photo by: Nick Krug

An area just southeast of the intersection of the South Lawrence Trafficway and Iowa Street is pictured in this 2017 file photo.

The idea of a major new shopping center south of the South Lawrence Trafficway has new life — and a new plan that is much larger than the one city commissioners already have rejected for the site.

Plans have been filed at City Hall for a 585,000 square-foot shopping center for the southeast corner of the interchange of the SLT and U.S. Highway 59. Plans call for about 395,000 square feet of retail development, about 50,000 square feet of new restaurants and 140,000 square feet of new hotels. The development would be one of the largest in the city, with plans showing room for more than a half-dozen large retailers and another 15 or so smaller retailers and restaurants. In the past, Academy Sports, Old Navy, HomeGoods, and Designer Shoe Warehouse have been among the firms the developer has identified as having a strong interest in the project.

The same North Carolina-based development group that previously has tried to develop the property — Collett development — is behind this proposal. The development group currently is suing the City Commission over its January 2016 denial of a 250,000 square-foot shopping center development for the property.
But the new proposal may be an indication that the city is ready to rethink its past denial. City Manager Tom Markus confirmed to me that he has talked with the development group.

“I indicated to them that my preference would be for them to plan the whole site, and not just a piece of the site,” Markus said.

However, just because the city manager has shown an interest in the project doesn’t mean that it is set to win city approval. The city’s planning staff has recommended approval of the other two previous plans for the site. It was at the Planning Commission and the City Commission where those plans met their downfall. That could still happen with this proposal.

“It still has to go through the process, and the public process still has to be honored,” Markus said.

Markus, though, does think there are some significant differences between this proposal and previous ones.
“I think it is substantially more environmentally designed in terms of protecting the (adjacent) wetlands and the watershed,” Markus said.

Dan Watkins, a Lawrence attorney who represents the development group, highlighted several differences between this plan and the previous ones. They include:

• The potential relocation of a frontage road would allow more of the development to be on the northern part of the site, which means it would be farther away from the Wakarusa River.

• The development group has a tentative deal for Baker University to take ownership of 55 acres of property on the southern portion of the site. That property, which is in the floodplain and near the river, would be dedicated as open space and would be managed by Baker, which also manages the Baker Wetlands to the east. The area would have a public easement to allow for a trail or other such use to be built on it.

• The project would be developed under a special part of the city code called a development overlay district. That gives the city greater ability to apply certain design guidelines to the project.

What hasn’t changed from the past plans is that the development group is not asking for any city incentives or tax breaks to build the project, Watkins said.

City commissioners in January 2016 rejected the smaller proposal on a 4-1 vote. So, obviously, at least two votes will have to change for this project to win commission approval. It will make for interesting political drama, especially given that this project will be happening during the middle of a City Commission campaign. Three of the five seats are up for election. A primary will be in August and the general election in November.

But if you are more interested in shopping than politics, there’s plenty to talk about on that front too. The plan would make way for several new big box retailers to come to town. And while the development group hasn’t specifically mentioned Costco or Sam’s Club, a representative seemed to hint at that when I talked with him Tuesday.

Brian Sturm, a planner with Lawrence-based Landplan Engineering, noted that there are a number of buildings between 12,000 and 65,000 square feet that could accommodate a number of national retailers. The group previously had said it had interest from tenants including Academy Sports, Old Navy, Designer Shoe Warehouse, HomeGoods and others. But Sturm also noted that the plans included one large building that he said could be “devoted to a membership wholesale club type of store.”

There has been a lot of smoke for a long time about Costco locating in Lawrence, but nothing has come up, even though the rumor has been in the wind for a couple of years. Certainly a competing development group — led by the local Schwada and Fritzel families — has been working to get Costco to come to its commercially zoned property near Rock Chalk Park in northwest Lawrence. At this point, I’m not sure I’ll believe any Costco rumblings until I see them break ground.

As for potential tenants, Sturm said Collett reports that interest from retailers has been strong as they’ve seen the South Lawrence Trafficway open.

“They’ve been in discussions with a number of different retailers who are anxious to locate in Lawrence,” Sturm said.

Watkins is hoping that the completion of the trafficway — the state completed the SLT late last year after more than 25 years of debate and delay — will cause commissioners to rethink their positions.
“In past conversations, the trafficway wasn’t there,” Watkins said. “It is today, and it has made this is a logical place for this type of development.”