photo by: Mike Yoder

This photo taken Thursday, Oct. 8, 2015, shows the construction work being done on the large HERE Kansas apartment complex just east of Kansas University's Memorial Stadium.

When the previous Lawrence City Commission approved a controversial set of financial incentives for the $75 million Here @ Kansas apartment project near Memorial Stadium, one of the selling points was a high-tech, robotic parking garage that would be a showpiece for the project.

Well, that high-tech garage now appears to be a high-tech problem, which may leave neighbors of the apartment project worried about where everyone is going to park. The manufacturer of the parking garage system, Boomerang Systems Inc., has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. In addition, it is suing one of its primary lenders, and in that lawsuit it has confirmed it has had to stop work on the parking system for the Lawrence apartment project, according to a report by the legal website Law360.

Interim City Manager Diane Stoddard told me this morning that the city is aware of the situation and is monitoring it closely. The concern, of course, is how the apartment project will handle parking for its hundreds of tenants if the parking system isn’t available. It is a big question because the project has 237 apartments, or 624 bedrooms. The project at 1101 and 1115 Indiana St. doesn’t have a surface parking lot. All the parking for the apartments was to be provided in a below-ground garage that was specifically designed for the Boomerang system.

“At this point, I know we have touched base with the developers to understand the status of things,” Stoddard said. “I don’t know that we have received a definite answer.”

photo by: Mike Yoder

This photo taken Thursday, Oct. 8, 2015, shows the construction work being done on the large HERE Kansas apartment complex just east of Kansas University's Memorial Stadium.

Jim Heffernan, the lead representative for the project’s development group, said his group is diligently working on finding another provider for the parking garage equipment. He said the project still intends to use an automated parking garage model, but he said it won’t wait for Boomerang to sort out its issues.

“We were most surprised to hear about the bankruptcy,” Heffernan said. “We are in discussions with other providers.”

Heffernan said the unexpected parking problem is not expected to delay the opening of the project. The project is scheduled to open for the start of the 2016-2107 school year at KU.

A rendering of the HERE Kansas luxury apartment complex, currently under construction at 1111 Indiana St.

Stoddard said the technical issues with the parking system don’t relieve the project of meeting its parking requirements.

“The project at this point is obligated to provide that parking,” Stoddard said. “That will be something they will need to determine. If there is any request for a modification to the parking requirements, that would have to go through a process.”

Stoddard said any modification to the parking plan would have to receive City Commission approval.

The Lawrence project isn’t the only one affected by the Boomerang bankruptcy. The company also had to stop work on an automated system for a Here apartment project in Champaign, Ill. The apartment complex has since opened, and Here officials have resorted to renting space in a city-owned parking lot a few blocks away, according to an article in the News-Gazette in Champaign-Urbana. That article also reported that the Champaign project opened with unpainted walls and ceilings, exposed wiring, an unfinished gym and several uncompleted amenities.

Heffernan told me the situation in Champaign is significantly different than what exists in Lawrence. Boomerang filed for bankruptcy the day before it was scheduled to deliver the parking system to the Champaign project.

“They gave us no indication,” Heffernan said of the bankruptcy filing. “We were talking with them up until the day before they filed. We were most surprised and disappointed.”

Stoddard said the city has not received a request from the development group seeking to use off-site parking for the project.

“I think the ball is in their court on how to propose how they are going to meet the parking requirements,” Stoddard said. “If that is a strategy they want to employ here, they will need to go through the appropriate processes to accomplish that.”

A rendering of the HERE Kansas luxury apartment complex, currently under construction at 1111 Indiana St.

If you remember, the project previously did propose using off-site parking to meet some of its parking needs. The development group tried to cut a deal that would allow students to use nearby Kansas University parking spaces, but the city rejected that proposal after neighbors strongly opposed it. The company also sought to reduce the size of its parking garage fairly late in the development process. Commissioners rejected that plan too, after neighbors said they were growing worried that tenants of the project would end up parking on city streets in the already congested Oread neighborhood.

If the project has to ask for an exemption from the city’s parking code in Lawrence, watch out. The project already has been a political hot potato. The previous City Commission approved, on a 3-2 vote, an 85 percent, 10-year tax rebate for the project. The incentive package created a lot of debate over whether the city should offer incentives to attract an apartment project in a town where lots of apartments are being built without incentives. The three winning candidates in April’s City Commission elections — Leslie Soden, Stuart Boley and Matthew Herbert — all expressed concerns about the incentives package during their campaigns.

There is not a single person on the commission currently who supported the incentives package. If the development group is forced to use off-site parking to meet the parking demands of the project — as is being done in Champaign — it is unclear whether the current City Commission would allow that. It also seems likely that the current commission would have a problem with giving an 85 percent tax rebate to a project that needs an exemption from the city’s parking code.

Soden said she can foresee the commission having a debate about whether the incentives are still appropriate, if the project is unable to deliver on the robotic parking system or fails to provide the number of parking spaces called for in the plan.

“Absolutely the incentives could come into play again,” Soden said.

But based on Heffernan’s comments, it may be a moot point. Heffernan expressed confidence in finding another vendor for the project.

If you are thinking that another option is the space dedicated to the robotic parking garage could be developed as a traditional parking garage, that would seem to be difficult. The big advantage to the robotic parking garage system — it uses an elevator and systems of tracks to move vehicles around — is that it can fit more vehicles in less square feet than a traditional garage because it doesn’t need entrance and exit ramps and such.

The plans approved by the city call for about 460 parking spaces.

The city ultimately holds the hammer on this project. The apartment project — and the retail development that is planned for the lower floors — can’t be used until the city issues an occupancy permit, which happens after the city has determined the project has met all city codes.