Lawrence firm seeks to expand in East Hills; city set to appoint chair to lead commissioner vacancy board; fire sprinklers to be debated for animal facilities

There is a deal brewing for a new manufacturer to locate in the East Hills Business Park.

As we reported in June, Lawrence-based Prosoco has formed a new company that will make high-tech walls and panels for companies that want to build highly energy efficient homes and structures. As we noted in June, the new venture would need manufacturing and warehousing space, and now we know the company wants to locate it in Lawrence. Early indications are that the venture would produce about a half dozen new jobs in the near term and up to 15 in the midterm.

Leaders with Prosoco have signed a deal to purchase the Kinedyne building in the East Hills Business Park, but the group is asking for some help from local government to seal the deal. As we also reported in June, Kinedyne — the longtime manufacturer of cargo straps and such — is closing its Lawrence plant in East Hills, which has employed around 25 people recently.

The Kinedyne building is basically next door to the Prosoco building, so it makes good sense for Prosoco to base its new business out of the large facility. But Prosoco is seeking two pieces of help: It wants the county to give it a small lot of land that is in between the Prosoco and Kinedyne buildings, and it wants the city to waive about $45,000 in special assessments that are still attached to the property.

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But Prosoco officials are pledging not to seek any tax abatements, tax increment financing, industrial revenue bonds or other such incentives from the city, according to a letter from Marilyn Bittenbender, a broker for the Lawrence office of Colliers International, which is representing Prosoco in the deal.

The lot in question has a fairly steep slope to it, and Bittenbender said she believes it will be a difficult lot to sell to a company interested in building a project on it. But the lot will aid the Prosoco deal because it can accommodate a driveway and loading dock infrastructure for the Kinedyne building.

As far as the special assessments go, those are to cover costs related to building the East Hills Business Park years ago. Those costs already have been paid, but removing the special assessments from the property means that tax payers will foot the final bill rather than being reimbursed by some company in the future.

This proposed deal will be a good test for the new commission. It is the first industrial park deal the group has been asked to decide. If commissioners balk at the incentive request for this deal, that’s a troubling sign for the VenturePark property next door. Companies that are interested in that new city-owned industrial park — it is where the Farmland fertilizer plant used to be — probably will ask for incentive packages similar or more generous than what this company is seeking.

The city already has invested more than $7 million of public money to build VenturePark. I know the previous City Commission did so with the understanding that it would take some additional incentives to lure companies to the park. This project — which is smaller than some of the ones officials are chasing for VenturePark — will be a good test to see if this new commission subscribes to that theory.

As for the project that is being proposed for the Kinedyne building, the company is called BuildSmart. As we previously reported, it plans to become the leader in building energy-efficient wall panels and other products that are designed to reduce energy costs in typical homes by 40 percent to 75 percent.

Prosoco, which makes a variety of chemical products for the masonry and construction industries, has partnered with Adam Cohen, who is one of the world’s leading architects in the Passive House movement. Cohen has developed a wall panel system that is built in sizes that don’t require the use of a crane on a job site. The panels also aren’t built with any nails or screws, which can decrease the energy efficiency of a home because air can leak in around the fasteners.

Cohen, though, was looking for a partner to manufacture the panels. Paul Grahovac, director of new business development for Prosoco, said Prosoco was looking for new opportunities like this one.

Grahovac told me this morning that details on how many people the new manufacturing facility would employ haven’t been finalized. But, he said one scenario starts with about six employees and grows to about 15 employees in the midterm. Grahovac also didn’t have wage estimates for the employees, who he said will be factory workers who will benefit from having a construction background or similar skill sets.

Grahovac said the company hopes to have necessary production equipment in the building by the end of the year, and manufacturing could begin before the second quarter of next year.

“The market is asking us to demonstrate that we can meet their needs for projects that they have coming up,” Grahovac said. “There’s good demand. We’re hustling to get this done.”

City commissioners will discuss waiving the special assessments at their Tuesday evening meeting. County commissioners then could consider donating the vacant lot shortly thereafter. We’ll see whether commissioners are ready to act on Tuesday or whether they seek more information on the jobs and wage totals and run a cost-benefit analysis, which has been a standard practice for more traditional tax abatement requests.

In other news and notes from around town:

• City commissioners at their Tuesday evening meeting also are set to appoint a longtime state government leader as the chair of the advisory group that will vet candidates for a vacant seat on the Lawrence City Commission.

Mayor Mike Amyx is recommending that Joe Harkins serve as the chair of the 12-member advisory committee. Harkins is a former commissioner on the Kansas Corporation Commission, a former director of the Kansas Water Office, a former secretary at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, a former director of Kansas University’s Public Management Center, and a former special assistant to former Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.

For what it is worth, Harkins is not what I would consider a frequent participant in City Hall issues, although he was a consistent critic of the process the previous City Commission followed on the Rock Chalk Park project.

As chair of the advisory committee, Harkins would run all meetings of the group. Its work is expected to start soon. The city is taking applications until 5 p.m. Sept. 9 for the seat that was left open by Jeremy Farmer’s resignation, following financial questions that emerged at his previous job.

• City commissioners at their Tuesday evening meeting also are set to discuss how much fire protection should be required for businesses that board animals. The discussion comes in the wake of fire that was deadly for many animals at Pet World earlier this year.

Fire department officials are recommending, among other items, the code require new animal housing facilities of 3,000 square feet or greater include an automatic fire sprinkler system. Existing animal housing facilities greater than 3,000 square feet wouldn’t have to comply with the fire sprinkler requirement, unless they undertook a significant renovation.

The Lawrence Humane Society has said it wants more stringent regulations. Leaders there are proposing that any newly constructed animal housing facility — regardless of size — be required to install automatic sprinklers.

Officials with Pet World want to go further. They are urging the city to adopt a code that would require all animal housing facilities to put in fire sprinklers immediately. In other words, existing facilities would have to figure out how to retrofit their buildings for sprinkler systems.

City Hall staff members are recommending that commissioners adopt the fire department’s recommendations to sprinkle only new buildings greater than 3,000 square feet. That recommendation comes after the city conducted a survey of business owners that have animal facilities, so think kennels, veterinarian offices, pet groomers and other such companies. That survey, which had 13 responses, showed there were some concerns about the cost of adding sprinkler systems to existing building.

Fire department officials said it was difficult to provide a good estimate on how much it would cost to retrofit a building because the process varies greatly depending on the type of the building. But fire department officials said a fire line installation into a building would cost a minimum of $6,000 and a required back flow preventer for such a line would cost anywhere from $2,600 to $14,000. Installing the actual sprinkler heads, piping and control systems inside the building would all cost additional dollars.

That wasn’t the most interesting finding of the survey, though. The city asked each participant how many animals are typically housed at the facility, and one respondent said “up to 10,000.” The survey results were anonymous, so I don’t know what facility that may be.

An indoor ant farm? My old college apartment where I left a batch of unwashed dishes? Or perhaps I’m unaware of a remake of the “Animal House” movie in town.

Seriously, I wonder what that facility would be. Regardless, city commissioners will discuss the fire code issue at their meeting at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall.