Right now it is just a bare piece of ground. But Bo Harris is confident that someday soon his property at Eighth and New Hampshire streets is going to change downtown Lawrence for the better.

For a little more than a year, Harris, chief executive officer of Lawrence-based Harris Construction Co., has been planning a 31-unit loft-style condominium project for the northeast corner property.

It would be downtown’s first condominiums, which are different than apartments in that residents own the space rather than rent. With that concept, Harris has been touting the project’s value.

“I think this is an important project not only for downtown but for the East Lawrence community,” he said. “It starts the process of bringing people to live in downtown, and more importantly, owning in downtown. That’s what gives them that interest in downtown’s future, in East Lawrence’s future.”

People who know Harris and have worked with him said the project was fairly typical of what Harris sets out to do.

“Bo is like me in that he was born here, raised here, lived most of his life here,” said Kelvin Heck, a Lawrence commercial real estate agent. “That hometown experience and perspective makes him a little different. He’s trying to do something that will leave a mark on Lawrence.”

Construction company

It’s only natural Harris would choose to leave his mark through buildings. Building is what he grew up doing. At a young age he began working for his father, Neil, who, like his father before him, owned a Lawrence construction company.

That’s the way it was until the late 1960s when Harris put down his tools and picked up his basketball. Harris was a scholarship player on Ted Owens’ Kansas University basketball squad, but left KU to play for his freshman coach at South Dakota University.

Bo Harris, 57, is a third-generation construction company owner. About three years ago, in partnership with three investors, Harris renovated the Kansas Seed House, 805 N.H., in background, into an office and retail building.

When he graduated in 1969, Harris had a choice. He had a girlfriend who lived in Denver, a friend who lived in Hawaii and a whole bunch of family history in Lawrence.

“All I really knew was that I wanted to start a construction company and it was going to be in one of those three locations,” said Harris, 57. “I made the very wise choice of coming back home.”

History lover

Now, Harris many times finds himself working in buildings that he traipsed around in as a child. About three years ago his company, in partnership with three other Lawrence investors, renovated the Kansas Seed House, 805 N.H., into an office building.

The 30,000-square-foot project largely restored the original stone and timber used in the construction of the building about 100 years ago. It is the type of project Harris likes.

“It is unique,” Harris said. “It is different than walking into a new office building. When I worked for my dad, we did a lot of remodeling growing up. I’ve always liked that.”

The project also has been well received by the market. It is full with five tenants, ranging from a restaurant to a law office. The success has Harris looking to do more.

In January, he started the first phase of what is scheduled to be a much larger historic renovation in East Lawrence. Harris is looking to buy the entire 800 block of Pennsylvania Street and by the end of 2006 convert the old buildings into office, residential and retail uses. He’s also expressed an interest in some of the property immediately east of Pennsylvania Street.

In his mind, he can see the rough-and-tumble area — which formerly housed a salvage yard, construction businesses and even a chicken processing facility — becoming an extension of the downtown area.

Harris stands in front of the proposed site for a 31-unit loft-style condominium project at the northeast corner of Eighth and New Hampshire streets.

“It is something I hope to connect with the vitality of downtown,” Harris said. “But for it to be a success, I felt like it had to be a pretty big project. To bring vitality to that block, you’re going to have to bring it to everything. The existing buildings down there are pretty rough.”

Being patient

Harris, though, readily admits that his projects frequently serve as magnets for difficulties. After all, what other Lawrence developer can say he recently dealt with a group of self-described anarchists who climbed up a tree and refused to come down?

That’s the situation Harris faced in mid-2003 when a group began camping out atop an old, diseased elm tree at the site of Harris’ condo project. Members of the group climbed the tree and refused to leave as part of an effort to stop Harris from cutting the tree down.

The effort didn’t work. The tree eventually came down, but Harris showed patience with the protesters, who stayed in the tree for about 10 days. The approach garnered Harris some praise.

“Overall, I thought he handled it pretty well,” said Ed Tato, president of the East Lawrence Neighborhood Assn, which wasn’t part of the group camping in the tree. “Some people would have thrown them out and cut it down right away, but the only reason to do that is ego.

“He realized there wasn’t any reason the tree had to come down in the next 24 hours.”

Houses at Alvamar Golf and Country Club are among several projects Bo Harris has undertaken.

Tato and the neighborhood association are now watching Harris as he progresses on the Pennsylvania Street project. Tato, thus far, is impressed.

“He does a good job of trying to keep us informed,” said Tato, who said Harris often attends the association’s meetings. “I would say he is an atypical developer in the sense that he is doing stuff that no one else wants to do. I get the feeling nobody else would be interested in those buildings on Pennsylvania Street with the shape they’re in. But after Bo’s done with them, I’ll bet lots of people will be interested.”

A rendering of the Hobbs Taylor Lofts that Bo Harris plans to build at Eighth and New Hampshire streets.