Cowboy boots, a new pair of Wranglers and some fancy lipstick: A Saturday night destined to end poorly on Facebook. No, that’s not what I’m talking about at all. I’m talking about the newest national retailers that are coming to Lawrence. Ulta Beauty and Boot Barn have filed plans to go into the Dick’s Sporting Goods development at 27th and Iowa streets.

Ulta touts itself as the largest retailer of beauty products in the country. It sells about 20,000 different beauty products including brands such as Revlon, Maybelline, Neutrogena, Clinique, Lancome and several others that I have not heard of but perhaps have unknowingly paid for. The company’s website says every store also includes a full-service salon.

You may be less familiar with Boot Barn. Its website says the company has about 150 stores in 24 states, with the closest location to Lawrence being a store in Blue Springs, Mo. The company advertises that it carries more than 8,000 styles of boots, jeans, shirts, hats, belts, jewelry and other items. But boots clearly are a big deal here. The company lists multiple categories of boots, including: western boots, work boots, motorcycle boots, casual boots (you’ve got to have a good pair for the beach), equestrian boots, outdoor boots and some unfamiliar category called “shoes.” (I think it is French.)

No word yet on when the retailers will open in Lawrence. The plans do call for additional construction work at the 27th and Iowa location. It appears about 5,000 square feet of additional space will be added to the building to accommodate the two retailers. Both stores will be about 9,500 square feet in size. Plans call for Ulta to be on the south end of the building, next to the PetSmart that currently is under construction. Boot Barn will be on the north end of the building, next to the existing Dick’s Sporting Goods.

If you remember, the 27th and Iowa street location also is the site where Chick-fil-A is supposed to be locating. We reported in November that the company had filed a plan to open a restaurant in the parking lot of the Dick’s Sporting Goods development. These latest plans don’t provide many details on that portion of the development, but a location for a restaurant is still shown on the plan. In case you are wondering exactly where it will be, the plans show it just north of the Midas automotive repair shop. My understanding is the Chick-fil-A application is moving through City Hall without any problems, but I’ll let you know if I find out differently.

In other news and notes from around town:

• You might remember that Ulta Beauty was once slated for a proposed retail project southeast of the Iowa Street and South Lawrence Trafficway interchange. So, the exodus from the project has officially begun.

There’s certainly a lot of speculation — although no confirmation yet — that one of the other big tenants that had been announced for that development is close to signing a deal to locate elsewhere on south Iowa Street. Multiple sources have told me that Academy Sports is looking seriously at the 25th and Iowa area where Discovery Furniture is closing down its Lawrence location.

We’ll have to wait and see if that deal happens. But it is now clear that a 300,000 square foot shopping center is not going to be built south of the SLT. Chris Challis, a representative of the North Carolina group seeking to develop the property, confirmed to me that they’ve officially withdrawn their plans for city consideration.

But that doesn’t mean the group is going away. Challis said the development group is still very interested in building retail on the site. He said he expects to file plans for a development that would be a little more than half the size of the original 300,000 square foot proposal.

At one point we had reported the group was trying to revive the project by landing Sam’s Club for the site. Challis said the group indeed was in discussion with Sam’s, but never could get the company to provide the level of assurances that would have been necessary to win City Hall support.

Challis said city regulations will require the group to wait until the third quarter of 2015 until the new plans can be filed for the site. He said he is hopeful that a smaller project will gain more acceptance from the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission. If you remember, the Planning Commission recommended denial of the project on a 4-2 vote in July. But only six of the 10 planning commissioners participated in the meeting. The project never did get a hearing before the City Commission. The tea leaves were pretty clear at City Hall that the project did not have the votes needed to win at the City Commission level. Several commissioners made it known that they wanted to give the already-zoned retail area near Rock Chalk Park in northwest Lawrence more time to develop.

So, this delay of about six months before a new plan can be filed on the SLT site will be interesting. Will city attitudes change if the Rock Chalk Park development has not attracted a major tenant in that six-month period? Tough to say because at this point it is tough to say who will be on the City Commission in six months.

Challis said the process has been frustrating, but he hopes the development group has gained some credibility with local leaders. He noted that Ulta is locating in Lawrence, and that all signs point to Academy wanting to do so as well.

“The only positive I can take out of this so far is that I think we have been shown to be committed to the market and truthful about the tenants that are interested in being here,” Challis said. “We are confident there are still other retailers that are very interested in being in Lawrence and on south Iowa Street.”

In case you have forgotten, the other tenants that Challis’ group had publicly disclosed for the development were Old Navy, Designer Shoe Warehouse and Marshalls/Home Goods. So, it may be worth keeping an eye out for those retailers in the future.