Lawrence's J.C. Penney store, 3311 Iowa St., is shown in this aerial file photo from July 2014.

We are in wait-and-wonder mode when it comes to Lawrence’s J.C. Penney store. Many of us are waiting for the going-out-of-business sale and the deals that come with it. Those in the development world, though, are wondering about the future of one of south Iowa Street’s larger retail buildings.

I talked today with the Lawrence businessman who is leading the redevelopment efforts of the J.C. Penney property, and while he also is waiting and wondering, I didn’t hear any signs of worry from him. Martin Moore — who leads a group that owns the land the J.C. Penney store occupies — said he’s been fielding multiple inquiries since J.C. Penney announced last month that the Lawrence store was on its closure list.

“I’ve been getting four or five calls a day from brokers and owners and people involved in the property world,” Moore said. “The only thing we’re telling people is ‘stay tuned.’ We have something we’re working on. It will be exciting to see what happens with it.”

I had been checking in with some folks in the commercial real estate world about the prospects for the J.C. Penney building once the store closes, which is now expected to happen in late July. The view is the property at 3311 Iowa St. is well-situated. It has good visibility from Iowa Street, the area is seeing growing traffic volumes thanks to the opening of the South Lawrence Trafficway, and the building is right in the middle of a prime shopping district with Target, Wal-Mart, Kohl’s and others all either next door or across the street from the property.

But the one piece of concern I heard is that J.C. Penney still has a lot of years left on its lease. That sometimes can slow redevelopment of a property. A landlord may not be motivated to make changes as long as he’s still contractually obligated to get a lease payment. And sometimes a store like J.C. Penney, which is fighting for survival, gets bogged down with other issues and doesn’t do the work needed to free the property for redevelopment.

Moore, though, told me he doesn’t anticipate any such problems. He told me J.C. Penney actually owns the building, while Moore’s group owns the ground.

“That is highly unlikely,” Moore said of a scenario where the building sits empty for a long period while J.C. Penney determines its strategy. “There is a lot of buzz for that area right now. It will not become a derelict piece of real estate.”

Moore didn’t provide me any hints of what project he is working on for the building. However, there have been plenty of names in the news of chain stores looking at the Lawrence market. As part of the proposal for the KTen Crossing shopping center south of the SLT, the development group announced that Academy Sports, Designer Shoe Warehouse, HomeGoods, Fresh Market and Old Navy were all strongly interested in signing leases. But that center, proposed for the southeast corner of the SLT and Iowa Street interchange, didn’t win City Commission approval. The developer and the city are now engaged in a lawsuit over the matter.

In the meantime, you have to wonder whether some of those retailers might look at the J.C. Penney building as an opportunity. The J.C. Penney building is about 80,000 square feet, which probably would be too large for all of those retailers with the possible exception of Academy. But that wouldn’t be a problem. The trend has been for big box stores to be converted into multi-tenant retail buildings. Think of the old Sears building at 27th and Iowa that now houses Dick’s Sporting Goods, Boot Barn, Petsmart, and Ulta Beauty. The building at 31st and Iowa that houses Bed Bath & Beyond, TJ Maxx and World Market used to be a Kmart.

“The people who did that project did very well for themselves in how they repositioned that property,” Moore said of the former Kmart building. “There is a lot of work in a project like that, but they got rewarded in the end.”

Again, I don’t have any idea what Moore has planned, but it will be interesting to watch whether the J.C. Penney closing ends up being viewed as a loss or an opportunity.

In other news and notes from around town:

• While we are talking about commercial real estate, keep your eyes open for a new sign around town. Stephens Real Estate — which has been a longtime residential real estate company — has started a commercial real estate division.

More accurately, the company has restarted a commercial real estate division. Stephens had one of the larger commercial real estate businesses in town up until the late 1990s or so. But that part of its business faded away as several of its agents left to partner up with a national firm.

But Stephens in recent weeks has hired Lawrence businessman Evan Holt to lead what it is calling Stephens Commercial. Some of you may know Holt as a co-owner of the Levee Cafe in North Lawrence. But Holt leaves the day-to-day operations of the diner business to his wife and business partner. Holt instead focuses more on property issues. He owns the commercial real estate near 25th and Iowa streets that used to house Kief’s Audio Video and now houses Boom Comics. He also was part of the group that redeveloped the property that now houses Raising Cane’s chicken along Iowa Street. He said his experience as a landlord should be helpful in the real estate business.

“I speak the landlord language,” Holt said.

Holt also has an MBA degree, and he said he plans to use that training to do a lot of analytical research and presentations on the Lawrence real estate market.

Holt said his read of the Lawrence commercial market currently is that it is not nearly as hot of a market as Lawrence’s residential scene. But because of the relatively small number of commercial real estate agents in town, he thinks the community can benefit from a having another firm in the mix.

He also thinks the commercial real estate market will pick up in Lawrence as new investors start looking at some older properties that are candidates for redevelopment.

“People aren’t seeing that right now, and they aren’t jumping on some properties that are good candidates for that,” Holt said.

The new division will operate as Stephens Commercial Real Estate, and at the moment, Holt will be the primary agent for the division. It will become one of several commercial brokers in town. The Lawrence office of Colliers International, Doug Brown of McGrew Commercial Real Estate and Lance Johnson of the Johnson Group are generally considered to be the three most active locally based firms, while several Kansas City firms also do business in town.