
• Oh dear, my household may be upgrading U-Haul sizes. This just in from our friends on the Internet: The folks at Yelp released a new study that shows Lawrence is the second best city in the country for “finding great local gifts.” I’m not exactly sure how Yelp determined that, but the company’s blog says Yelp officials looked at the millions of reviews and business listings on its site and then analyzed them to determine the U.S. cities with “the largest concentration of highly rated, local businesses where holiday shoppers can find great gifts.”
Portland, Maine, came in No. 1, but Lawrence was right there at No. 2. Lawrence was the only city in Kansas or the entire Plains region that made the list. Here’s a look at the top 10.
1. Portland , Maine
2. Lawrence
3. St. Petersburg, Fla.
4. Asheville, N.C.
5. Santa Cruz, Calif.
6. Detroit
7. Bend, Ore.
8. Chapel Hill, N.C.
9. Wilmington, N.C.
10. Hoboken, N.J.