Surely this isn’t the first time that mixology has won out over macrame as a hobby. But, indeed, that type of victory has occurred as the former site of Lawrence’s Hobby Lobby store on 23rd Street has been converted into the city’s largest liquor store. We reported in November that plans had been filed for Cork & Barrel to move from its longtime home at 23rd and Iowa streets and into a portion of the ...
Story updated at 4:10 p.m. Thursday We reported in June that a Canadian manufacturer was eyeing Eudora to open a new plant to serve the railroad industry and add about 40 new jobs to the eastern Douglas County community in the process. Well, that deal has now been finalized. Modern Manufacturing announced Thursday that it had indeed selected Eudora for the project. Leaders from the city of Eudora, Douglas ...
Douglas County is living on the edge these days. Last week, the health department announced the county’s overall rate of COVID-19 tests coming back positive was up to 9.7% over the last 14 days. If the county gets to a 10% average, new restrictions — especially for schools and sports — could be mandated by health leaders. A new positivity rate is scheduled to be released Thursday. In other words, it is ...
LMH Health and the longtime Lawrence-based company that has run the day-to-day operations of the hospital’s emergency department are close to finalizing a contract extension. Members of the board of trustees for LMH Health were told at a Wednesday meeting that the hospital’s negotiations with Lawrence Emergency Medicine Associates are in their final stages, and a new contract should be signed before Nov. ...
It is not every day that Lawrence lands a $100 million project. LMH West, a new outpatient health care building in northwest Lawrence, is that type of project, though. The $101 million center checks in at 240,000 square feet in space and occupies a high-profile location along the South Lawrence Trafficway. It is just off of the Sixth Street interchange of the trafficway and is next door to the Rock Chalk Park ...
My brewing skills figuratively need to get to a new level. (I know a stout is a heavy beer, but I’m concerned mine sets off metal detectors.) A Lawrence brewing supply store, however, is literally moving to a new level. After quietly opening on a second-floor space earlier this year, the Lawrence Brew Supply Shop is expanding by moving to a ground-level Massachusetts Street storefront. Lawrence Brew Supply ...
A locally based construction company is looking to eastern Lawrence for its new corporate headquarters, and it hopes to put a unique industrial building on the state’s historic register in the process. An entity affiliated with Mar Lan Construction has purchased the old Zimmerman Steel building along East 19th Street, just west of Haskell Avenue. Kevin Markley, a principal with Mar Lan Construction, told me ...
As evidenced by the strain on my elastic waistband, it is easy to get groceries or a restaurant meal delivered to your home during this pandemic. But, eventually, the waistband breaks and you wish someone would deliver you a belt — or, at least, window shades. Now, a new Lawrence company is open for that wide-ranging type of delivery. Carried Out got its start in Albuquerque, N.M., earlier this year but ...
Chicken-or-egg questions have never been that difficult for me. The answer seems obvious: Both, fried, please. But downtown does have a slightly more difficult which-comes-first type of question. Does downtown need more residential development in order to get more office development, or does it need more office development to get more residential development? “Will they live down here if they don’t have ...
Obviously, a perfect place to locate a carryout barbecue restaurant would be next to a U-Haul store. (There is only so much brisket you can fit in a trunk.) But a local businessman is betting that downtown Lawrence will be a great place too. A barbecue joint with the very utilitarian name Wed-Sat BBQ is set to open at 733 New Hampshire St. in the next one to two weeks, owner Kevin Augustus told me. Augustus ...
A time machine with a dial labeled “pre-pandemic” would be welcome about now. One that comes with tacos would be even better. That’s not quite what is set to happen on Massachusetts Street, but it is close. La Parrilla plans to reopen its Mexican and Latin American-style restaurant after about a three-year hiatus. What’s more, the new La Parrilla will be much more similar to its original version — a ...
They call New Jersey the Garden State, and I now have reason to believe the produce comes out of the ground already battered and deep fried. At least I’m hopeful of it after learning more about a New Jersey-style sandwich shop that is coming to downtown Lawrence. Fat Shack is scheduled to open in late September or early October at 1008 Massachusetts St., which is the spot that formerly housed the Ondori ...
There are many things I can’t do with a mask covering my mouth. I can’t show off my toothy smile that causes orthodontists to dream of tropical vacations and other expensive purchases. I can’t blow nearly as big a bubble with my chewing gum, and sunflower seeds are messier than normal. But I can still utter that magical three-word phrase: I’ll buy it. Evidently lots of other folks can, too. The state ...
The gun business is booming, which means Mondays are too at one particular south Lawrence shopping center. Shooters Gun Club has opened in the shopping center near 25th and Iowa streets. The business isn’t brand new; it opened just a few days before the pandemic struck the Lawrence area in March. I’m going back and catching up with some of those businesses that I normally would have written about but ...
Maybe at one point in time the Airport Motel just outside of North Lawrence was a high-flying establishment. But that time was long ago, and the aged facility is now officially grounded. The motel has closed, and parts of it soon may be demolished, its new owner said. Lawrence businessman Brian Pine and his family purchased the property at 1493 U.S. Highway 40 — basically across the road from the Lawrence ...
Douglas County’s unemployment rate dipped ever so slightly in July, but the number of unemployed in the county still was up by more than 3,100 people compared to a year ago. The state on Friday released its labor report for July, and it didn’t show signs of a rapid recovery in the local jobs market. The county’s unemployment rate checked in at 8.2% for the month. That was down from 8.3% in June. That ...
There’s a shoe deal that Lawrence leaders may want to keep an eye on, and for once it doesn’t involve what the latest athlete at Allen Fieldhouse is wearing. Instead, it involves Payless. You remember the discount shoe brand that for decades had its corporate headquarters in Topeka. You also likely remember the bankruptcy and the complete closing of all U.S. Payless stores in 2019. Well, now the company ...
Wednesday was a historic day for Kamala Harris. It also was a pretty noteworthy one for Lawrence crop artist Stan Herd. It was his 70th birthday, and he spent it in a Douglas County field crafting a crop art portrait of Harris. He finished at 6 p.m. Just a few hours later, Harris became the first woman of color of either major party to accept the vice presidential nomination. By the time the Democratic ...
The future of Lawrence’s longtime Italian restaurant Paisano’s is a bit like my last spaghetti dinner. It is going to take a little time to untangle. Questions about what will happen to Paisano’s Ristorante, 2112 W. 25th Street, have emerged ever since we reported last week that the parent company of Kwik Shop had filed a plan to demolish the shopping center that houses the restaurant and about a dozen ...