Mortgage interest rates may be historically cheap, but the number of homes prospective buyers have to choose from in Lawrence also is near historic lows. The result in June was a local housing market on the downturn. The number of homes sold and their average selling prices both were down in June compared with a year ago, according to the latest report from the Lawrence Board of Realtors. Lawrence home sales ...
Most of the numbers in this pandemic haven’t been that welcome. This one might be: $129 million. Douglas County businesses and nonprofits got at least that much in low-cost, potentially forgivable federal loans. You might remember this spring when Congress approved the Paycheck Protection Program, which basically allowed businesses with fewer than 500 employees to apply for federally backed loans if they ...
The movement in Douglas County right now is to save rural farmland, which has created an interesting question for a pending project in North Lawrence. Where do you park the tractors? Plans have been filed for a 35,000-square-foot building to be constructed on a North Lawrence farm field along U.S. Highway 24/59 just north of the city limits. Most of the building will serve as an equipment shed for tractors and ...
Maybe while you’ve been in lockdown mode during this pandemic, you’ve wanted to climb the walls. Soon there will be a new spot in Lawrence that makes a business of it, and it may change the downtown skyline in the process. All the way back in January, we briefly reported that plans had been filed to convert the building at 714 Vermont St. into a climbing gym. Well, those plans have continued to advance, ...
Drive-thru coffee has been known to get me moving. (I don’t drink it, but I do spill it on my lap.) Now, maybe it will get a new west Lawrence commercial development moving as well. Plans have been filed at City Hall that would clear the way for a drive-thru coffee shop to locate just off Clinton Parkway near Inverness Drive. If approved, it would be the first building in a Clinton Parkway commercial ...
A Lawrence landmark is now on a firmer financial foundation than it has been in years. You may remember that in March we reported the United Way of Douglas County had reached a deal to move its offices into a portion of the historic Castle Tea Room building near 13th and Massachusetts streets. Well, the nonprofit now will have company. A deal has been struck for a growing, Lawrence-based mental health ...