photo by: Youtube screenshot

Kelly Magee (left), the owner of Q39 restaurant, speaking to the Lawrence city commission Tuesday night. The commission voted to defer the adoption of a financial package that would allow the redevelopment a portion of the former Journal-World printing plant to a restaurant.

Developers working to open a Q39 barbecue restaurant in downtown Lawrence say the project is on hold after city commissioners voted Tuesday night to defer an initial step toward an economic incentive package.

As the Journal-World has reported, the restaurant has paused its construction while seeking financial incentives from the city, including a sales tax exemption on construction materials through industrial revenue bonds. The commission on Tuesday didn’t shoot the request down, and the developer will still be able to seek an incentive package. But commissioners did vote 4-0, with Commissioner Amber Sellers absent, to defer their decision on the first step of the incentive process until they have more information.

On Tuesday night, the commission heard from Patrick Watkins, an attorney representing the development on the site of the former Journal-World printing plant building near Sixth and New Hampshire streets. (Note: The Journal-World has no ownership or involvement in the project.)

Watkins told the commission the restaurant “had to have” the incentive package to continue the redevelopment of the building, which had been vacant for many years. He said the 70,000-square-foot building, which he called the “elephant in downtown Lawrence,” has seen many redevelopment projects fail because it is very difficult to redevelop, and those difficulties had reared their head in the Q39 project, too.

The popular Kansas City-based restaurant had begun the renovations in late November as part of a larger project with another developer, 3D Development. They had originally hoped to renovate the entire property, adding high-end office space, a food hall and a unique open-air plaza that would house a variety of entertainment events.

But as the Journal-World reported in October, 3D Development, led by Kansas City businessman Vince Bryant, let its option to purchase the full plant expire, stalling the larger development plan. In order to stay on their timeline of opening in mid-2025, the developers for Q39 decided to seek the financial incentives.

The incentives package that Q39 wants would create a new taxing district that would add 2% to the sales tax rate for all food and beverages purchased at the restaurant and would allow the development to save more than $160,000 by exempting the project from paying sales taxes on the construction materials needed to renovate the restaurant site.

Kelly Magee, the owner of Q39, told the commission that she wanted to continue with the development because “she loves Lawrence” and she and many other members of her family attended KU. Magee said when the first location of Q39 opened in Kansas City, it helped bring more traffic to the area it opened in. She wanted to bring that same impact to Lawrence.

“My hope is to provide the same (revitalization) here,” Magee said.

Although commissioners said they appreciated the continued interest of Q39 in redeveloping the long-vacant property — Commissioner Bart Littlejohn praised the developers for wanting to see a “thriving downtown” — the four commissioners could not come to an agreement on Tuesday to start the incentive process.

The commission was not being asked on Tuesday to give final approval to any incentives package, but rather was considering a resolution of intent to issue the industrial revenue bonds. City staff had said that there would be no direct upfront cost to the city to issue the industrial revenue bonds, but once issued they could provide about $163,500 of sales tax relief to the project, with the majority of those tax savings coming from an exemption from the statewide sales tax.

Commissioner Lisa Larsen said she would not support the bonds, saying she didn’t feel it aligned with the city’s economic development policy. Larsen noted other businesses downtown had redeveloped their properties without the city’s help.

Mayor Mike Dever agreed with Vice Mayor Brad Finkeldei and Littlejohn that improving the site would take a lot of effort, but he said he did not want to move forward with the incentives without seeing analysis on whether the taxing district would benefit the city financially first.

Dever said he “felt for” the Q39 developers for taking on a larger burden than anticipated, but that he also had to analyze the project from a perspective of its benefit to the city. He said he would support and encourage a larger redevelopment of the former printing plant, but “I feel like we’re just taking one bite at the apple instead of (potentially) doing more.”

With the commission voting to defer the resolution, Watkins told the Journal-World the project will still be on hold until the approval of any incentive package. The commission suggested that the incentives question could come before them again once an analysis of the special tax district was completed, but there is no time frame for when that would occur.

In other business, commissioners:

• Approved around $3.6 million of funding for two projects at the Youth Sports Complex at 4911 W. 27th St.

One of these items is a construction bid to Precision Construction and Contracting LLC for $3,017,985.12 to convert the grass fields into turf fields. The new fields would be configured to accommodate two regulation adult soccer fields, four U12 & U10 youth soccer fields or two youth football fields. The other item would be a $593,000 outdoor lighting system from Musco Sports Lighting LLC.

• Authorized three commission members to travel in March to the National League of Cities Conference in Washington and canceled a commission meeting because of those commitments.

Finkeldei, Sellers and Littlejohn will travel from March 9 to March 12 to the conference, which “provides local leaders the tools and connections” to help inform decisions as local leaders, according to a city memo. The trip will cost the city $7,242.99.

Because the commission will not have a quorum for its March 11 meeting, commissioners voted to cancel the meeting.