photo by: Mike Yoder

Pachamamas, 800 New Hampshire St.

Get ready for another multistory apartment project in downtown Lawrence. Local businessman Doug Compton has confirmed he has a deal to convert the Pachamamas restaurant building at Eighth and New Hampshire into a five-story building that will house about 60 apartments.

As we previously reported, the owner of Pachamamas had put the building on the market and plans to shut the restaurant down after Valentine’s Day (which, sweet mother of Holy Roses and Overextended Bank Accounts, is Saturday.) Compton told me he has signed a contract to purchase the building, and expects to close on the deal by mid-May.

But don’t look for the building to get torn down. Instead, look for four additional stories to be built atop the existing structure. The building used to be an armory and was built to a heavy-duty standard. My understanding is the building was constructed to allow a helicopter to land on the roof, and Compton said he has photos of tanks parked on the roof. (Don’t look at me, I wasn’t driving.)

Engineers have attested that with just a few modifications the building can easily support another four stories. Compton said that is appealing because it could put the project on a fast track. He said he plans to have the project under construction this summer. That would mean Compton would have two multistory apartment buildings under construction on New Hampshire Street at the same time.

He said work is expected to begin any day on a seven-story apartment and office building at the northeast corner of Ninth and New Hampshire streets, on the site where Black Hills Energy previously had its offices. The project, which was approved by city commissioners last year, is expected to add about 115 apartment units to downtown.

The current proposal for the Pachamamas site would add 56 new apartments, with most being one- and two-bedroom units, Compton said. But unlike the project at the northeast corner of Ninth and New Hampshire, the Pachamamas project won’t include an underground parking garage. Downtown zoning allows projects to be constructed without providing off-street parking. Compton said he is not planning to build a parking garage as part of the project. He said by not spending millions on a parking garage, he expects that will allow for lower rental rates than what he has been able to offer at his other downtown projects.

“We’re trying to bring this in at a different price point,” Compton said.

The project still needs to win approval from Lawrence City Hall. It will face hearings at the city’s Historic Resources Commission and also may need City Commission approval, especially if the project requests any financial incentives. Compton didn’t say whether the project would seek any incentives.

If the project moves forward it will be the third major apartment project Compton had undertaken on New Hampshire Street since 2011. He started with the 901 Building at the southwest corner of Ninth and New Hampshire streets. When the Pachamamas site is completed, Compton’s projects will have added a little more than 225 apartments in essentially a one-block stretch of New Hampshire Street. Compton also was the lead developer on the multistory building at the southeast corner of Ninth and New Hampshire that houses a Marriott hotel.

“We feel like we’re really close to changing the whole dynamics of New Hampshire Street,” Compton said.

As for Pachamamas, it appears the fine-dining establishment is in its final days. UPDATE: I got in touch with Ken Baker, chef and owner of the establishment, and he said the restaurant will be open through Valentine’s Day, but that will be the last night of business for the establishment.

Baker said he doesn’t have any other restaurant ventures planned at the moment, but said he wouldn’t rule it out for the future.

“There has just been a crazy outpouring of emotion from clientele and staff over the last several weeks,” Baker said. “It has been a wild ride, and a big part of me will miss it. But I think there is more on the horizon.”

Compton said he did not purchase any part of the restaurant business. He said the ground floor of the building will be used for a restaurant or retail use, but he said he did not have a tenant in place.

“If somebody wants to lease the space and open that type of restaurant again, I’m happy to do it,” Compton said. “I don’t have anything lined up for it yet.”

In other news and notes from around town:

• Compton said that plans to bring a grocery store to the corner of 11th and Massachusetts streets are progressing well. As we previously reported, owners of the Lawrence-based Checkers grocery store want to open a grocery as part of a multistory building Compton hopes to build at the site of the Allen Press property in downtown.

Compton said his group has been tweaking a few aspects of the design and parking plans for the project after having further meetings with officials from Associated Grocers, the wholesale provider for the grocery store.

“Everything is still moving along,” Compton said.

That project, which would be a seven-story building that would include office and apartment uses, must still win several approvals at City Hall.

A group of residents, led by City Commission candidate David Crawford, continue to lobby to have a grocery store project proceed at the former Borders bookstore site at Seventh and New Hampshire streets. My understanding is the group continues to be in discussions with the Michigan-based owners of the building. The owners of Checkers had tried to strike a deal for that site but couldn’t come to terms with the owners. I’m not sure what the group of citizens has in mind — whether it is lobbying city commissioners to provide some incentives to make the site more palatable to Checkers or whether it is working to bring in a different grocery store company.

If it is incentives, it will be interesting to see how commissioners choose between the two sites, which in the grand scheme of things are relatively close to each other. I haven’t timed it officially, but via car, the two sites are probably within 60 to 90 seconds of each other. On foot, they are within a few minutes of each other.

• If you use your Tandy 1000 computer or other cutting-edge device to follow my Twitter feed — @clawhorn_ljw — you already know that we reported yesterday evening that the RadioShack store at Sixth and Kasold is slated to soon close.

The RadioShack chain on Thursday filed for bankruptcy protection, and on Monday a list of store closings was presented to the court. The store at the shopping center at Sixth and Kasold is included on the list, but the store at The Malls shopping center at 23rd and Louisiana is not on the list. But look for changes there as well. National media outlets are reporting that any RadioShack store that isn’t closed will be put up for sale. Some reports say that Sprint will take over about 1,750 of the stores, and the locations will carry Sprint and RadioShack products.

As for the store at Sixth and Kasold, an employee there said she wasn’t authorized to speak to the media. But it looks like going-out-of-business sales soon will start at all the locations that are closing. The company has said discounts will begin at 50 percent off.

The company plans to close about 1,700 stores, in addition to several stores that already have been shuttered. As we previously reported, that included the Lawrence store on south Iowa Street, which closed several weeks ago. The chain had about 4,000 stores.